Securing Your Precious Two Wheels

Your bike is precious to you. Just like jewels and diamonds, maybe, but whatever investment you made when you bought it, you and your bike surely have an emotional connection. Your bike has got you to here, there, and everywhere, it's got you up the steepest hill and along the longest valley, you’ve been to work on it, you've done the pub run on it, and some of you have even been joined by the family on their own precious bikes, on their own special journeys.

So it's quite important that you don't let some nasty creep steal away those memories.

Bike locked with cable and D lock

Now we're not going to say that by implementing the advice that follows your bike will never get stolen, but if you do take our advice, and make stealing your bike as difficult as possible, then you can at least take comfort that if it does get stolen that nasty creep must have really wanted it.

Of course the first thing you can do to protect your bike is not take it outside at all. But it’s not much fun just looking at it hanging on the wall or stood on the TV stand in the living room.

So do take it out for a ride, but get yourself a ‘Sold Secure’ Gold rated lock to put off the opportunist and slow down the professionals. They are generally considered the most difficult to break. Maybe add a chain or decent cable lock too, so any thief has to use more than one set of tools to get their job done.

Now you've got your locks, but what about all the unlocked bits on your bike? A good quality cable through the wheels can help stop them being stolen, or you can get locking skewers for Quick Release wheels that need a tool to release them (of course you'll need to carry the tool with you in case you get a puncture.) It's the same for the seatpost too, or swap a Quick Release seat clamp for a bolted one. 

Always lock your bike to something immovable, like a decent bike stand. A thief in a van is entirely happy to pick up a bike just locked to itself, throw it in the van and get rid of the locks back home later. And locking it down a dark alley, or round a quiet corner of the office or supermarket will also give a thief time to chop off the locks undisturbed - lock it in public view instead.

And if it’s an e-bike, remove the battery if you’re away for some time, and the control panel if you can, and if it’s a heavy cargo bike, maybe even think about quick release pedals to thwart a quick getaway.

Finally, if you’re bike commuting, or bike retailing, or bike recreating, ask your employer, supermarket or leisure centre to think about how many more people will get there by bike if they spend a few quid on secure parking. And then think about what they could do with the land where those car parking spaces used to be that they don’t need any more…

 We stock a range of locks, and we’re full of good ideas. Come and see us or give us a call if you’d like a chat about keeping your precious bike safe and sound.

Is Time On Your Side?

How would you feel about a calm Christmas and a peaceful New Year?

Here at Russell’s Bicycle Shed, we’ve been thinking a lot about how time, hassle, and stress are related over the last year. We’ve been working flat out to keep the city moving through the twists and turns of the Pandemic, and we know thousands of other key workers have too. (And hats off to them all).

Woman fixing a bike

If you work for a living, you can calculate how much your time fixing up your commuter bike is worth. And how much time you save for your employer by riding in to work rather than waiting in a queue for half your commute. And evidence shows that cycle commuters are more alert and ready to get started once they arrive, unlike stressed out rush hour drivers. That’s more productive time for your employer, in addition to the fewer days off sick you take because you ride a bike.

We’d like to spend more of our time talking to friends and customers about how the city can come out of all this as a better place for cyclists, with better active travel routes like Grey to Green, and more enlightened employers providing secure parking and other essentials for the commuters who save them time and money by riding to work.

But we’re often too busy replacing hundreds of rusted chains and worn out wheelsets.

We want to keep the city (and you) moving, and we’ve seen how much stress is involved when you decide to ride to work one Spring day only to discover the bike you last used in October has seized up. Or how it feels to miss an important meeting one morning because a wheel rim or a tyre fails halfway there.

So, there’s the setup, here’s the sell: if you and your family cyclists love playing with oil, grease and spanners, read no more.

But if you’d rather spend your time watching a film with your partner of an evening, or meeting your mates at the weekend instead of spending the afternoon trying to make your gears work, ask yourself, how much is that time worth? More than £11 a month?

That’s how much it costs to join our Club, with the two annual services, emergency fixes and free loan bike required to keep you moving, without hassle or stress.

And when everyone is saying ‘buy less stuff to help the climate’, and ‘spend more time on yourself and your loved ones’, maybe spending some festive funds to have a peaceful, hassle and grease free New Year is worth thinking about. Yes? Join the Club.

