Brick Lane Bikes

shop has everything you need guys are always very helpful always happy to help you never had any.problems been to the shop few times in trouble with my bike they have fixed it strataway no problems great guys great shop keep it up guys all the best guys biker goose

I went to Brick Lane Bikes with some trepidation having read the reviews here. I've since been back on two more occasions and have come to the conclusion that the shop is fine, indeed it's better than that - it's downright helpful. I went it was to look for odds 'n' ends for a build up I'm working on, so I wasn't a big spending customer. The prices were reasonable and the attention I was given was beyond reproach.

Having spotted three Selle Concors saddles tied up I asked how much. The guy, I think he's called Jan, looked across and said forty. When cut down, they were clearly marked as £45. I was sold the saddle for £40. He then went on to sell me a NOS Cinelli stem and a set of Cinelli Criterium bars for £30, but only after ensuring that the two were right for each other. The people who work there are friendly, though their accents may 'sound' curt, coming as I do from Glasgow, I can sound a bit abrupt myself sometimes.

I looked around at the frames hanging from the ceiling, cheap they are not, but try securing one from ebay and you will pay a lot more. These are Colnagos, De Rosas and the other varied 'crown jewels' of cycling.

C'mon guys open your eyes to what you've got down there. It's an Aladdin's cave of cycling run be knowledgeable, interested cycling enthusiasts.

p.s. On my last visit there I asked about Campagnolo downtube shifters, cost £30, one of the guys cycled off to their warehouse to fetch some to show me, to show me! He didn't even expect a sale. It was a round trip of about twenty minutes and the bloke could not have been more helpful and less pushy about a sale when he came back.

Judging from the other reviews this is a marmite shop..you either love it or hate it. I can only speak for myself and can honestly say that nothing was too much trouble for them. I popped in yesterday at about 4.30 pm and they were very busy, but I got seen in about 5 minutes. The sales lady went through all the options. Yes they did ask how much I wanted to spend, but there were so many options and this was a sensible question. The sales lady took time to make sure i got exactly the right bike for me offered alot of advice. Needles to say I did buy a bike and it was ready at 7pm as promised. Even though they were closing they stayed behind to allow me time to test ride it. I changed the gear ratios and this was done straight away even though they were going home. All in all a great experience, but very different from your average bike shop. Don't be put off by the other reviews, but go there and judge for yourself and leave your wallet at home because you will buy one of their beautiful custom built bikes. Oh and I did get a set of free lights so I could cycle home. Trevor Princes Risborough

very helpful,its track shop not another evans . if you mtb or com. dont go there but is a great track shop with good stuff

I'd first like to comment on some of the above negative comments.

The shop clearly aims to sell quality stuff and it comes at a price. So asking prospective customers how much they are looking to spend is surely a common sense way of not wasting everyone's time talking through options you can't afford. Furthermore as an independent retailer of course prices will be higher then that of online stores or the chains. They can't buy in the bulk that say Evans do, and they incur much higher running costs then some website. What you pay for is the expertise of the staff, and its beyond question that these guys know there shit, you are also paying for seriously good wheel builders and mechanics, amazing vintage components and options you just don't get online or in evans.

And whoever above wrote their mechanics are shit don't know anything. I've yet to find more experienced and talented mechanics.

The reality is this isn't your LBS, its a specialist track and fixed gear shop. If you go knowing that you are going to have a far better experience then you would other wise.

My experience of the shop is great. The staff have always been very helpful, I've never had better wheels built and the quality and diversity of componentry is amazing. I for one am happy to pay more for independent specialist quality. Just like with food. There is a reason your local independent natural coffee house charges more then starbucks or what have you.

I'm also really impressed by the passion of the two polish guys that run the place. They clearly love the stuff they sell so much, which is just great to be around.

Best to go weekdays, the weekends are mega busy!

Continually very impressed!

This place is rubbish. Sure, they have nice stuff, but it is all about 25% more expensive than you should be paying - they just target rich and trendy kids on brick lane.

