We are looking due South this week, rounding up 5 of our favourite bike shops in South London. As usual, there are many more great bike shops out there, but here are 5 we, and others, especially like.
Seabass Cycles
62 Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8QZ Tel. 020 7703 3470
Unit 2A.2, Copeland Business Park, SE15 3SN Tel. 020 7635 6363
Seabass has two locations in South London, one in Camberwell and another just down the road in Peckham. Both locations carry out servicing and stock a range of accessories and parts. The Camberwell branch is more of a commuters one stop shop as it has a full range of locks, lights, helmets, bags, etc. It is located in an excellent spot for stoping on your way to or from work in central as it is on the CS5 route.
The Peckham unit is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of vintage frames, full bikes and parts. It is set in a warehouse space in a cool old brickworks and is a great place to hang out and wait for your bike in the summer, or winter if you bundle up! Within this unit they can do full bike refurbishment, including painting as they have a respray room.
Brixton Cycles
296-298 Brixton Road, London Tel 0207 733 6055
Brixton has long been a favourite South London bike shop and are a co-op, meaning the people who work there are fully invested in the company and the success of the store – makes for some great service in the shop and the workshop. They offer a full range of servicing for your trusty steed, and they have a 1 hour drop in window in the mornings if you need something fixed ASAP – these guys are popular though, so get there early!
Brixton has been through a move lately when their old site was scheduled for redevelopment. With the help of a successful crowd funding campaign they new now back up and running in a new premises. They also now have a branch of Look Mum No Hands! so can provide you with great coffee and cycling events on the TV while you are looking at their selection of bikes. They have a great range of urban, road and touring bikes as well as BMX and Brompton.
Everyone Bikes
176 Northcote Road, London, SW11 6RE Tel 0207 924 5636
Everyone Bikes is a lovely little bike shop in Wandsworth. They are set up as female specific bike shop, as its owner noticed that there was a serious dearth in the availability of nice products for women in regular shops. They therefore have a great selection of women’s specific bikes from the likes of Trek, Bobbin, electra and Pashley along with performance and urban clothing. Young females are also catered for with Frog bikes and they have child helmets and accessories.
They also have a great range of accessories for any gender so you don’t need to be in possession of two X chromosomes to enter. They will even offer a full range of servicing to all combinations of chromosome.
Blue Door Bicycles
5 and 7 Central Hill, Crystal Palace, London, SE19 1BG Tel 0208 670 9767
This is a great bike shop in Crystal Palace. There has been a bike shop on the premises for nearly 100 years (it used to be called Central Cycle), something Blue Door is proud of and wants to protect. The store also has an onsite frame builder -Talbot Frame Works. Wonderful!
Blue Door offer a full range of servicing along with bikes from Dawes, Raleigh, Pashley, Tern and Koga – meaning they have a range of bikes for every kind of cycling you may wish to undertake. They also have bikes for the tiny youngsters in your life.
Compton Cycles
23-25 Catford Hill, London SE6 4NU Tel 0208 690 0141
Great store down in Catford, Compton Cycles is well loved. These guys have a huge range of bikes, including road, electric, Dutch, mountain and commuter specific hybrids. Therefore they can cater to any style of urban riding and beyond. They also keep a large range of Brompton’s in stock.
Servicing wise they are equipped to cope with most anything, including full Brompton servicing and race bikes. The prices for their servicing are very reasonable.
Check out our picks in North and East London as well. Next we shall be going West!
What is your favourite bike shop in South London?
No mention of Balfe Bikes despite having grown to 3 shops over the last couple of years because of how good they are?
http://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/
Balfe Bikes Streatham is great for servicing & supplies.
Trust them with my Bickerton.
Only do work that’s necessary.
Bought new pedals and they fitted them there & then, no fitting fee!!
Blessed that they opened a store so close to home, staff are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.
I would highly recommend Balfes Bikes.
Don’t forget Edwardes of Camberwell, a great old fashioned no nonsense bike shop where no part is too obscure to be out of stock and always excellent deals to be had and advice to be given.
These trendy newcomers are all very well, but edwardes were building bikes since before these guys were falling off tricycles!
Get A Grip on Lavender Hill in Clapham may be a small shop but Toby is one of the most genuinely helpful, accommodating, and supportive guys around.
In the SE1 area, I’d like to put in a good word for Machine on Tower Bridge Road. Good work, fair prices, lovely people, nice coffee and grub too.
What about Cycle PS in camberwell? Great bunch of guys in there and supberb customer service? Also Finches in Forest HIll….
Rat race cycles in Nunhead Village are spot on – service, wheel building, friendly advice. Lovely team.
Rat Race Cycles in nunhead I would recommend too!
Surprised Compton bicycles in Catford have made the cut – I’ve been there twice and had bad experiences. Once, I took along my second-hand bike to have the gears changed and was practically laughed out of the shop – they couldn’t quite tell me what was wrong with my bike but were quite convinced that I should buy one of theirs instead.
Since, I’ve taken my bike to an independent bike shop in Bromley and had my bike repaired and gears changed with a complete lack of derision and condescension from the workers there.
Like Compton Cycles. Reasonable prices. Also used Rat Race in Nunhead although a smaller operation than Compton. Both spend some time talking to you which is appreciated.
I’m sorry to say that I’m disappointed of my most local of all, Brockley Bikes. Every time I’ve been there, they made me feel like they don’t really care about my business and I’m wasting their time. Gave up on them and I just go to either Compton or Rat Race.
Phoenix Cycles in Battersea for Bromptons!
It’s Ben Thomson’s Cycleworx in Southfields for me. The owner (yet another Ben) is a lovely guy and the staff are all friendly and professional. Good range of bikes but its the workshop that really stands out.
Definitely Rat Race cycles for me. I’ve used many south London shops but this one remains my favourite for their non-patronizing, patient, can-do attitude. They’re cheap for components too.
I’d like to give a wee shout out to Psubliminal situated on the main road between Clapham South and Balham tube stations. It’s just a small little shop, but their prices are always really good (particularly for repair work), they’ll do work while you wait if you want and they’re happy to use parts you bring with you to the shop if you prefer. http://www.psubliminal.com/
London Velo on Deptford High Street is good too, nice coffee and snacks as well!
If your in the Putney area then Putney cycles is an excellent shop. Great knowledgeable staff team. I have bought my last two bikes from there. I would trust anyone else to work on my bikes.
Brockley Bikes in Brockey (surprise, surprise) is an excellent workshop based shop, with a in-house frame builder and loads of know-how! Have saved my bacon on man an occasion!
http://brockleybikes.com/
I would like to recommended Cycle Fix London down in kennington they took over the balfes bikes store a few years back and they have done a good job of it. They specialize in repairs & servicing on all type of bikes and i have even see them fixing electric scooters. They are always happy to help whatever the job maybe the guys there never try and upsell, if anything they will keep to your budget where possible.
Keep up the good work cycle fix.
Just happy to see so many nice shout outs 🙂