The Cost of Commuting Part 2

What is the actual cost of driving into town, or making a diesel delivery within the new Clean Air Zone? And how does that compare to making the same trip, or the same delivery, by bike?

One of our cargo bike s heading to Sheffield Station

Motoring organisations often quote about 40p / mile as the actual cost of driving, when insurance, depreciation, repairs etc. are considered, whereas most drivers tend to just consider their direct costs, mainly petrol and parking, which might be 14p/ mile for petrol plus a few quid for parking. Even with electric vehicles those fixed costs don't disappear.

But nearly every driver ignores two very important costs: Time and Trouble. Navigating city centre roads, then finding somewhere to park, then thinking about how far you have to travel to your destination if you’re making a delivery are very real costs in Time (and stress). And Time for an employee costs quite a bit.

It’s tempting to park your van or car near where you’re going, and risk the Trouble of a fine, and maybe even put other people in Trouble (and danger) by parking inconsiderately. And when the CAZ arrives, navigating the fees, and routes, will probably be quite a bit of Trouble for someone in your organisation too.

It takes us about 12 minutes each way to ride (and park) our e-cargo bike from our delivery base at Neepsend to our shop at Sheffield Station, ​about the same time it takes to drive - if you make the journey at 4am on a Tuesday morning, say. And it’s no trouble, because we have no traffic jams to contend with, and no one way systems, on our commute route along the developing traffic free city centre active travel networks. And no parking fees, or potential fines. And no stress.

So, commuting or making a delivery by car or van to the city centre costs at least 40p / mile plus quite a bit of stress and quite a lot of time. Cycling, or e-cycling, as mentioned in an earlier blog, is a few pence a ride, or around £1 a day if you regularly make a return trip to town.

​If your business needs items delivering, we can be very competitive on price. A typical single drop into the City Centre may cost £5, multiple drops could be as low as £1.50. When you compare that just to the cost in time for your driver you are saving money. Why not make better use of your vans and drivers on longer distance deliveries instead of wasting their time sat in inner city congestion?

So don’t forget, while cycling into town is a fraction of the cost of driving there, just as importantly it takes almost no time, and if you’re lucky enough to have routes like we have from Neepsend, it’s no trouble at all, thankyou.

​Contact us to find out more, or visit our Neepsend shop.

A bike ride to the Flower Market

In partnership with Pollen Market we've put together a short self-guided cycle ride around some of the green spaces that encircle our city centre.

Pollen Market will be a monthly event based along Castlegate and will bring together some of Sheffield’s finest florists and plants men and women. It’s an opportunity to support local and small businesses while filling your home with colour and life. We all need to be cheered up right now and what does it better than a sunflower or posy of daisy’s.

Sheffield being one of the greenest cities in Europe means it has a lot to offer and surprisingly many of these spaces are unknown by locals or have just been created. Why not take a two-wheeled tour of the city and visit some fascinating gardens, parks and green spaces.

As part of the ride we want you to take photos and upload to social media with the tags below. Show the world what Sheffield has to offer and make them envious of the great city we live in.

The link for the route is here and is available on Google Maps

#RussellsBikeRides #PedalToPollen #TheOutdoorCity #DiscoverYourCity

Are you a Sinner or a Saint when it come to keeping your bike maintained?

Riding a bicycle is just like using any other machine, the more you use it, the worse the conditions you use it in the more maintenance it will need. It's a simple fact of life that machines don't last for ever.

The average sort of rider, someone who uses their bike 3-4 times a week for up to 10 miles a journey in any weather should expect to need 2 services a year to keep their bike in tip top condition, from brake pads wearing out to the grease in your wheel hubs getting washed out by the rain all these little bits contribute to the wear and tear on your bike and if not kept on top of will result in new expensive parts being fitted every year or worse a catastrophic failure resulting in some pain and a potentially unusable bike.

If you are an average rider then you need to budget on paying £1 per day on maintenance, £365 per year. this should cover a new set of tyres, two services and a multitude of other bits and bobs you'll need fitting to your bike as they wear out, from brake pads to bottom brackets they will all need replacing eventually.

Now I'm sure you've been told a million times by your local bike mechanic to keep your bike clean but if you keep on top of things like washing your bike every now and then and getting parts changed before they become a problem you can save a heck of a lot of money over the year.

