The first monthly JB casual bike ride is this Wednesday (4th). Meet at the shop at 6pm, we’ll ride the Two Tunnels and back on the river canal – about 13 miles. Lights & helmet required.

It’s casual – no-one gets left behind. Route here: http://johnsbikes.co.uk/cycle-routes/

Can’t make this one? We’ll have one every first Wednesday of the month.

From the 2nd July you’ll be able to shop with us seven days a week. John’s Bikes is now Bath’s only independent bicycle shop open on Sundays.

Park for free on Walcot Street or any of the surrounding areas – all on street parking in Bath is free on Sundays. Why not spend the afternoon wandering up and down Walcot Street: Bath’s Artisan Quarter with great coffee shops, restaurants, galleries, plus our famous Stone Faces of Walcot, and finish up with a coffee in the only place to get us going in the morning – Sam’s Kitchen.

To celebrate our Sunday opening, we’ll be giving away a discount voucher for everyone who visits us on Sunday – so pop in and say hello!

End of Season Sale Bikes

It’s that time of year when the new shiny bikes arrive and we must say goodbye to the current 2016 range. This can only be good news for you as the prices drop to the most competitive. In store items only are available at these prices but are still covered by our 1^st free service.

In this mix we have shop favorites from Genesis, Croix De Fer and from Trek, Domane series along with some well-reviewed Mountain Bikes and cracking commuting and kids bikes. Pop by for a fitting and test ride but remember, Get them before they are gone…

Trek Domane 2.3 56cm 2016 was £1000 now £800

Trek Domane 2.0 60cm 2016 was £900 now £750

Trek Emonda S 4 WSD 52cm was £950 now £680

Trek Lexa SL 52cm WSD 2016 was £750 now £550

Trek Neko SL 14” WSD was £525 now £425

Trek FX 7.3 20” 2016 was £450 now £380

Trek Remedy 9 19.5” 2016 was £2700 now £2160

Trek Remedy 8 17.5” 2016 was £2000 now £1650

Trek Cali S Disc WSD 18.5” 2016 was £550 now £400

Genesis Tarn 27.5+ Medium 2016 was £1899 now £1200

Genesis Longitude Medium 2016 was £1199 now £750

Genesis Croix De Fer 20 Large 2016 was £1199 now £950

Genesis Croix De Fer 20 X-Small 2016 was £1199 now £950

Genesis Croix De Fer 10 Small 2016 was £899 now £700

Genesis Croix De Fer 10 X-Small 2016 was £899 now £700

Genesis Smithfield Medium 2016 was £799 now £525

Genesis Caribou Jnr 20” wheel 2016 was £450 now £260

Ridgeback Vanteo Ladies 15” 2016 was £499 now £400

Ridgeback Velocity ladies 19” 2016 was £449 now £300

Ridgeback Meteor ladies 15” 2015 was 379 now £280

Ridgeback MX2 13” 2016 was £290 now £200

Ridgeback MX2 13” 2016 was £290 now £200

Ridgeback Destiny Girls 24” wheel 2015 was £249 now £200

Ridgeback MX16 2016 Was £159 now £130

What is Standard? a shop perspective…

We feel sorry for you, all you want to do is fix, update or buy a new bike but you’re faced with “Standards” what axle width are you running? What is your inside rim diameter? What year is your group set? Is it long cage or short cage? What freehub is fitted?  Is your headset internal, semi integrated, integrated or mixed? What bottom bracket are you running, cartridge, external, press fit, BB90, BB30, GXP, ISIS, square-taper? The list goes on and on…

Sometimes we know the visit to your local bike shop can be frustrating, all of the shops try to keep their knowledge up to date but diagnosing a “Standard” part quickly can be tricky. To be frank, the industry doesn’t help itself either. A lot of brand websites FAQ or Tech sections are of little help and if your local store doesn’t sell your brand of bike they don’t always have access to accurate dealer websites or tech helplines. We can get around the problems with an investigation in the stand but during peak season there is often a week or two wait to get it in the mechanic’s stand, no good if you’re wanting to get out there and ride that evening or weekend. We try and keep a good relationship with our peers, we help them out if they need proprietary parts for a Trek bike they may have in their workshop and it goes vice versa.

