Congratulations to The Trailhead in Shrewsbury!
Where can you find Britain’s best bike shop? We asked you and you said: The Trailhead in Shrewsbury. But what makes this shop better than all the rest?
>>> Women buy bikes too, so make us feel welcome
In our quest to highlight the importance and relevance of the thousands of local bike shops that still support the UK riding scene, we started the Britain’s Best Bike Shop quest back in June.
Well, now we have the answer, the votes are in, and we can reveal that the bike shop not going through to the next round is… [Ed: this isn’t Bakeoff, get on with it]
Pic: Sandy Plenty / Ruben Plenty
Congratulations to The Trailhead!
Okay, Britain’s Best Bike Shop, as voted for by you, is officially The Trailhead in Shrewsbury.
Over 20,000 of you voted in our poll, and the Trailhead came out top of all of the mtb specialists.
Pic: Sandy Plenty / Ruben Plenty
Based in Shrewsbury, The Trailhead ticks all the boxes for what you want out of the bike shop, doing the easy stuff well and the hard stuff with patience.
That means the shop will sell you a new bike, fork or jersey no problem, but it’s not a pushy place and there’s advice on hand from all staff members, you told us. That’s the easy bit.
Pic: Sandy Plenty / Ruben Plenty
But the Trailhead also organises local rides, helps promote mountain biking and looks after the trails… not for money, but for the good of the sport. That’s priceless.
Handy Sandy
“That’s amazing, we’re so stoked with that!” Sandy Plenty, Trailhead owner said when we broke the news. “It’s really a credit to the staff and to the bike shop and to the really great riding scene we have here. There are loads of great riders around Shrewsbury – past, present and probably future – and we owe a lot to that. But we’re obviously doing something right too.”
Pic: Sandy Plenty / Ruben Plenty
What you said about The Trailhead
Anonymous comments from the poll…
“Every time you walk in you’re greeted with a smiling member of staff who isn’t trying to sell you anything and is just happy to help.”
“Shrewsbury is the epicentre of mountain biking in the UK and the owner of Trailhead, Sandy, is one of the sport’s most well known and connected guys. His shop is brilliant and is notorious for its quality and is an excellent place to mix with like-minded bikers, its location also sets it apart in one of the country’s most beautiful cities.”
“It’s more like a club than a shop and the interest is always on the love of the hobby/sport and not the cash.”
“Sandy and his staff always provide friendly, knowledgeable service at good prices. Innovative solutions to help shoppers, like their bike-powered deliveries, make shopping easier and they support the local biking community running mtb and road rides.”
Overall top five shops
- The Trailhead
- The Riders Guild
- D & D Cycles
- Peddlers
- One Planet Adventure
The regional winners of Britain’s Best Bike Shops
- Scotland – Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op, Edinburgh
- North East – Peddlers Cycles
- North West – Twelve 50 Bikes
- Yorkshire – Stif Cycles
- East Midlands – Creation Cycles
- West Midlands – The Trailhead
- Wales – One Planet Adventure
- East of England – Pedal Addiction
- London – Soho Bikes
- South East – The Rider’s Guild
- South West – Slam 69
- Northern Ireland – Cycleology
The bike shop message
Well done to the Trailhead, and all the other bike shops who took part. There’s a serious message here, though, that goes beyond pure votes, and that’s that bike shops still really matter. Some shops have felt the squeeze as online distributors muscle in, and others have used it as an opportunity to diversify.
Online bike shops can never deliver the kind of service local bike shops do. These bricks and mortar retailers are often the lynchpin of the local riding community, bringing established riders and new and young riders together.
We know plenty of bike shops that do more than just make money, that go out of their way to help find new trails, lead and encourage kids and women’s rides, who maintain the local tracks and even represent the interests of mountain bikers to the community at large. So to all bike shops that tick any of these boxes, we say, on the behalf of our readers, thank you and keep the coffee hot and the banter flowing.