Saving money and keeping you riding is what we are all about. We don't care what bike you ride, so long as it's a bicycle and you have to pedal we want you to stay riding on the road or trail or flying down a cliff (each to their own). So we created Russell's Bicycle Club.

What is this Club of ours, well quite simply its a maintenance club, you pay monthly and you get various servicing with no labour charges, just like British Gas Boiler Care, we'll service your bicycle twice a year and you'll get various other jobs done throughout the year free of labour charges like replacing brake pads or fixing a puncture or replacing your tyres. You'll obviously have to pay for the parts but the savings can soon add up.

For only £9.75 per month or £117.00 per year you get two services worth £130.00 (Saving already), we'll tell you when they are due and all you have to do is drop off your bicycle.

During the year you might need:
Tyres replacing - save £12.00
Brake pads replacing - save £8.00
Gears adjusting - save £9.00
and so forth......

.....the savings can really add up over the year. Oh and you can get your bike fixed at any of our shops.

So if you think this is a good deal why not sign up and take advantage.

Click here for more details and how to sign up or pop into one of our shops and we can get it set up for you.

Christmas Opening Times

It's Christmas of course and we all need a break to be with our families and enjoy some festive cheer so here are our opening times over the festive period.

Sheffield and Nottingham:

Friday 22nd - 7am - 1pm

Saturday 23rd - Closed

Sunday 24th - Closed

Monday 25th - Closed (Come on it’s Christmas Day)

Tuesday 26th - Closed (Attempting to cycle off the turkey and mince pies)

Wednesday 27th - Closed (Still trying to cycle off the mince pies while believing I could do the Rapha Festive 500)

Thursday 28th - Closed (There is always another mince pie, need some big hills to cycle up.)

Friday 29th - Closed (Realise that I now have to cycle 400km in two days to achieve Rapha Festive 500)

Saturday 30th - Closed (More mince pies, the extra weight, cold and snow means no Strava KOM’s for me today)

Sunday 31st - Closed (Hey it’s New Year tomorrow! Time for a glass of Champagne)

Monday 1st - Closed (Too many glasses of Champagne)

Tuesday 2nd - 7am - 7pm

Neepsend:

Friday 22nd - 8am - 1pm

Saturday 23rd - Closed

Sunday 24th - Closed

Monday 25th - Closed (Come on it’s Christmas Day)

Tuesday 26th - Closed (Attempting to cycle off the turkey and mince pies)

Wednesday 27th - Closed (Still trying to cycle off the mince pies while believing I could do the Rapha Festive 500)

Thursday 28th - Closed (There is always another mince pie, need some big hills to cycle up.)

Friday 29th - Closed (Realise that I now have to cycle 400km in two days to achieve Rapha Festive 500)

Saturday 30th - Closed (More mince pies, the extra weight, cold and snow means no Strava KOM’s for me today)

Sunday 31st - Closed (Hey it’s New Year tomorrow! Time for a glass of Champagne)

Monday 1st - Closed (Too many glasses of Champagne)

Tuesday 2nd - Closed

Wednesday 3rd - 8am - 4pm

Enjoy your Christmas Break, I’m sure we will and we’ll see you all in 2018!

One week to go.....

It'll all be over next week, the wrapping paper will be off, the turkey will be in the oven and the snow falling softly outside......Christmas is but a week away.

If you're still looking for a gift for those that cycle in your life or you want to drop some hints here are our top picks:

• Why not sign up for our Club, at only £9.25 per month or £111.00 annually you can keep your bicycle serviced and maintained all year round without paying for labour, no matter how many times you use it. More useful than a magazine subscription and it's the gift that just keeps giving.
• If you're looking for stocking fillers how about a smart bicycle pump with wooden handle, stylish and useful (£17.00). We've also got big ding-dong bells for those that love to ring out while they ride (£10.00). For the hands-on practical cyclist we also have a handy pocket guide to bicycle maintenance (£9.99)
• If you really want to splash out then why not take a look at our bicycles, we are currently selling off our hire bike fleet for only £300.00 each, a capable, fast and comfortable commuting bike with mudguards and lock.

There's lots more to see in our shops so why not visit Sheffield, Nottingham or Neepsend before the festivities really begin.