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30 years of Real-World Cyclery |
| What | Where | When | How | Why | Why Not! |
Who | Blog |
Other |
What:
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Other:
NEWS FLASH 1:Except for our loyal, long-term & regular customers,and those with punctures, we are NOTtaking on any new repairs untilFriday, 25th September 2020. Our sincere apologies! We'd love to help you all - just ain't got the capacity, nor the time! NEWS FLASH 2:Sorry for being closed today (Wednesday, 9th September 2020) - vomiting last night, slept for 13 hours and feeling very rough today.Hope to be back on Friday. We are a Shimano Service Partner:
 This means quite a lot to us. Thanks to Shimano and Madison (UK distributors) for recognising our knowledge. We are Gold members of The Association of Cycle Traders:  We proudly support Bike Hub:  We also members of The Federation Of Small Businesses:  We Bloody Love Bikes We Do:  But, occasionally, we're not friends.  Our passions include bikes, family, friends & Nature. We also enjoy Music. Here's collection of cyclery-related songs: A) The Mixtures - Pushbike Song (1970 original Australian video).
 B) Mungo Jerry's version. C) Y N RichKids - My Bike (2013).  D) R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders - Pedal your Blues Away (1920s).
E) Doggerel Bank - The Lighthouse Keeper's Bicycle (1975)  F) Pink Floyd - Bike (1967).  |
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Where:
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When:
If we're NOT OPEN when we're meant to be, we're either:
RCE's 2020 Recuperations, Recreations and Holidays:
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Why:
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| How: Decades
of knowledge, experience and expertise are a good start. However,
together with our facilities & tooling, we can cater for 99%
cyclists.
RCE's aim to maximise your:
We DON'T 'service' bike - in fact we ain't got a clue what that even means. We've seen others examples of brake cable & pads replaced in a 'brake service' (at £x plus parts) when simple adjustments were really required - all to boost the till. Also, we can't see the point of a (e.g.) 'brake service' if the transmission system worn out. Not good for the biosphere! Our approach is to visually ASSESS each bike for top-to-bottom, left-to-right and front-to-back. That way, we get to inspect the whole bike, address only those issues which need tackling and you'll have much more accurate estimate price of getting your steed smiling again. RCE knows that each bike is unique - they are neither manufactured, nor assembled to our finesse standard (e.g. correctly torqued, lack of anti-seize paste on critical components, poorly adjusted, etc.). Furthermore, the first 100miles of a new bikes, and it's subsequent fine-tuning, is the most-critical stage of it's life - get any of that wrong and it'll cost more later. Also, consider you and your friend's (same model of) bikes - they will wear differently and require different interventions. Punctures are done 'Whilst You Wait' (95% of the time). Don't advertise or tout for customers. Yes we know that it works, however we don't need to - we've already got hundreds of regular & loyal users. We expect new customers to be referred via word-of-mouth recommendations from our existing users. We're fully aware of the 7 reasons your steed's not at it's best:
Tuition: whether you're wanting to change inner tubes or completely maintain/rebuild your bike(s), RCE is probably the only outlet which provided detailed tuition. It's not theoretical - it's hands-on and you will get your hands dirty. You'll get our full attention and It's done at your pace. You will learn techniques and detail you won't find online. It's not cheap at all (£40/half-hour minimum period, £60/first hour, £50/hour thereafter and £270/6-hour day ()). Although we can operate on a one-to-one basis, we expect you bring a friend, thereby halving the price and having someone else to practice with away from the workshop. May be the cheapest £££s you'll ever spend on your bike. Most participants have 'gifted' this fee from a loved-one. Donations: Each year we are thankful for all the bikes & components given to us. What we can't use, we sort and re-cycle. In 2019 we gave bikes to local kids. For 2020 we already got 20 children's bikes to over to selected schools in Leeds - no monies will change hands. Thank You all for your consideration and for allowing us to re-use/re-purpose your gifts. Note: We are not a charitable organisation and we cannot collect items. Back to top |
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| Why NOT: Minimum
Fees: RCE will not work for free. We are running a legal business with
all it's overhead costs. We charge for EVERYTHING (tyres inflation,
saddle adjustments, etc. Note: every techie, in any industry will
assume legal liability for intervention on any product. Most other
shops have a minimum fee of £6 (one shop in the city centre used to
charge £10 plus parts to fit a bottle cage) - RCE starts at £2 for tyre
inflation.
We've never claimed to be cheap. Likewise, we've never claimed to be expensive - just appropriate. We don't lend out tools! But we do sell tools (new and pre-loved). Don't tolerate the; thieves, morons, abusive, violent, window-shoppers, time-wasters, intoxicated, et al. Don't replace frame tubing (see Woodrups, Bob Jackson, Ellis Briggs and Chris Marshall for sort of repair). But can do some frame alignments on steel frames. Don't 'service' suspension forks and shock-units (see Garage Bikes in Morley). Don't do social media. No email, no twitter, etc. - too busy sorting bikes. We're not white! - just so you know. Proudly "shit-skinned" - shades of the Asian sub-continent. Back Street - yes, really! Ugly - premises (wipe your feet on the way out). Ugly - 'boat-races' (teeth like a row of condemned cottages, elephant-eared, more hair on our backsides than on our heads, nose the shape & size of the Matterhorn - quite Quasimodo-like - you can't un-see). Don't know everything about everything cyclery. Our present minion's only had 45,000 hours learning The Craft. Just looks at our Gaggle (sic) reviews here. Many haters have we. We're not phased (triggered). Although we can challenge negative reviews with the Big G, being believers of free-speech, we won't. In fact, those -ve comments actually works for us - keeps the riff-raff away. As said before: we expect new customers to be referred via word-of-mouth recommendations from our existing users. CCTV, audio, inside & out (just so you know). Not Yorkshire Folk! Weerr ee-ba-gum, ekee-thump, proper Hot-Top, and proud o'it: LANCASTRIAN! Customer Attitude determines Customer (don't be an a***hole, and we both might get somewhere). Storage - Bikes & items not collected withing 10 working days of initial contact will be regarded as "STORED" and charged £5/work day. After a further 10 working days, will the deemed "ABANDONED", repurposed to recompense. Back to top |
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| Blog: We keep
an occasional blog for; sale stuff (bikes, parts & accessories),
want's, sales, give-aways, music, TPIs (Thought-Provoking-Ideas) and
what-not. https://rceblog.wordpress.com/.
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| Who: Our true
owners is a partnership between ourselves and our long-standing,
regular & loyal customers. It don't matter how brilliant we may be,
without them, RCE is NOTHING!
Let's not forget all those who educated and trained us in our endeavours. We been very lucky to have industry-experienced facilitators as our teachers. Our 20+ suppliers - all UK; importers, Manufactures, Wholesalers, Local suppiers and Friends. We can buy products cheaper elsewhere, we chose not to! - maintaining British jobs. Finally, a Thank You goes to our multi-cultural premises providers, without whom we'd be shopless. They are: Mr. M (of Jewish stock) for the workshop and front-of-house, Mr. N (of Pakistani stock) for our secondary storage unit, and Mr. B (of Christian stock) for our tyre dept. & display areas. RCE is the token Hindooooo. The "WE":
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