Harry Hall Cycles

Great service on my bike and excellent customer service. They rang me the night I put her in for service and told me how to maintain my replacement part and also how much it would cost all up.
Definitely go to this place over Evans — I feel like they did more than just stare at my bike for an hour before charging heaps.

All staff very friendly and went the extra mile to help me.
Knowledgable staff. Fair priced service. Top notch, friendly service.
I took my 30mile a day commuting bike into the the shop and the chaps did an excellent job. They explained to me what they were going to beforehand and gave me a rough estimate of the price. Later on, the mechanic phoned me up when he was working on my bike to give me an accurate quote.
After the service, I was told I needed a new part. They ordered it in so all I needed to do was pop-​in later on and they fitted it it that same day. When I phoned to ask if my bike was ready to collect as I’d like to ride it home the chap said «Don’t worry, I’ll drop what I’m doing know and have it ready in 30mins». He did exactly that.
Another thing I was very happy about was that my bike needed some Tricky Work doing to it. Other bicycle shops had quoted this Tricky Work as crazy expensive or just plain said they could not do it. Harry Hall Cycles sorted it no quibble. If you’re interested the Trick Work was this: a bolt had snapped inside a thread on the frame, so it needed drilling out and re-​tapping.
I’m one of those people who uses their bike everyday for everything so I appreciate finding a good bike shop!

The railway arches of Whitworth Street West serve as a magnet for cool stuff, housing Green Room alt: performance space, an achingly cool interior design showroom, Cocotoo Italian restaurant (?) and the cool effect spreads across the road to froyo café Frurt and round the corner to The Engine Room Café in Cambridge Street and even the front of restaurants in Chester Street. Plus, access the canal via any of a number of entry points on the same side as Frurt to view a timeline of the late Haçienda Club. (The canal path is a fantastic traffic-​free route to Castlefield, Piccadilly and Stockport).
Harry Hall Cycles is a good general purpose cycle shop, but I also commend them for showcasing some niche bikes. The current window display is mainly given over to the current trend for stripped down fixed gear or single speed bikes — fewer moving parts means less to go wrong and also lighter. I was also amused to read a poster publicising a Brompton bike race to be staged by that leading manufacturer of folding bikes — I’ve not seen that poster elsewhere in Manchester, so well done HH for showcasing that. (One cool thing about Brompton bikes for a cycle shop is how small they fold up, allowing many more Bromptons to be stored per sq. metre than regular bikes!)
Downstairs is also home to road bikes, cyclo-​cross bikes and the usual bike accessories. Upstairs features mountain bikes, style/​girly bikes and some retro stuff including a modern take on a butchers bike.
I think you have to pay them a visit and test ride a bike or two to decide if Harry Hall is the bike shop for you, but I enjoy the laid-​back atmosphere and friendly staff who are generally happy to talk. I’ll end by sharing a tip given to me by one of the guys here, which is to dismount and push your bike up over kerbs and such — apparently mounting kerbs wrecks the wheel bearings, and was something he would never do with any of his bikes. He had me at ‘bikes’ :-)
I find something precious about city centre cycle shops — they are there in the midst of the polluting traffic offering a highly-​effective, low-​tech transport solution. The young and able-​bodied car drivers amongst us, let’s get on our bikes! And if you are an apartment dweller unsure how you would store your bike, all the more reason to get along to Harry Hall as they have a variety of storage solutions from wall hooks to floor-​to-​ceiling bike stands to store your speed machine up out of the way.

Unilocal is slowly causing me to turn a very slow 180 from my previous stance on independent shops vs. chains, my previous stance being ‘I don’t care’. I’m almost becoming one of those ‘liberal’ students I scorn, and I fear that soon I will end up campaigning for abstract agendas I do not understand in the next university elections.
Luckily, I’ve not fallen quite that far yet, but I do still look at Harry Hall Cycles I think, ‘Boy, I sure am glad an independent manages to be so successful and useful despite the presence of powerful corporate businesses threatening to muscle it out at every turn’. Then I silently berate myself for using the phrase ‘Boy’ when I never grew up in 50’s America.
As a bike shop it excels simply through being well-​stocked, well-​priced and well-​staffed. It’s something independents often seem to do well, possibly because the staff are not soulless robots crafted in a laboratory somewhere but actual people who care about the products they are selling.
In any case, if you ever need anything bike-​related and are worried about being conned out of your money by evil automatons then Harry Hall employees will happily set you straight and get you on the path to cycling enlightenment.

Sitting in one of the railway arches on Whitworth Street, Harry Hall’s Cycles is a cycle shop for serious cyclists. It’s well set out and sells mountain and road bikes as well as loads of accessories. I’m a bit of a cycling novice, but I recently acquired quite a good road bike and my old pump didn’t seem to fit the valves on the new bike’s tyres.
I popped into the shop and feeling like a complete idiot, explained that I had no idea how to pump up the tyres on my new bike. The chap serving me was really polite despite my clear cycling ignorance, and explained the technicalities of the valves and what pump I needed to buy. He presented me with a few options of what I should get and I’ve now got something perfect for the job that’s also really light and fits snugly on my bike.
The pump was quite expensive, and this typifies the cost of most of the cycling gear in the shop, which includes a good range of pumps, tyres, helmets and accessories as well as lots of different cycle clothing. However, it’s all quality stuff and the staff know exactly what they’re talking about. Though you would probably find cheaper gear at somewhere like Halfords, its worth going to Harry Hall’s to know that you’ll walk away with some kit that will be right for you, work properly and last a long time.

Before I start, I will say I know nothing about bikes. I do not own a bike or ride a bike. Why, then, am I writing a review of a bike shop? Well, 2 reasons. Reason 1, it’s an honest-​to-​God independent shop run by people who actually care about bikes. Reason 2, I took my brother (who does have, like and ride bikes) there for his birthday and got a big bag of bike goodies for £60.
If, like me, you have a cyclist amongst your nearest and dearest, and you’re clutching at straws for gifts, you could do a lot worse than to visit Harry Hall. Yes, it’s a bit out of sight, and doesn’t have the national reputation or shiny fronting of the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-​Op, and that’s exactly why you should go. The stock here is priced fairly because their overheads don’t have to deal with pricey advertising and premium rent. They pass this on to the customer and it really shows; everything we put in the basket was so cheap I asked my brother «are you sure you don’t want a better one???» to which he replied «that’s pretty much the best». I was actually excited. Me, the non-​bike-​person, excited by brake cable and cranks and spoke tools and grips. And the huge array of bikes that they have, hanging off the ceiling, mounted on racks. Knowing nothing about them, I was impressed by how many different types they seem to have, and so was my brother. I did voice concern that they had no ‘girly’ bikes, and was directed upstairs. The bikes were lovely, and some were fittingly girly, but not enough to convince me to mount the steel horse and risk my life on Oxford Road!
Since that trip I have directed 3 bike-​loving friends to Harry Hall for their bits and bobs, and all of them have sung its praises. Additionally, if you buy a bike from them, they offer ongoing support and repairs for next to nothing, which is great for when your bike needs a tweak.
Out of interest, I did a price comparison on the things I bought at Harry Hall, with Edinburgh Bicycle Co-​Op, and Harry Hall came out on top. A trip to Harry Hall for your bike bits is a win for your wallet, and a win for independent business.