South Coast Bikes

I went here because I needed the crank pulled on my bike. I was respraying it and thought it would be cheaper to get it pulled than to buy a crank puller I’d never use. OK, the bike frame was old, I look like a heap of the proverbial and I know nothing about bikes but I’d phoned to say I was coming and they’d agreed to do it.
The young man who served me made it clear by his manner he was being pulled away from more important work. I said couldn’t remove the cables completely until the crank was out and that I’d left them attached because I wanted to reuse them. At this he rolled his eyes and said ‘you can’t possibly reuse cables’.
I asked him if it would be possible to remove a stuck seat post too. He tried and then said I’d need a metalworker. It would cost £20 to get it free and they had a metal worker they normally used. However, he wasn’t prepared to send it over for me as it was such a small job. As it was, I sourced the metal worker myself and he did it for £10.
This may have been just one employee but he dripped contempt from every pore, leading me to conclude that he was psychologically damaged in some way.
Anyway, he charged £5 to pull the crank. Most bike shops I’ve ever encountered do this sort of thing for free, for the goodwill. As I had no goodwill, when it came time to rebuild the bike, I took it to Evans Cycles in the centre of Brighton. A marked contrast in attitude. They reused most of my old parts, including the cables, which were fine. They actually seemed enthusiastic about rebuilding a 25-​year old bike, as opposed to the bloke at South Coast, who clearly regarded it as beneath him. The bike is now working very well and ready to face another 25 years.

I cannot rate this business highly enough. They truly are a bunch of cycling enthusiasts. The guy who collected my bike brightened up my day! They collect and return at a time that suits you — which is excellent. My bike got a service and it came in at less than they had estimated — they look it over at the point of collection and give your estimate then. Mine was ready the next day — they drop off at a time to suit you also. They provided a detailed breakdown of the work they had completed, parts replaced etc.
Highly recommended.
Check their website for details — it will answer any questions you might have.

10. South Coast Bikes
South Coast Bikes are small company of enthusiastic guys who proclaim themselves to be ‘bike lovers not bike snobs.’ They will pick your bike up from your house, take it away to service it then bring it back again. They really do provide a good level of service, I called them up on Easter Sunday expecting to leave a message, but they had the phone on divert to one of their mobiles so they arranged to pick my bike up at a time that suited me. They duly arrived, collected it, and it was ready to be returned to me by the next day. They did a good job too, my gears have always been a bit dodgy, something that other places haven’t quite fixed but now they are working perfectly. It came to under £50 which was good, because my rubbish old bike was in a bit of a sorry state to begin with, and they gave it a thorough clean as well as just mending it. They provide you with an itemised breakdown of the work they have done. The guys that run it also run a sister company called Special Bike, where they will make you a ‘couture bike’ to your own exact specification out of recycled old frames and new parts. Unfortunately a new bike is a bit out of my price range at the moment, but if I was to get a new one I would love to have a one-​of-​a-​kind bike made especially for me.

I have no knowledge about bikes, and rarely use them. But when they’re broken you can tell. I put all of my trust into South Coast Bikes and they came up trumps. Releasing that a barrage of wordy bike lingo would be falling on deaf ears, their told me when to pick it up and got to work, Easy.
It’s been running like a dream ever since.