Just out of curiosity.........

Where did you buy your bike? Internet or bike shop or other??

And what was the service like? Good  or bad  ? 

Hum

in france no question LBS... They became friend through the years. And they are the only LBS owners I have come across that actually ride moutain bike, and they ride pretty well.

Here I bought my hoss in evans in london service was poor indeed, but I didn't care as I said "I want that".

I bought I first SS on ebay sold it, and then bought a Handjob (oh I know) on the STW classified.

Then for the bits and bob that went onto the HJ, most where 2nd hand on ebay/STW classified. As I generally know what I want. 

Bike shop but not local.

Had bad experiences with the local(ish) bike shop and saving 500 pounds elsewhere was incentive enough to travel 60miles to another shop.

Not overly impressed with service, things were set up wrong (not wrong for me just wrong) and I've been chasing them about the non-existent serial number (!!) and they've never got back to me despite promising they would. Not really complaining though, the money I saved more than makes up for the hassle.

Shouldn't serial numbers be on the frame, stamped onto the bottom bracket shell?

Usually buy from LBS, different varied ones over the years due to moving and spreading busness arond a bit.  Though a couple of bikes were purchased as made to measure frames with the components then acquired through LBS.

Bike shops none really local as most of them are pants! Got the bikes bought recently from Condors in London and Websters in Leicester - they were good prices and had the bike in my size to try. Once bought a frame off Wiggle but despite researching before I bought, it really was not the right size for me, so lesson learnt the hard way. Any one want a hardly used Giant TCR2 frame size small, nice blue black paint job

Bits and parts usually from the internet though as I know what I want. As for clothing just where ever I can get some that fits.....

Are you local to Wrexham LaLa?

Alf Jones' is my local bike shop and I have found them to be really friendly and helpful (and there's a really cute guy in there........hope he isn't on this site!! ) but I think I may have to travel a bit to find the bike that I want as they don't stock Kona's.

Hi Caroline,

If your from Wrexham way, try Coed Llandegla they do the Kona's

Miska

The Ros B second hand bike shop... I'm hoping she'll decide to upgrade the Stumpy soon

And it's being upgraded with parts from various LBS's and Wiggle/Chain Reaction.

Caroline - did you check out the Kona website in the end? A quick look showed dealers in Congleton, Shrewsbury and Llandudno... depends how far you're prepared to travel! Might be worth checking out what Alf Jones' stock for full sus - least that way you can probably try it out at Llandegla before you buy.

North west mtb centre Cheadle, Stockport.

NBT. works opposite, which is very handy.

I quite like 'Royals' in Wilmslow, Cheshire.  Had good service in there.

Also Si from '18' bikes in Hope, peaks, is really friendly and helpful. 

Bought my roadbike online at Evans, had to drive the Milton Keynes (from Peterborough) to pick it up, did my research but it hadn't tried it before - bit of a risk but turned out ok.  I only took it back for the initial service and that was fine.

Bought my full sus at Rutland Cycling, my local Kona Dealer.  Was able to ride it around the carpark but not able to take it for a blast around the reservoir before buying it.  Each time I took it in for fairly straight forward work (gear trouble, then brake problems and finally needed a new propedal lever) it came back either no better or worse than when I took it in.  Really didn't feel listened to and was fobbed off with poor advice a couple of times. I ended up taking it to their sister store at Grafham, the customer service was a lot better but I still ended up with a bike that let me down on my first day back in the saddle.  When I took it in (again!) to complain they did finally sort it out, at this point I bought a work stand and a maintenance book and have not needed to take it back since. (Plus I now know a couple of guys who know what they are doing and have tweaked it for me)

Sorry, this has ended being a bit of a rant but I've found it really hard to find an LBS that takes me seriously and believes that I actually ride my bike as it's designed to be ridden.

Bought my Stumpjumper at Edinburgh Bike shop in Leeds.The staff were very helpful and knowledgable.I had a problem with one of the disks when I got it,basically it squealed like hell and despite taking it back the problem wouldnt go away.They replaced the back disk for a hope and I've had no problems since.

I would recommend the shop, but not the Avid Juicy 5 brakes. 

My previous bike was an Orange EVO 2 which I got at Stif, they were also very helpful.Previously I bought a Trek there and one of the guys even gave me a lift home with the new bike in the car, so that I wouldnt have to ride it home in the dark.This was when I hadnt ridden for a while.

So good experiences really

Bought mine from Rutland too. Ex-hire, unseen and online so just a bit of a risk but it's worked like a dream ever since (Scott Contessa 10 hardtail in case you're interested).  Unlike vickster mine's just worked absolutely fine from day one. Don't know which shop set it up, but maybe one's better than the other? Literally just turned the handlebars, screwed in the pedals and never looked back. 

The bf bought his from our local leisure lakes (cheltenham) and the set up's never seemed right. Even after the 6-week service it still wouldn't shift cleanly. We took it into another LBS recently (Williams) for a service and they seem to have done a much better job. Really helpful guys who seem to know what they're talking about and don't look sniffy when you're obviously new at this and don't really know the jargon!

Got my frame from ebay... klein attitude comp and then the rest bought from various online sites like wiggle and chain reaction then built up over a year...super pimpy.

road bike was from LBC in Watford, Spesh was from LBC in Holmfirth and Giant was again off ebay