The team
Huw opened the shop with one stand in 2011 and still builds the wheels; Sioned came from physiotherapy in 2016 and has fitted about nine hundred people since. Gareth and Mo hold the other two stands, both Cytech Level 2. The qualifications are below because a workshop should be asked for them.
Owner and head mechanic. The workshop, wheel building, e-bike diagnostics
Twelve years as a mechanic in two Cardiff shops and a season in a French team car before the lease on Cowbridge Road East in 2011 and a workshop with one stand. Huw builds the wheels, holds the Cytech Level 3 and the four e-bike certifications, wrote the three service levels on the wall in the first week and has not changed the idea since. Will tell you when a bike is not worth the money.
Bike fitter and shop manager. Fits, sizing, the hire fleet, Cycle to Work
A sports science degree, six years as a physiotherapy assistant at the Heath, and a racing licence she still uses on Tuesdays. Sioned joined in 2016 to run the fits and has done about nine hundred since, most of them for people with a sore knee and no interest in racing. She sizes every child's bike and every hire bike that leaves, runs the Cycle to Work paperwork, and has the final say on what the shop stocks.
The paperwork
Huw holds Cytech Level 3 and the e-bike technical certificate; Gareth and Mo hold Level 2; Sioned holds Level 2 and the fitting accreditation. The certificates are on the workshop wall by the kettle.
Bosch, Shimano STEPS, Bafang and Fazua dealer-level diagnostics, renewed each year, with the software and the cables that go with them. A motor error code on a bike bought online is a bike in a shed without them.
£5 million public liability and the bikes in our care insured while they are here. Hire deposits are pre-authorised, never taken, and released the day the bike comes back.
Not a chain, not a warehouse with a counter, and not the cheapest place to buy a bike in a box. We are the place that will build the one you bought in a box for £45 and tell you honestly what it is.
Number 148
Huw took the lease in the spring of 2011 with one stand, a toolbox from the team car and a sign painted by a friend. The workshop was the old tyre store at the back; the yard where the hire fleet lives was where the carpets came in. The mural on the Llandaff Road wall went up in 2019 and is repainted every other summer by the same artist, who gets a Gold service in return.
Finding the shopThree service levels at £45, £85 and £150, labour only, with parts quoted before they are fitted. Book the slot here or by phone, drop the bike from 8am, collect the same day for Bronze and Silver. Punctures while you wait, any time.