Mike Ashley set to take over Wiggle Chain Reaction as administrators “close the shutters” amid mass redundancies, sources suggest

Bigtwin wrote:

That's that riuned then.  Absolutely horrible man who trashes everything he touches.

That's a shame - I liked their Prime products.

Because theyd been so great lately ? They haven't been the goto cycling online shop for awhile for alot of people, kind of why theyve ended up in this predicament.

I don't think I've gotten anything from either of them from many years, they never seem to pop up when I search for the stuff I need.

I think there's a place for LBS' and Wiggle, CRC, etc. The LBS' simply needed to move with the market. My (crap) LBS didn't...and died. Another LBS set up to focus on maintenance and advice, and is snowed under. People always need a mechanic.

Why ? the only reason I ever used Wiggle in the first place is because my LBS's don't sell the parts or items I want, it's not even about price, they're stuck in their pre Internet mindset that you have to buy what they sell because you don't have a choice.

Literally just bought two bottle cages online for a bike, I also bought online, because none of my LBSs stock it

SJS cycles are good but no clothing (ok 7 items ! ).

Sigma Sports are very good.  Proper staff, good advice and its an actual shop with a very good online function.

I was also impressed by Spa Cycles when I ordered an Ambrosio cassette from them.  Again, a proper shop.

Tweeks Cycles is part of Demon Tweeks, a privately owned company based in Wrexham.

Demon Tweeks as in motorsport accessories Demon Tweeks ? Tbf that makes alot of sense for them, they've got the systems, warehousing and know how to shift stuff in boxes for orders.

One and the same! I initially got very confused when I ordered from Tweeks and was invoiced by Demon Tweeks!!

Galibier.cc for clothing, Merlin for parts etc

Yes, Merlin are good and Tweeks, Tredz. Galibier clothing really is excellent in my experience

BadgerBeaver wrote:

If you don't want to put money in the pocket of that horrible sack of sh1t, who turns gold into dust, where else to shop online? Asking for a friend.

As others have said, SJS, Spa, Sigma, all good

Thanks folks, adjusting bookmarks....

High on Bikes, Sprockets, Chicken Cyclekit, Edinburgh Bike Coop and others have all been good for me. 

AllTerrainCycles in Yorkshire were very good when I ordered a new kids bike and some bits last year.

a couple more work a look see.
Fawkes Cycles, bought from once or twice.
Total Cycling in Derry, bought a few EOL Campag stuff on sale in past.
Merlin Cycles

Hopkinson Cycles on EBay mainly for non flashy items and parts for repair cafe jobs. 

Well, Shimano, Sram and others are in great part guilty of this.
They sell full groupsets for less that we pay retail for a derailleur and chain to these behemoths, as long as they are for new bikes.
This makes the LBS uncompetitive, and we end up all buying big box bikes, DTC, etc.

Great point. The bike industry has gone crazy over the last few years. Bike prices and components have skyrocketed as if suddenly everyone is making 3x the money they made before the pandemic.
3 years ago I bought a full carbon Giant Defy for less than £3K brand new and that was a stretch at the time. Now the same bike is £6K with less kit on.
Same thing happened to clothes and components. Just stick bike on the title and you can charge double.
LBS suffer from lack of bulk buying power which means they get squeezed and customers have to resort to big names but it doesn't have to be this way.
Maybe we need this realignment in the industry to normalise prices all the way across the supply chain to what resembles reality and allow consumers
to start spending again.

Err...there's Merlin, Winstanley, Sigma, Tredz etc. Definitely more than "no options at all".

The last "big" order of stuff I put in was to Bike.de for a load of consumable parts. Got it shipped to my mate's house near Stuttgart and waited for him to bring it over on his next trip to UK.

Have just put an order into Wiggle to use up my gift voucher, so fingers crossed...

Got an email saying it's been despatched, so that's good.

Surreyrider wrote:

Err...there's Merlin, Winstanley, Sigma, Tredz etc. Definitely more than "no options at all".

Yes, and from my own experience, Merlin. Sigma & Tredz have been excellent (I'm sure Winstanley are too, but no experience myself).

I've received a couple of orders recently from BikeInn in Spain, there's a huge range of stuff very competitively priced, and crucially, for UK customers, the price shown & paid is the final price inclusive of VAT, duty, etc. The delivery can take up to a week, but if there's no hurry and it's something that's either more expensive or not available from the usual UK sites. Impressed so far with what I've had. 

To answer the question "why don't you use your LBS?", the answer is, the two best decent bike shops nearest to me are each 30 miles away, in both directions, so difficult to justify going there for a couple of tubes and a chain. The ones in my town are mostly either shite and still open or shite and have closed. The remaining one that isn't shite is 90% servicing/advice, the remainder accessories. I do use that in the spirit of "use it or lose it" for work that I either can't or don't want to do, or needs a tool that it's not worth me buying. An example being my winter bike brakes needed bleeding, I could have bought the kit, watched a few videos, and had a go. However for the sake of an hour out and £25, I got the LBS to do it. For more routine servicing & fettling, I got fed up with waiting a week or more to be booked in (with the previously mentioned now closed places), so I made a workshop in my garage, did a Cytech course, and now mostly do it myself. 

Tredz might not be Mike Ashley, but it is Halfords owned. 

And don't forget how they exploit regional tax differences to undercut local retailers.