Costal bike stores

[Forthelove]

Heard a shocker of a story at dinner tonight by chap, who had horrible experience in Plet LBS. I will try get facts on group ride tomorrow. How many bikes stores in Plettenberg Bay ? It seems to be a rather big issue. Trying to make more money yet bike stores are doing well over Covert 19. Possibly try to cover when C19 is gone... lol.

[Forthelove]

Johnnie Koen Cycles - Mosselbay I heard only good things and I had a 2 bike service last week and he went out of his way to give him extra good service. He was extremely honest he deserves a great callout congratulations! Others should follow!

Edited December 21, 2020 by Forthelove

[Stavros94]

Head to sedge cycleworx awesome shop great service well quipped workshops and showroom owners a legend freindy and just a overall a good experience

[Shebeen]

I'm a newbie (thank you NDZ and cigarette ban). So far received only good service from The Bike Shop in Plett

Welcome brother!

[vetkop]

I received great service from the team at Cycleworx in Swellendam - they went the extra mine to sort us out and even made a delivery late on a Saturday so that we can cycle the Sunday morning.

 

Thank you to Peter and his team in Swellendam

[i24]

When your bike is broken, and you're on holiday, and you take it in to a local shop, you don't have the luxury of having time on your hands.

You need it to be fixed, on the spot. The shop knows this, and will charge you according to their scale.

You have the choice to pay their price, or pack your bike away for the remainder of the holiday and do your online shopping when you get back.

 

And as ChrisF has pointed out. If you happen to be on holiday in Cape Town and you are conveniently close to CWC and go shopping there, then you should check the prices of the items you are buying on their website, before you reach the 'till. You may just find the on-line prices are lower, and if you point this out to the sales staff, they might drop the labelled price to match the on-line one. A good thing to know!

 

I hope ChrisF enjoys his holiday break and gets in some good cycling, cause I think he won't be very motivated to post here for the next week or two. Pity for the rest of us who still have to work.

[PhilipV]

I'll up vote both Cycleworx in Sedgefield and Ride Life in George. Martin at Ride Life is one of the good guys.

Edited December 23, 2020 by PhilipV

[King_Crispy]

I'll up vote both Cycleworx in Sedgefield and Ride Life in George.

Eugene in Sedgefield is a legend

[schalkvan]

Cycleworx in Sedgefield. Lovely bunch of people.

[Warrenlee]

There is a new store in George. RA Cycles. They come from CT if I recall correctly. Mainly Cannondale with some other brands. I haven't been in there myself but I am told it very nice. I meet up with the manager, Corne on a ride and he seems like a very nice guy. I hope the store does well. Theres more than enough of a cycling market here. Its growing by the day. 

[EtiennevdMerwe]

White Stone Cyles in Hermanus, Western Cape. Paul Gibbins, the owner is an absolute perfectionist.Wish we could clone him in Pretoria.Doing all the work on the bikes himself.

[Emazing]

PLET bike store charge a team MTB biker we ride with R300 to change a tubeless. They also claimed new rim tape when the rime tape was done in PE a week before ... most stores charge R60 to R100 to change a tubeless tyre and add 30-40 ml of sealant..! Can’t say that’s respecting the customer! The poor holiday makers getting properly fleeced.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Emazing

[MORNE]

Id charge someone R1000 to redo a tubeless tyre just because they have “ronde handjies” and cant do it themselves. id charge them R2000 to index gears...

 

Maybe they had to redo the tape because it ‘rolled’ or shifted on the bead. That happens using certain tapes.

 

I get that not everyone is mechanically inclined but hell, my wife is designer and wears high heals - can jack up a car...get the spare wheel out from under it and change it herself.

A self respecting cyclist should be able change a silly tubeless bicycle tyre.

[PhilipV]

Id

A self respecting cyclist should be able change a silly tubeless bicycle tyre.

I met Martin at Ride Life after I had to redo a tubeless wheel In Heidelberg and damaged the tape. Back then stans tape was what I used, and George was where I got it. Nowadays I'd make a plan first with some form of duct tape that you can get at the Agri.

 

Honest question, do you do your tax returns yourself? I pay someone with ronde handjies (someone in my wife's firm to be honest) to do it better (and more effectively) than I can so that I don't have to. And when you are on holiday, then struggling with a bike is the last thing some people wants to do when they only have two weeks leave a year. Holiday time is precious.

[Frosty]

I needed a 26" tyre, while on holiday in the Overberg region a few years back.

 

Took my bike wheel to the shop near Hemel en Aarde as they were the only ones with stock. It was Christmas eve (a Saturday) of all days, and I got my wheel back the same day - despite them saying they were flooded with requests and couldn't promise anything. I didn't have slime with me, nor a compressor so doing it myself was out the equation.

 

Had they not helped me, I would have had to wait until 27th to get it done. They allowed me to ride back home on the 24th, as well as ride on the 25th, 26th and 27th. Can't remember the tyre price, but it was a market-related price.

[TheoG]

OP was specifically referring to Garden Route IMO.

 

But there you go again.................................

 

What does it help trying to negotiate with a bike shop owner that you COULD get it cheaper at CWC?

If you find yourself in one of these shops, it's usually not out of choice. It's because something has broken. These are out of the way places, and it will almost always cost you more to get it fixed than taking it to your LBS or comparing online prices.

 

Word of advice Chris:  load your brain before you shoot your mouth off.

(Matt, this is advice, not a personal attack)

 

Maybe I'm also "brainless" then, sorry I fail to see how did Chrisf "shoot his month off".  He simply gave an objective opinion and advice.  If you don't like it, ignore it.

 

Maybe more so over the holiday down at the coast, but the issue is valid in the entire country, if the OP intended to get only posts from about a specific region, he could have made that clear, till now he didn't.

 

Edit:  Fixed, semantics, semantics .... my intent was clear.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Theog