[Closed] Are there any decent, reliable online bike shops?

Ones that charge more maybe? decent couriers cost decent money. Sigma are a lot more than half decent, maybe your bar is set a little high?

Bike discount.de. never a problem, always informed of delivery situation. They use DPD and we have a large local depot so very good. Cheap for most larger items. Take a bit longer to deliver, although still quicker than Tredz.
I like Wiggle, cheap, next day delivery for a year for £10 and I know the Hermes courier so never any problem for delivery. Yodel on the other hand.....

Merlin are excellent and use Royal Mail. They're a bit slower than usual, but getting stuff within a few days seems reasonable right now.

Merlin has always been a go to for me.

I use Merlin loads. They use Royal Mail and have always been quick to process orders, never had a problem.

Would have said Merlin but they have messed me about once or twice in the last year or so after decades of stellar service. Bike Discount is my go-to for stuff I can't source locally as is Uberbike Components.

Had a delivery from Merlin this morning via Royal Mail. All good, no problems at all. Took less than a week.

CRC and wiggle...

Whether you agree or not, for me over the last decade they've been great.

Hermes are just a disaster zone at the best of times so not keen on CRC/Wiggle.

I'll take a look at bike-discount. Thanks for the suggestions!

CRC still fine for me, probably as our local Hermes couriers are good.

Merlin are great but have a much smaller range, e.g. no rear mechs to suit my needs last week.

Merlin has been my go to for years, superb. I even went a wee pilgrimage when on a work course in Lymm a couple of years ago. 😁

There are lots, but they're in Germany

Used Mantle for the first time recently and they were dead fast. Tbh I’d expect a slower service off most at the moment.

Merlin, sigma and tredz for me. Tredz get flack for not holding the stock sometimes however I've always found it very clear what is in stock and what is in stock with the supplier. Comms when it's coming from the supplier have always been good. Add to that they have been very helpful about sourcing special/different bits from their suppliers and adding them to the web site to make the purchase easy.

If they've got what you want then SJS Cycles are pretty much faultless IME.

To be honest there aren't many that I've ever had more than a minor gripe about.

CRC and wiggle…

Whether you agree or not, for me over the last decade they’ve been great.

Agree, have used them for years and always good. Hermes are also a lot better than they used to be.
Ordered saddle on Sunday, free delivery so up to 5 days. Arrived Tuesday morning.

Sigma have been good in past but don't look good at moment. Ordered tyres on Saturday, not a whisper since about being dispatched.

Had zero problems with CRC over many orders. They are a pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap outfit though, so I wouldn't have high expectations of attentive personal service if ever I had issues with them.

Merlin have always been reliable, Wiggle used to be until they bought CRC, now they are focussed on volume rather than service. Bike-discount.de have also been good over the last few years.

Agree CRC will not be getting any business from me again given recent customer services

Merlin always good.

Had very good customer services from Sigma this week

Bike discount.de - has a delivery from them today. It took DPD 2 weeks to get it to me though

Wiggle and CRC have been great for me, no issues at all for years and years. I rarely go anywhere else except I find that SJS is great for really obscure bits and pieces. They seem to have every spare part and widget. Also use Tredz sometimes if they have what I want.

Not quite sure what people are expecting in customer service terms but then I almost never have to contact them for anything.

Bike Discout de and Bike Boutique nl have both been reliable - but that was pre-covid.
Since covid Tarty Bikes, Active Sport (yes, I know) and Exposure have all been good.
Most recent example - ordered from Mantel last night, picked and despatched this morning; delivery by DHL so we'll see how good they are.

another thumbs up for Sigma here

Wiggle and Hermes have been fine for me. I use Wiggle+ (next day delivery for £10 a year) and it all seems to work.

Merlin - Excellent
SJS Cycles - Beyond excellent
Kustom Bikes - Excellent
Sigma - Excellent
Slam 69 - Excellent
Lord Gun (Italy) - Excellent
Bike24 (German) - Excellent
Mantel - Excellent
Tredz - Good (no issues yet)

CRC & Wiggle have been ok, seem to have a better service if you pay for your delivery.

CRC have always been good for me. Once I was sent a chain with the joining pin snapped, I called (still NI at that time) them and was given a £15 voucher and told to send the chain back. When I told them I had managed to fit the chain they let me keep the vouccher for my troubles.

Treds have also been good, only once has an order taken longer than the stated time on the item page. On that occasion I was emailed by a human who offerd a refund if the new time frame was too long.

