Alleycat Sponsor Profile: CHARLIE THE BIKEMONGER

Charlie Says:

"This corner of the internet is here to help people who want to singlespeed and ride fixed wheel. It provides solutions to the technical issues that fixed and singlespeed bikes throw up. Building a single speed or fixed is not always dead straight forward, so I am here to make it easy. You get free advice including "how to" movies and we can also sell you everything you need.

There are a few UK based online fixed gear specific shops and charliethebikemonger.com is definitely the one that screams out "I am like you!" more than any other. He clearly loves to ride and it comes through in his descriptions of the products he sells. From single half links to track frames via hip flask bottle cages there is something for everyone on his site. Go an have a looksie by clicking on any of the products below...

Tredz Swansea Complete Fixie Sale

I went over to meet Nick at Tredz (Swansea) today about supporting the alleycat (stay tuned for news). They have a bunch of complete fixed gear bikes there all ON SALE! So if you are on the lookout for an off the peg complete rather than trying to restore a big old hunk of junk then now is a perfect time to pop over there and try one for size. I took pictures of the sale tickets rather than the bikes, click on the first pic to go to Tredz' website and each of the other pictures to see a nice shot of the bike in question...








Fixed Gear Wales says "Nice!"
Fixed Gear Wales says "mmmmmm, nice, nice!"

Shop - County Cycles, Cross Hands

I popped into County Cycles in Cross Hands the other week, it's a nice little shop and the staff were friendly too, which is nice (rare). Downstairs is filled with accessories and general bikes, like a little mini Halfords ;-) but upstairs is filled with some serious kit, they keep loads of top of the range road bikes in stock as well as a truly impressive selection of jerseys! They don't keep any fixed gear specific stuff in stock but said they can order stuff in which is fair enough as Cross Hands is hardly the epicentre of all things 'new and exciting'. Check out their website: http://county-cycles.com

Shop - Cyclopaedia, Cardiff

I popped into Cyclopaedia in Cardiff today to get some bar tape for a singlespeed I am building for my lady. I wasn't in there long but it seems like a really nice little shop, it's well stocked with all the usual gear and the staff seemed to be very knowledgeable to me, I don't know why but they just did.

There was a fairly sizeable workshop area out the back and their website says that "Cyclopaedia is run by Cyclists for Cyclists - every member of staff is a Cyclist, some are triathletes as well!" which I can believe and I think we'll all agree that this is essential when looking for any kind of specialist shop. They deal with over 50 different suppliers and stock 200 brands so they should have what you need, if they don't they will try and order it for you.

I haven't been to any other bike shops in Cardiff yet but I'll happily recommend this one for now cause it was well stocked and had the kind of feeling you get when you go to a skater owned skate shop or an independent record store, know what I mean?











Cyclopaedia
116 Crwys Road
Cathays
Cardiff
CF24 4NR

02920 377773
www.cyclopaedia.co.uk
When you pop in there tell them that Fixed Gear Wales sent you, happy riding! :-)