Cycle Repair - Druid Cycles

A friend of mine recently took her bike to a few places because the front brake wasn't working. Edwardes cycles in Camberwell insisted she needed a new brake (£30 plus labour). The others weren't much better. Druid cycles laughed at the idea, said something about us not needing such negativity and fixed it for a fiver.

Great to see a local outfit getting praise. They are always friendly when I walk past.

Lover their video - good luck to 'em.

A note of caution.

Druid held my bike hostage for five days after a promise to do the job the next day. (I even followed Thor's (Druid's boss) advice to take the bike to their temporary Bermondsey Square shop for a more certain outcome).

I came back to pick up my bike at the agreed time to find the BS unit closed. I had asked them to call me (on my mobile) if there was any delay or cost over-run. No call.

So I popped in at the Druid St HQ that evening, and was assured that the bike would be fixed that very evening - and that they would call me when it was ready. Again, I never heard at thing.

Same story for the next 4 days (I even gave them my home and work numbers, too, after the first day's disappointment), despite my turning up at the nominated place and at the nominated time to collect my bike, day after day.

I would go into the daily excuses on request, but since I do not wish to waste everyone's time, I will only mention one choice plea, which was that "the other two mechanics were so slaughtered last night and their hangovers so bad that they didn't come in today. That's not right, is it?". And that was a Monday night, which the doughty and well-meaning mechanic Rob was referring to !

A friend of mine (I saw his oily receipt floating around the workshop) had a bigger job done and also had to chase Druid up to get the bike back, much later than advertised. He was not a happy bunny.

Seriously, take your bike to Druid at your peril, or if you are going on your summer holidays for a fortnight.

I've found Druid to be a mixed bag, they do some jobs incredibly well, but at other times they really seem out of it.

However it's clear when you go that they are a bit eccentric and I think as long as you know that in advance then it's a very good bike shop, and they really do love bikes.

I went it there and the bloke was really misserable, so I left. It's not good enough just to 'love bikes' to have a decent business you also have to love people!

well I guess I must be the one guy whose lucked out here,I've been there 3-4 times and the service has always been excellent.I turned up last night and bought an inner tube at 10.15pm!the whole area had a powercut I was still able to be served..

se1ty slicker, only 5 days????

BikeHut (Halford's) St Paul have been holding my bike for now 8 weeks, for a (rather complex) repair that they assured me at the onset wouldn't take more than 2 weeks to do.
I've now reached a point where I almost gave up on ever seeing my bike back! :-(

Halfords is just awful and always seems to keep my bike for ever. Druids cycles is incomparably better to Halfords, they are just a bit sometimeish, I have always felt they do a good job, it's just their customer service that needs to improve.

And yes jeje75014, you are never seeing your bike again if Halfords have it, it's stuck in the void between parts being ordered and the only person in the country who can fit that part who is away in Patagonia, and has then changed their working pattern and can only do a quarter of a bike a week, and it's not your bike they are doing.

Lol Zoe, this is exactly the type of excuses I've had now for 8 weeks. I knew they were quite bad from everything I had read on bike forums, but to that extent really beggars belief. And BikeHut St Paul's is supposed to be their high end shop, the one with their best mechanics... Appalling really!

Out of interest what is actually wrong with your bike, Jeje?