One item ordered from Evans, last week arrived in 2 days. I have ordered my first from Bike dicount.de this week, so hopefully they will be as good.

Swinnerton Cycles have also been good.

Bit of a wild card, but I've had 2 bikes from Start Fitness with another one on the way.
And they answer the phone.

https://www.startfitness.co.uk/

CRC are so cheap that they've pretty much put everyone out of business. The stock levels thing can be annoying. I don't think delivery reliability will improve unless you are willing to pay more. I've had a couple of orders not delivered and returned to the depot, which means they automatically got cancelled rather than sent out again. Irritating, but never any question that they would refund any charges.

I don't mind CRC so much as long as you set your expectations at their price point, dislike the fact they use Hermes. Sigma good, SJS v good. Merlin OK (had issues with delivery)  I'll pretty much try use LBS though for stuff that's not just  bits and bobs.

SJS also excellent for me as above. Costs* a bit more but a great range.

* Yes I know they are a smaller operation and the bike boys pricing is artificially low.

Merlin, SJS and Tarty Bikes have all been great during this crisis. Also buying some sale tyres direct from Specialized including a warranty issue has been a very customer focussed service.

Merlin, Wiggle and until Corona - Amazon Prime if I am in a hurry to get a bike back up and running.

Agree with CRC, Wiggle, Tredz - all good ime.
Also Hargroves - a lot smaller chain, and always good. Also Pedal On and Stif been reliable for me.

Since the start of this I have used both Wiggle and CRC without issue, our current Hermes guy is spot on.
SJS, Merlin and various ebay bods have been spot on to.
Still awaiting for a frame to be dispatched from Sunset Cycles which has been processing since the 01/05 so whilst the longest wait of all they are still within their anticipated Covid time frames so it was expected. Plus I've had excellent service from them before so I just need to hide the pile of shiny things I have to attach to the frame to stop any sense of frustration 😊

Never had any issues with CRC / Wiggle. Merlin also good. One not mentioned so far: Cyclestore always been good, although I've not tried them during Covid

Also. Shout out to TF Tuned who gave me excellent customer service yesterday, really top notch.

Evans, High on Bikes an Chain Reaction all delivered to me within promised timed on recent orders.

Chain reaction are normally very good if you use their collect+ click and collect service. Often ordered on a Saturday or Sunday and found it ready to collect Monday or Tuesday. Obvs given the situation I haven’t wanted to go to Mccolls to collect so been going for standard delivery. 2 or 3 Hermes deliveries have been fine but 1 got totally lost. Hermes tracking stopped at a depot and never started again. CRC wouldn’t send another item until I’d filled in a deceleration form to say it was lost which was a pain. It would work on my phone so I had to log into a desktop and print it off, fill it in, scan it and email it back.

Put in 4 small bike stuff orders on line at the weekend. The two I put in on Sunday not heard a peep from, one of them was Chain Reaction. The two orders I put in on Monday were despatched the same day. Mantel despatched within a couple of hours. Merlin also despatched with a few hours.

Gotta give these guys a shout, had never heard of them but having time to google parts for overdue repairs and check pricing I stumbled upon these, Cyclebasket of Crickhowell, P&P is not cheap at a flat rate of £6 but their prices can be very competitive and delivery is second to none with plenty of communication about your order status, packaging looks to be recycled but that's no bad thing these days, good luck to 'em I say. To be fair in these straitened times I have had a majority of good service on line and long may it continue, those who do it well deserve to prosper.

CRC/Wiggle have always been great for me. Used them since the 90s.
M about vote for Merlin, but also a big shout to Bikegoo and Biketart
Neither have the range of CRC, but both are super friendly, fast, and generally well priced.

CRC/Wiggle are the only ones who have delivered when they say they will over the last two months.

If you want to price chase be prepared to wait. It's taken 3 weeks from ordering for some silver Pike DJs turn up and I'm currently 10 days in waiting for some DMR Lacons to come. I've saved over £250 but lost a rideable bike in that time, so pick your poison

Cyclebasket is the old Nelson Cycles, it's in llangynidr not Crickhowell. I think the current owner is the original owner's son, he Ballard things up when he originally took it over by oissing off all the core customers his dad had built up. Good to hear they're getting their act together again.

I have never had a problem with CRC/Wiggle. Merlin, however, has been superb of late.

Just a correction and update to earlier post.
Mantel use UPS, not DHL.
Order with them placed Tuesday evening, picked Wednesday morning, now with carrier, delivery by cob Friday.
I would say that's impressive in current circumstances; it's like business as usual.

