Do you love or hate your local cycling shop? It's time to vote in the London Cycling Awards!

We've all heard tales of terrible bike shops; horror stories of shoddy service, shocking charges and indifferent staff more interested in standing around than looking after customers.  A visit to my local nameless city-wide generic bike store (Sod it.  Hello, Evans Spitalfields!) invariably entails me waiting and waiting - and waiting - to be served before I leave, disgusted.  Indeed, if the folklore that surrounds cycling service providers are to believed it's a wonder that anyone successfully sells bikes in London at all!



So it is that the London Cycling Awards make a very welcome return to the social calendar; organised by the London Cycling Campaign, and back after a short hiatus bigger and better than before.  Because let's face it, when you do actually receive good service, it's worth rewarding, right?

On the 8th of May the very best of London's cycling service providers, community projects and bicycle champions will be celebrated in a glittering awards ceremony presented by ITV cycling commentator Ned Boulting.

And you can have a choice in who gets nominated for a gong!  The London Cycling Campaign want to hear from you about which bike shops make you smile, which cycling products you can't do without, and who your cycling heroes are.

LCC chief executive Ashok Sinha said:
"We’re calling on Londoners to nominate their favourite retailers, products, projects and initiatives, to celebrate the champions of cycling in the capital. There's never been so much excitement around cycling in our great city, and these promise to be the best London Cycling Awards ever."

And if you needed any reassurance that the bicycle is on the ascent in London, the awards event will be supported and covered by the Evening Standard, plus others including Brompton Bicycles, Cycle Surgery, Cyclehoop, EMCF, Levenes Solicitors, Madison, Royal Haskoning DHV - are supporting the awards.

You've got until April 16th to make your nominations for your best bike brand, best cycling champion, best cycling communicator, best product and bike retailer.  Nominations are open now, so get involved and reward that rarest of things; the cycling service providers in London that make you happy! 

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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a let-down -- your opening paragraph suggested that we were going to be able to name and shame shoddy bike shops, to warn others away from them, and hopefully hit them where it hurts. Instead we just get a boring chance to pat the good guys on the head.
JdeP

ibikelondon said...

@JdeP Oh, but it's too easy to bitch about the bad service, I like the idea that we get to nominate the nice guys for once. (Although maybe there should be a Wooden Spoon award as well?)

Charlie said...

Hah! I'm local to Evans Spitalfields as well. My tip is to cycle a bit further north and check out the London Bike Kitchen (http://lbk.org.uk/) instead!

Needless to say, I've already voted for them myself.

ibikelondon said...

A worthy nomination Charlie!

Unknown said...

All bicycle retailers supermarkets & Helmet manufacturers are to be held partially responsible for cyclist fatalities & accidents by failing to provide bright fluorescent safety Helmets in the £10 to £30 ranges that offer 360 degree visibility & increased reaction times especially for highly trained qualified professional HGV Drivers?

ibikelondon said...

Thanks for your comment Adam. I'm afraid I have to strongly disagree. Helmets and high vis are not a legal requirement for any road user, and their effectiveness is a matter of some debate and lack of consensus in academic circles. Whilst of course there are some environments in which some protective gear is a good idea, helmets and high vis are readily available tax free via the Government's Ride To Work scheme when purchased with a bike.

So we've established that helmets and hi-vis aren't a legal requirement, however when it comes to HGVs there are, naturally, lots of things about the driver and the truck that are. It is telling in the extreme that of the 3000+ lorries the Met Police Commercial Vehicle Education Unit has pulled over and assessed on London's roads between 2005 and 2011, a massive 70% were been found to have illegal defects. (Driving offenses, tachograph infringements, illegal loads, flat tyres, driving under the influence, driving whilst banned, broken mirrors, no license, that sort of thing.)

It is clear what the source of danger on our roads is - it would make much more sense on reducing the source of danger rather than mandating yellow plastic hats as a bandaid to mitigate against exposure to it, wouldn't you agree? To put it another way, tragically HGVs also kill a disproportionate level of pedestrians too; should they all wear helmets and high vis, or should we focus on making the source of danger safer?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Serves you right for going to Evans.
Last week a friend ordered a new bike from Evans which was due to arrive last Monday. On calling to arrange collection he was told it would be another 10 days.
After a quick call to my LBS, Edwardes of Camberwell, he was riding the same model within an hour with a saving of 70 quid.
You can't beat an LBS for service, experience, and knowledge.

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