Plus they are super-rude.

Go to the shop on Mare street, shop on gumtree/ sjs cycles, or look on the london fixed gear forum and sheldon brown and build your own fixie instead!

I can see what people are talking about here. The staff are pretty scatty, for sure, but I don't think they're unhelpful, providing you can get their attention. I went in to ask about buying a fixie, and I'm a complete novice. The guy I dealt with spent the best part of an hour explaining the various options, of which there were a lot. Yeah if you're there at a busy time I imagine it's pretty easy to feel ignored, compared with the service we've come to expect from most chain stores, but the level of expertise shown by the staff is unsurpassed.

My verdict - don't go there if you've got a fragile disposition or an expectation of being served as soon as you step in the door - you'll only be disappointed. Just relax and deal with the 'unusual' atmosphere and you'll find a pretty unique shopping experience lurking in there somewhere.

Halford's it ain't.

I went into this shop with the intention of buying a bike, whilst browsing the bikes the staff actually started taking the piss out of my clothes and started singing a song about how I looked!

I wouldn't buy an inner tube in this shop and am just so shocked! To be fair it was quite a funny song, but totally the wrong thing to do!

I've been told the 1st question they ask you when you go in is "how much money do you have?" which I think probably shows their tru colours.

I will not be going back!

I was in Brick Lane this past Sunday when my bearings busted out of my rear wheel--big trouble and far away from home! I went to Brick Lane bikes and asked them to fix it.

I was told that it was 4:30 and there were bikes in front of me. No problem for me, since I was stuck and happy to leave my bicycle for repairs.

It was at this point that the staff member turned rude, brusquely stating that leaving my bicycle was 'not an option'. I explained my situation, to which suggested that I bring my bicycle back in the morning. I explained again (I can't! I live far! I'm in trouble here! Help me!), to which he said, "I have already said it once, leaving your bike is not an option." Then he turned around and resumed his work as if I were no longer there.

No sympathy; no help. Rudely turning a customer away who was pleading for help!

Stay away! They do not deserve your money or custom.

Very nice bikes. Terrible staff. I've been avoiding it for months after some bad experiences, but made the mistake of popping in a few days ago. I waited at the till while the customer in front of me was served. The rest of the staff stood around eating their pies and ignoring me. Fair enough perhaps. Except once they'd dealt with the person in front of me, the person at the till started on their own pie and everyone ignored me too. Nothing but snotty attitude once I was served. This kind of thing not uncommon in bike shops (are they all run by people who are interested in bikes but not in customers?) but BLB is far and away the worst I've met. I'd like to rate them at less than one star.

Admittedly the place is full of lovely bikes, shiney kit and cool old trinkets however this is completely undermined by the fact that it is run very badly. You can be as friendly as you like but he inparticular will find a way to make the whole experience awkward and uncomfortable. He's a bit like Bernard Black from Black Books - who hated his customers - but at least he had the redeeming feature of being funny. This place has to be the worst ever example of 'we're too cool to serve you'. Friendly questions get answered with sneers and grunts and immortal lines such as 'this isn't Argos'. Such a shame really because it has the potential to be a great little shop but WHY act like that? It makes absolutely no business sense. Plus i echo previous reviewers in the feeling that most componentry is well overpriced. So overall - not a great review but lets face it, they deserve it.

I work just round the corner and was interested in buying a few parts for my bike. The staff were so so rude (completely up their own ar5es)

they failed to complete their one and only goal, 'to help the customer.' instead of doing this they yet again pis5ed off another potential buyer.

single speed/fixed wheel is cool at the moment but surely this culture doesn't want to associate itself with a bunch of arrogant idiot5!