Crc/wiggle have never been an issue for me but I use click and collect to avoid the usual Herpes shenanigans.

Merlin have always been good as have SJS, Wistanleys and Tredz too for that matter. Sprockets are near me but they don't advertise anything they don't have in stock, they have accounts with the usual names though so can get it in at LBS prices.

Bike Discount are another I have shopped with. Decent prices especially for service items but as said slow. Understandable though.

Not had bad service from almost all of the above over the years. Would also praise Halfords and Cycle Republic (RIP).

CRC not as quick as they used to be, but perfectly fine.

Seems to be a bit of a cliche to lambast Hermes. They have an app now, and regular delivery updates, starting from the point they obtain the parcel. So in terms of visibility, on a par with UPS and DPD in many ways. Plus my local Hermes courier is a legend.

Just for reference, had a small (500g) personal parcel to post that needed next day. Paid £8.80 for RM Special Delivey Next Day by 1pm. Dropped off at the High Street Post Office in the early morning (9.15), but it still arrived 48 hours later.

No one is immune from the demands of COVID19 it would seem.

Merlin have been good

I have to say SPA cycles are worth a look. The website can be a challenge, in that it is a long list, I found CTRL+F helped

They had a bottom bracket in stock that none of the big guys had. I did a custom ratio chainset from them on the phone. I told him what ratios i wanted middle of Wednesday, it arrived Friday. Rapid service even during lock down

Have ordered a few things from SJS, is anybody finding they take ages to turn up ?

As above really

Spa cycles
Sjs slow at the moment but tracking shows the problem is Royal Mail
Wiggle (but delivered to collection point)
Merlin
Galibier for clothing
Sigma (tend to just go there tbh)
Bike24
Ribble (seems to hold less kit than they used to)

All been good ime

Another vote for Merlin, although they don't hold the amount of stock that CRC/Wiggle do, I always give them first 'refusal'.

Not Tweeks Cycles.

Ordered some tyres. Got first email, then nothing. No indication of ETA or current status.

Day 5, 6, 7, logged in, no update, tried to call helpline, outrageously long waits, couldnt get through, cut off once.

Day 8, emailed requesting a cancellation.
Day 8, later that afternoon - Logged in and it says my order has been completed.
Day 8, later that evening - Microsoft Outlook cannot deliver your message, inbox is full.

Day 11 - still waiting. No idea where my tyres are.

F@@@ing rubbish.

CRC and Wiggle have been fine, normal service is a maybe a day longer than usual but if you pay for next day it does come next day.

Bikegoo, TF Tuned, Bike-discount, Wiggle (generally use them rather than CRC as I get discount), Sport Pursuit, Amazon (only place that seemed to have a XT brake lever in stock) and Merlin have all been great all things considered over the last few weeks.

To be honest I haven't had an issue with many places in the last few months.

Last two of my four parcels came through today. All ordered last Sunday/Monday so no complaints. Mantel sent me two chains ordered Monday arrived Friday. CRC mix of bike bits and cleaning stuff ordered Sunday arrived Thursday. Merlin ordered two sets of bar tape Monday arrived Thursday. Bike Barn hub parts ordered Sunday arrived Friday.

Happy with that so internet shopping still works fine.

I use CRC, Wiggle, SJS, bikediscount.de,r2bike, merlin most. Winstanleys, Tweeks, JEJames, and a bunch of others have been fine too.

Just used SJS Cycles. Excellent service as always. Goods received within 3 days.

Good - Merlin, Bike24, bikediscount, SJS, HighOn Bikes

I've had no problem with - CRC, Wiggle

I've had stock issues with - Tredz

Got some tyre from Sigma, took 5 days, got a saddle from Wiggle, took 2 days. Both items order last Sunday.

I am finding Hermes fine via Wiggle but that maybe because I am in the house all the time so no risk of any missed deliveries, items delivered to mystery neighbours etc,.

Agree with much of the above - I've not really had any problems with Hermes/Wiggle/CRC. SJS has a great service and often has parts hard to find anywhere else. I've also used Winstanleys and JE James quite a few times without problems, plus others like Pedalon, Ribble, Petra, and Fawkes occasionally when they've had offers on things like tyres/tubes. Ebay can be a bit of a lottery, but some of the online cycle retailers (tri-sport_resort/Wiggle, Fawkes) also have Ebay shops, which can be a good place to look for bargains.