St Johns Cycles or SJS

[biggs682]

I have always liked them, for the range of less-mainstream stock they carry, their willingness to embrace less trendy aspects of bike design, and their customer service, or more specifically, their willingness to do a bit extra to keep people cycling. I have bought a solo and a tandem from them and been delighted.

But they are a bit "marmite" and there have always been sections of the cycling community who have not got on with them. Their advertising claims can be a bit over the top - every one of their bikes is always the best ever. One specific would be that their claims for the reliability and efficiency of a Rohloff (or their enthusiastic endorsement of Roholoff's own claims) rely on the small print to be true. Their whole embracing of 26" wheels for touring offends some people who doubt the arguments about tyre efficiency and see it as a cul de sac. Chris Juden always had a prickly relationship with them (and CJ is still a guru to many of us) based on some of the above although the only extra specific that sticks in the mind was use of 5 mm rather than 6 mm mounting for rear racks. In business terms, way back, they did some cyber-squatting in the early days of the Internet before conventions about behaviour were clear, which some people hold against them. And @dellzeq formerly of this parish told me they have a bad reputation in the trade for profitting by buying up bankrupt stock from other bike shops.

fair enough , sure they must have reasons

 

[Pale Rider]

I have always liked them, for the range of less-mainstream stock they carry, their willingness to embrace less trendy aspects of bike design, and their customer service, or more specifically, their willingness to do a bit extra to keep people cycling. I have bought a solo and a tandem from them and been delighted.

But they are a bit "marmite" and there have always been sections of the cycling community who have not got on with them. Their advertising claims can be a bit over the top - every one of their bikes is always the best ever. One specific would be that their claims for the reliability and efficiency of a Rohloff (or their enthusiastic endorsement of Roholoff's own claims) rely on the small print to be true. Their whole embracing of 26" wheels for touring offends some people who doubt the arguments about tyre efficiency and see it as a cul de sac. Chris Juden always had a prickly relationship with them (and CJ is still a guru to many of us) based on some of the above although the only extra specific that sticks in the mind was use of 5 mm rather than 6 mm mounting for rear racks. In business terms, way back, they did some cyber-squatting in the early days of the Internet before conventions about behaviour were clear, which some people hold against them. And @dellzeq formerly of this parish told me they have a bad reputation in the trade for profitting by buying up bankrupt stock from other bike shops.

I have a Rohloff hub on a German bike and have been pleased with it so far.

But I agree, SJS's almost evangelical promotion of Rohloff is tiresome.

Parallels with Spa again, their 'advice' can border on instruction.

 

[crazyjoe101]

SJS are the best company I've ever dealt with in terms of customer service having had a few issues with products purchased with them that they have sorted for me very handily.

 

[BSOh]

Thanks for this review @biggs682 , I'd not heard of them before. It seems they have a stock of 650a tyres and tubes which seem to be a pain to get, so I'll probably try them out when my new bike arrives.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

SJS are spot on.

We needed a good quality suntour 4-prong freewheel tool after breaking ours at work on a repair. The Raleigh ones we could get aren't up to the job and would have taken over a week to get a Park one - and nobody local carried them, so we ordered from SJS as I've used them loads for rarer bits.

First time ever we had a problem - typically - as the repair was due to be completed the next day; the tool arrived but had been mis-bagged, label said suntour, tool was splined Shimano. It happens.

SJS sent the replacement out straightaway without haggling about return before replacement (we returned of course) on a next-day morning delivery so we only had to put our customer off for half a day.

It's not when it goes right that you rate the service, it's when it goes wrong. And they score full marks in my book

 

[Tilley]

I have dealt with SJS but as my work takes me to Bridgwater I can forego the delivery charge and collect. Always been very helpful and dealt with any enquiries efficiently

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

SJS are spot on.

We needed a good quality suntour 4-prong freewheel tool after breaking ours at work on a repair. The Raleigh ones we could get aren't up to the job and would have taken over a week to get a Park one - and nobody local carried them, so we ordered from SJS as I've used them loads for rarer bits.

First time ever we had a problem - typically - as the repair was due to be completed the next day; the tool arrived but had been mis-bagged, label said suntour, tool was splined Shimano. It happens.

SJS sent the replacement out straightaway without haggling about return before replacement (we returned of course) on a next-day morning delivery so we only had to put our customer off for half a day.

It's not when it goes right that you rate the service, it's when it goes wrong. And they score full marks in my book

we experience something similar when the Schmidt dynamo front light on my husbands expedition bike filled with water for some odd reason. It was still working but was meant to be 100% waterproof and clearly wasn't. We were as far north in Norway as you can get and as far East as you can get in Norway (Kirkeness - though we had been even further north and east at the Barents sea on the Russian/Norwegian border when we spotted the problem. We contacted them by email and they sent out a replacement to a post office in Finland for us to collect, use the same packaging and return the faulty part to them (where we had planned to stop for a few days). We rigged it so that they only sent out the part that had actually had the problem, rather than everything relating to the light. We wanted to minimise what we had to return. They connected all of the electrics up for us before sending the part out. We were not able to return the part until an additional 10 days later due to the distances and lack of anything in the far north of Finland. That wasn't a problem and we never had any cause for complaint. Fitting the replacement was pretty much just 1 nut to undo and sliding on the connector (along with a few cable ties for several miles of wiring we had been provided with).

We return to using them time and time again because we can ring them up and say things like you know that little part that goes between .... and they will know exactly what you are talking about, looking it up and you can order it there and then over the phone. I just wish they had a 24 hr technical support team - it would make support calls from around the world a tad easier!

 

[greenmark]

Delivery prices are really high for us international clients. So for them I only ever order things they can put in an envelope and not charge much for.

Because of their wide product range, they will have a lot of inventory that will never get shifted. Plus they can’t send out bulky items to much of the world because their shipping costs. As a consumer great to have the option of choice but I really wonder about their business model.