Is There Room for a Mobile Cycle Repair Service?

[Zoidburg]

Bicycle repair may well make you happy, but it will never make you rich.

Seconded

I was offered, and turned down a job with a well known frame builder and shop (no - not Mercian or Longstaffs)

Not enough groats in it to live on/pay the rent/have a social life etc

[microphonie]

Like I said, idle speculation . . .

The real problem is cashflow, speaking of which if I can't bank a wage for the end of June I might well be in the clartes.

Does anyone know of a bikeshop position around the Manchester area? 'Cos I really don't want to go back into the car parts game unless I really have to.

luv'n'stuff

J

PS What's it like to work at B*keH*t?

Check BikeBiz - currently vacancies in Wigan & Burnley

[Blade]

Richard, one of the members of our local cycling group, has recently quit his job, obtained cycle mechanic qualifications, and bought a van from which to run his Mobile Cycle Repair business.

The business name of his new venture is.........Dick van Bike   

[Jurek]

Like.
Apropos of nothing in particular, on my commute there is a very short stretch of the River Lea which I navigate.
I've noticed that there is someone offering  'Floating bike servicing' from one of the barges moored there.

[Kim]

York still wins with its ice cream boat, thobut.

[telstarbox]

There is now a mobile bike washing service in London. They rotate around fixed locations but will also come to you if you have at least four bikes to wash.

[Kim]

There is now a mobile bike washing service in London. They rotate around fixed locations but will also come to you if you have at least four bikes to wash.

Is that a fancy term for 'weather'?   

[Jurek]

York still wins with its ice cream boat, thobut.

Ice cream or spanners.
It's a difficult choice.

[FifeingEejit]

There has been mobile bike repair folk round here
One in Dairsie and one somewhere near Abernethy; there was also one in St Andrews but he decided he was doing well enough that he decided to open a shop.

Most of the bike shops round here will come to you to collect/return the bike needing work done if you ask them (and they'll charge you).

The nature of this area is that there's lots of smallish towns and villages dotted around so more likely suitable for making it work than in an area where it's easy enough to just wheel your bike to a shop.

[Diesel]

I've used Mike at http://www.cycletechbeds.co.uk/ for several years. Works well for me either doing repairs at my house or collection and drop off. I have happily recommended him locally to friends

I think he has a pitch at one of the local railway stations, maybe St Albans or Bedford, for 1 or 2 days a week. It means he picks up work there and can take other bikes he has collected and work on them there.

[quixoticgeek]

York still wins with its ice cream boat, thobut.

We get them in .nl.

 

Like.
Apropos of nothing in particular, on my commute there is a very short stretch of the River Lea which I navigate.
I've noticed that there is someone offering  'Floating bike servicing' from one of the barges moored there.

Last time I checked, there's a guy offering a similar service on the river Vecht, just along from the red light house boat district in Utrecht...

There's a few guys offering mobile bike repair in Amsterdam, they ride round on bakfiets units, I think they are mostly fixing punctures and the like.

There are also some subscription services like swapfiets, that basically when you get a flat, they bring you a new wheel. Haven't really investigated them yet.

I seem to have become a bit of a mobile bike repair service for my friends, they know I have a rather extensive toolkit on my bike anyway, so I'll often get asked to fettle something on a friends bike.

J

[Torslanda]

Bloody hell! This thread is almost as old as the forum itself.

Just to top & tail it, I didn't go the mobile route . . .

[Ian H]

Works for Francis Thurmer in the Bucks area, but he also has a static shop and a specialist line in hard to find components.

Hard-to-find.

Mr Thurmer appears still to be around.  https://francisthurmer.co.uk/1/

[Chamford Sideplate]

I met the Edinburgh guy. Another issue he had was trying to get trade prices from companies without having premises to prove he was in the trade.  He was trying to set up a Dawes dealership and a weird spares vending machine in the city centre as well as the travelling repair service. He showed me a trade price-list though. Lots of stuff could be got for less than half retail price. Frames were especially cheap. I met him years later. He was involved in setting up a mental-health charity.