[Closed] Cycle Republic to close

I did not know about the Tredz link! Never really “got” Cycle Republic though, always felt a bit too close to normal Halfords

Dunno why they didn't just call them bikehut, at least people kinda recognize the brand and it might have driven more high value customers into the main Halfords stores.

Only times I ever used the Reading one was when Halfords was closed for refurbishment.

I did not know about the Tredz link!

They also own Wheelies, although I've always thought of them as more of a box shifting operation for cycle2work and insurance companies rather than a "shop".

Hmm. High street is in a mess for sure.

Duno if that explains it, Reading has one next door to the station.

There's also and inaccessible Evans on the Oracle roundabout (limited parking, difficult to walk to and too busy/dangerous/one-way to ride to!).

There's also an independant LBS (SCUK) in the town center, Pankhurst, AW, Berkshire and Rotec cycles, Mountain Trax and probably some I've forgotten all within ~4 miles of the town center (Berkshire and AW cycles have several branches too). And then there's all the independent toy shops, gun shops etc that also sell bikes, and some shops selling 2nd hand bikes.

Doesn't give much indication how well any of them are doing, but would have expected the independents to struggle more than Halfords.

Considering I think of most of their bikes sales are sub £1k, I never saw the point of Cycle Republic, the Southampton store has only been open ~18 months tops... Never went in it and I might not get chance before it goes!

That’s irritating. They have one next to my new office, had started using them, seemed a decent bunch.

I've been in to one once and asked if they had some BH-90 olives - got a weird look from them and was told it's not the sort of thing they would stock or get in. Needless to say I've not bothered going in again!

There was one near my last office in Manchester city center. Was ok, nothing special. I did get a bargain Giro helmet in the sale. it was originally circa £140rrp the one i got was priced at £50 and came up as £40 at the till. Nice. The only other point of note is they used to get robbed a lot. They had full size glass windows going down to street level, they would get ram raided and the bikes in the window nicked.

I wasn't impressed with them either, just seemed like a city centre Halfords. Shame about the Boardman Performance Centre, I hadn't realised Halfords were involved in that. It would be nice if someone could pick that up.

Nottingham one was always reasonable for me, but 200 yards from Evans

I'd assumed that the purpose of cycle Republic was simply to park on the doorstep of Evans and attempt to make it go bust. It seemed to have nearly done the job but (for) now Evans is safe closing it down seems like the logical choice.

Southampton one has been good for me. Had a few decent items off the sale racks :D.

The one in Cheltenham seemed crazy when you had Cheltenham cycles opposite Leisure lakes around the corner plus Williams not to mention Evans as well town is not that big the Cheltenham one was cutting jobs not long after it opened.

Agreed on the Cheltenham one, but they were very good sorting out my (multiple) warranty issues with my TACX turbo. Ended up swapping it for something else and being really good about it. I bought a few things from them but yeah it did seem at least one big shop too many for a small market town!