REVIEW London Bikes Shops: Sargent & Co

Rob Sargent: A genius for steel

Bikes shops.
When I was growing up in a tiny village, there was no bike shop but the son of a family we knew 'who could mend a puncture'. Dad didn't have a clue.
Now I live in London in 2013, and after a recent trip to San Francisco and America's 'most cycling city' Portland, Oregon, you better believe it: we Londoners have it good.
In bike shop terms London is a Shangri La, despite the amazing world of the web and the fact that a big box web 'tailer like Chain Reaction can stock hundreds of thousands of parts that even the largest shop could never hope to stock.

But the fact is that bikes are awkward in the mail and there are numerous problems that can be quickly solved by a decent mechanic. Bike shops are blossoming. They are not being killed off by the web. In fact one I know (Micycle, Islington) told me they too order bits and bobs online, when they need one widget and not a hundred, subtly subverting the traditional distributor/wholesale model. I'm sure they're not alone.


One of my favourite all time stores in London is Sargent and Co. in Finsbury Park, founded by Rob Sargent. I pass it daily and keep an eye on his ever-changing window feast of old steel beauties. 

Currently he has a poster in the window. It reads: "You can't buy happiness, but you can buy a bike and that's pretty close." There's also a cheeky sign that says 'No Mountain bikes or 'hybrids''.

Premises at 84 Mountgrove Rd, N5 2LT

So you can see straightaway that Rob has done what you have to do to succeed: focus on one area and do it really well, in this case steel frames and bikes that modern bike shops have almost forgotten how to service. He knows them inside out and has two halves to his business, selling retro-magic bikes and frames and builds, and of course servicing and fixing God Knows What old stuff coming in the door, the 'rescued from the shed but needs a bit of attention' commuter market.

Rob replaced my head set and allowed me to watch

Rob's magnificent cat Cassius sleeps in the window, and when I popped in to get a headset replaced on my Coppi (I had made an appointment on this occasion), it was as relaxed as can possibly be. I set off to buy some coffee for both of us from the Retro Vintage Cafe two doors down, and then we just chatted while Rob expertly did a big job requiring specialist tools. He charged me just £40, and what to charge seemed almost like an afterthought. What a fantastic guy.

Rob Sargent wins my vote for 'favourite bike shop in 2013', partly for defying 'market economics' and riding a different and beautiful wave that's seen a whole sub-culture of low cost, beautiful bikes being restored, re-cycled, re-worked and re-built.

I salute that: it is personal and intimate and friendly in a way that biking culture should be. I am not against the big chains like Evans, who can service other needs (and open very long hours), but they are headed in an opposite direction, getting bigger and bigger, bought out last year by private equity and thus owned and run now by non-cycling bean counters. It is great thing that the formerly humble world of the cycling shop could have matured and stratified to this degree as an entire business sector, but my vote goes to Rob Sargent nonetheless - and of course I love steel road bikes so I am partly expressing my own preferences.