What can you do in a doomsday prepper style to make sure you’re ready for the worst? Forums? YouTube? Mates? The good news is that the internet has a lot of accurate information but equally a lot of poor advice too. When you buy your new bike, ask for the full spec. we love questions like that and are more than happy to give you a list of the critical spares Bottom Bracket, Headset, Hub, Freehub, bearing kit (full suspension), rear mech hangers from the off, it’s all part of the service and in our opinion every bike shop should do this for you too. The likelihood is in our mind is that you will still need to visit your local workshop due to you not having some specialist tools and techniques to hand, modern bikes are engineering marvels and the boundaries are getting wider.

Since the advent of GCN, GMBN and the long running Bike Radar YouTube channels you can find accurate advice and techniques to help remedy your bicycle maladies, though the risk is on you. Sometimes the tools required are quite expensive, spending £200 or more on a tool that you likely to use at most once a year has to be questioned. So what tools do we think you should have at home? Simple.

• A decent set of allen/hex keys. Preferably a separates set with a ball end for hard to reach areas, but not putting the final torque in though.
• A chain wear checker. The most important tool in your stash for saving money.
• Decent flat head and Philips screw drivers in multiple sizes.
• Pliers and snipe nose pliers
• A set of snips and a high quality cable cutter.
• A chain tool with the correct size pin for the speed chain you use.
• A chain whip and locking ring tool.
• the correct bottom bracket tool for either cartridge or external. Press fit bottom brackets require specialist tools and a careful technique, so we do not advocate you do this yourself unless you have a high level of competency.
• A torque setting tool. Remember you do not have to go to the maximum stipulated on the part.
• Chain oil, bearing grease and fiber grip gel for carbon parts.
• A small soft rubber mallet.
• Bike friendly cleaning products from degreasers to disc brake cleaners and brushes.
• A track pump with a gauge.
• Plenty of rags!

Park Tools

All of these tools, with practice will help you maintain your bike enough so you only have to see us for specialist jobs, wheel build and complete overhauls. Bearing in mind that all these tools add up to around £300, its still quite an investment but it’s worthwhile knowing your bike better.

Overall though keep a good relationship with your local bike shop, it’s not about selling you kit; it’s about keeping you rolling safely. We are always happy to advise, though as mentioned not always able to wave the magic wand to get you rolling straight away.

All New Trek Domane disc  – Strade Bianche – Mum’s the word.

With the year 2016 well under way and the dark days of winter slipping behind us the spring classics have arrived. Filling air time on Eurosport most weekends it’s a good chance to soak up some of the more thrilling road races on the UCI road calendar. It would also be a good chance for the more hawk eyed pedal pusher to keep an eye out for new Trek Domane Disc as suggested from our more than tight lipped Trek bicycles representative, Mr X.

Please bear in mind, his lips are tighter than Sir Chris Hoys bib shorts.

Once we relaxed Mr X he hinted that if we were to watch this weekends  ” Strade Bianche” race and keep an eye on the Trek – Segafredo team, we may very well see them aboard the all new Trek Domane Disc model, which will officially be a world first! After a lot of Parisian style shoulder shrugs, Mr X  mentioned that this is a new revised version of what the Trek Factory racing team were swinging a leg over in last year’s Vuelta Espana with the forever comfortable Trek Domane geometry but with bigger tyre clearances for more choice & adaptability.

If & when we find out any more about the new Trek Domane disc it would mean either we have tickled Mr X till he split the beans or Trek have officially launched. Feel free to pick up the phone and jump on the list for more info as & when.

For the mean time you will have to keep your eyes peeled on the spring classic’s ahead and remember these wise words.

“Winter miles = summer smiles”

Mum’s the word.

J-Fam

Interesting  Strade Bianche fact for you.

If Fabian Cancellara (Trek – Segafredo) conquers the one-day Tuscan race again, organizer RCS Sport said that it will name sector six, east of Siena, after him. It will do so with every three-time winner in the years to come. The Swiss classics specialist, three-time victor in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, is the only cyclist so far to win twice, in 2008 and 2012.

Live TV coverage – Saturday 05/03/16

12.45 – 15.00: Eurosport Player

Race Highlights below:

16.45 – 17.30: Eurosport 1 & 22.20 – 23.20: Eurosport 1