Charlie The Bikemonger has just been in touch to tell us that he’s gone ‘proper high street’ and has opened a real bike shop.
Here’s his take on things:
“After five years as an online purveyor of fixed, single speed, and tweed… we have now settled into our new shop in Swanage.
Based in the heart of the Purbecks on the Dorset Coast, we are in a great location, not only within minutes of some great riding and the beach, but also only three miles from the Square & Compass (Cider Pub of The Year 2009, and that’s quite important to us).
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Yeah sure, we could do a lot more business if we were based in a larger town, but down here we are in a world heritage site, where the riding and life in general is very good.
We are still dealing online at www.charliethebikemonger.com, but the high street shop means we can offer a unique selection of demo bikes.”
Not your usual bunch of boring full sussers:
Surly Big Dummy cargo bike,
Niner SIR9 rigid 29er single speed
Salsa Dos Niner 29er1x9 soft-tail
Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bike
Surly Steam Roller Fixie
This move illustrates that the cycling world is becoming larger, but also much more diverse, and that a very specialist business can survive and indeed flourish. I can sit on the shop sofa, with the shop dog, surrounded by organic tweed cycling caps, track frames, cargo bikes and bottle cages designed for hip flasks, proud that we have established an oasis of steel and tweed in a world of carbon and lycra.
All the best,
Charlie & Michelle
New Address:
137B High Street, Swanage, Dorset, BH19 2NB
Tel: 01929 475 833
c’mon own up that’s Sideways Tim on 70’s night
oooh i always needed a legit reason to use the swanage steam railway over and over again, see you anytime from may to sept!
oh and good luck!
Best wishes for the new endeavour!
Weird. I always pictured CTBM as old man living in a shed. Dunno why.
Good luck anyhoo.
Anyone selling the Surly Big Dummy is alright in my book 🙂
Good luck Charlie!
Go Charlie….
good on you getting behind the 29er’s the next big thing
good luck
Ade
Nice work Charlie! Will drop in if I’m ever down that way.
Any chance of a clunker this year?
Old man in Shed…. that’s my ambition. Hair like Prof Emmet Brown from back to the future, a still for distilling, and some welding gear…. what could go wrong? I shall call my shed “Shed Zeppelin”
Clunker: yeah, same time, same place etc… Email if you need details, trying to keep it off radar and out of the papers 😉
And many thanks for the encouragement and well-wishing.
Excellent news Charlie, best of luck.
Tomorrow the world!
Good Skills Charles.
See you at SSUK 2010 for some disco dancing and derbying fun…
Nice one charlie! best of luck with it!
Great news Charlie. It will be lovely to wander in and drool, errffr, spend i mean…
His hair’s much longer on the telly isn’t it?
Best of luck Charlie. And thanks again for “This machine kills fascists” sticker. It gets attention!
All the best Charlie.
Yeah, the hair is doing great, but when on the telly I have had right short hair (LV= car insurance advert “man holding newspaper”), and shortish hair (BBC Countryfile nettle eating world champs), and sensible hair (South Today: Ralph’s murder) and wet hair (surfer on “Dance Energy” with Normski circa 1990)… oh hell… I’ve not been on crimewatch again have I, those photofits never get my hair right.
good luck Charlie, I’d definitely make a point of visiting the shop if in the area. Glad to hear the website will be keeping up the good work, you got me and at least one friend single speeding.
“Hair like Prof Emmet Brown from back to the future”
you’re already halfway there charlie; all you have to do is stop dyeing it now!
where the hell is Dorset anyway?
About time there was a decent bike shop in the Purbecks.
I’ll have to make the long trek down from Wareham soon.