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Bikes
The bike brands that you find at Summit Cycles are not there by accident, we have chosen to represent them because we believe that they offer the best features and value for money in a market saturated with ‘me too’ products. When the big spend goes on marketing hype rather than product development we stay out of the way.
Trek, Specialized, Orange, ,Santa Cruz, and Puky are represented because they each offer something different to the plethora of bicycle brands currently vying for your attention.
Our policy of providing 1 years free servicing (some restrictions apply) with new bikes means that we will never sell £99 ‘genuine’ mountain bikes, or children’s bikes built like disposable toys. To be honest we would rather someone else had to explain why the brakes don’t work when it rains, the cranks fall off after 10 miles, and why the saddle prevents rides of more than 5 miles. We agree with John Ruskin when he wrote
“There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey”.
Our Adult bikes start at £230.00, we feel that this is the point at which a bike crosses over from being a poorly functioning disposable waste of resources, to being something of quality, suitable for long term use, and worth servicing and looking after. It will be built to a standard that lets you really enjoy riding it, with quality components from leading brands like Shimano and SRAM, and when correctly maintained, will provide years of comfortable and efficient service.
The bikes that we sell can be broadly broken down into the following 5 categories, OK, so we missed fixed gear road bikes, rigid single speeds, and a few other oddities, but for the most part these are the most relevant types of bike for the majority of cyclists, be they new to the sport, or transportation element of cycling, or seasoned long haul truckers.
Mountain Bikes.
These are men’s and women’s bikes built for off road use, to cover tracks, byways and man made singletrack trails. We stock hardtails (Bikes with front suspension forks) from around £300.00, and full suspension bikes from around £800.00. Our full suspension bikes start at £800.00 because we believe that below that price the compromises made on the quality of equipment mean that you are better off buying a good spec hardtail. We sell a wide range of models, from cross country, to World Cup downhill, and everything in-between.
Hybrids.
As the name suggests, these are bikes that were developed to fuse the easy riding comfort of a mountain bike with the speed and efficiency of a road bike. So you get a wide range of gears, to cope with Welsh hills, with shift leavers on the ‘bars, powerful brakes, on a light and strong frame that can handle a trip to the shops, or a trip across Europe. The 700c (The same as a road bike) sized wheels, with touring tyres, roll quickly, but can also handle forest roads and gravel cycle paths. They are the most versatile type of bike, with models suited to touring, commuting, shopping, fitness training and taking the children for a ride along the cyclepath. More here
Road Bikes.
This covers women’s and men’s bikes for racing, training, or fast recreational riding. These bikes are characterized by 700c wheels, with narrow tyres and dropped handle bars. They are very light weight, and the long and low riding position means that they can take some getting used to. Newer generation bikes like the Performance series Madones’ from Trek, and the Roubiax models from Specialized mean that you don’t need the fitness and flexibility of a pro rider to enjoy the addictive buzz of a top-end road bike.
Children’s Bikes.
We stock a wide range of girls and boys bikes from Specialized, Trek, and Puky, suitable from around 2½ years of age. We are fans of Puky and Specialized’s run-along bikes, which help children as young as 2 ½ get accustomed to learning the balance skills required to ride a bike without becoming dependant on stabilisers. Using these run-along bikes children as young as 2 ½ to 3 can be up and riding a two-wheeler bike un-aided.
Our children’s bikes feature light weight alloy frames and wheelsets, with good quality adjustable child sized components, are suitable for off road use, and when maintained will last for at least 2 or 3 children. We are happy to part exchange our children’s bikes as they grow and trade up sizes.
Touring & Cyclocross.
While hybrid bikes can be used for touring and mixed on/off road use, a touring bike, with its dropped handlebars is more suitable for an extended trip. We also stock Cyclocross and ‘freeroad’ bikes, which can be a cross between a tourer, and cyclocross bike. They can cover everything from roads to mountain bike singletrack, and are great way to explore the byways and back lanes of your area. They are the Swiss Army knife of the bike world.
Servicing
Yes, 1 years free servicing sounds too good to be true, so to keep our mechanics sane we have to have a few restrictions, they go like this.
1. Maximum of 1 service every 8 weeks.
2. Bike must be presented in clean condition.
3. Free labour only, not parts.
4. Excludes suspension forks & rear shocks.
5. Bikes bought on sale, 0% finance, or bike to work schemes qualify for one free service only, within 12 weeks of purchase
6. The mechanics prefer custard slices or chocolate brownies
“There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey”.
John Ruskin