(note - i wouldn't of put a rating up but i didn't know whether this would have been posted or not)

I'm new to commuting by bike - and modern cycles in general - and have recently bought a second-hand road bike. It'd been sat idle in a garage for some months prior to me buying it so I decided to get it serviced and took it along to Brick Lane Bikes because it's close to where I work. The staff were friendly and courteous and dealt with me promptly, the price quoted was the price I paid and they even threw in some little extras like valve caps and rings and new brake pads at no extra cost. I'd bought some new pedals from another shop and couldn't fit them myself so I asked BLB if they could do it and they did, again without charging for it. I was called after a few hours to tell me my bike was ready for collection and once I'd picked it up and started riding back to work I could tell the difference immediately, they'd done a wonderful job and I was thoroughly impressed. I'll certainly be using BLB for my annual services.

Rude, unhelpful and really bad at repairing bikes.

A great business for bike selling...not!

Avoid this shop, the stress and having to perpetually return their so-called repairs and be abused just isn't worth it.

Terrible service. Rude shop staff. Disgustingly over priced. Literally expect to pay 30% more than average for everything. Try everyone else before you get ripped off by these guys.

I can only echo the previous two reviews. The most shockingly rude, hostile, arrogant and incompetent bunch of ar5eholes you would ever be unfortunate enough to deal with. I used them a few times (through laziness, they're very local) and they fell below expectations each time, but the last time they screwed my bike up when doing a repair, which caused me to nearly kill myself, then refused to accept any responsibility. I ended up having to threaten them with the small claims court. They repaid me (the faulty repairs only - no additional costs I incurred), but without any apology or acknowledgement. In fact, I had to deal with their insurance broker and insurer directly to get it sorted out. They are an absolute shower.

I chose to use this shop due to its convenient location and the areas general reputation of being warm and welcoming. I have given it three chances, “third time lucky”. Every time I have used Brick Lane Bikes a new cost is added onto simple repairs. Repairs that they got wrong in the first place. Staff are not willing to help if you have a problem and will leave you waiting, ignoring you constantly, making you feel unwelcome. After my third simple repair went wrong causing danger to myself, I went back to receive the same “warm welcoming” of I didn’t fix this for you, it’s not my problem, come back tomorrow. Its funny when people are reluctant to give you a service that you want to pay them for. I will be taking myself somewhere else from now on.

My experience with Brick Lane Bikes has been a frustrating and depressing experience. The after sales service is non-existent. I have had several problems with the second hand bike that was bought for me from Brick Lane bikes in that the full service performed on the bike before sale was ineffective, to the point of being dangerous. Every time that I have spoken to the staff since then I have been treated in the most appalling way. The staff were rude and aggressive. I have taken the bike back to be serviced twice since sale and still ended up having to fix it myself. Do NOT buy from these horrible people.

In a city mobbed with big name chains like Evans and Cycle Surgery BLB stands out as a shop run by a cyclist. Despite its small size it seems to have everything you need from track chain ring bolts to moustache bars - try asking for those in a big name shop and watch the sales guy reach for a catalogue and start describing wait times.

The Polish chap who owns the place is very helpful and really knows his onions. Most of the stock is aimed at couriers and fixie die hards looking for bit by bit replacements on their bikes, but you can still buy a complete bike, lights, locks, gloves and the rest of it.

From tyres, to grips, to saddles, you can find a rainbow of colours and sizes in everything, and the staffs passion and knowledge is second to none in the city.

If you're looking for someone who will take the time, has all the bits, and knowledge - this is your place. Don't expect a sterile shop floor with size ordered womens spin clothing and fleets of bikes in boxes.

If I had the courage to start my own shop and lose money slowly - this is the way I'd do it.

If you, like me, prefer your bike to be of the elegant single speed variety, this is your mecca.

The store specialises in vintage, imported steel track frames and all the trimmings (multi-coloured Velocity Rims, road tyres etc.). They also sell a smaller variety of very well-made and maintained off-the-shelf track and fixed bicycles.

The staff are all very helpful and knowledgeable, and all work is done on the spot by their team to guarantee you walk out with the bike in the best possible condition. Their passion for bikes truly stands out as an asset, and this buyer was very pleased with the results.

Very highly recommended.