Kick Ass Local Bike Shop
When you visit Sideways Cycles for the first time, you start in a state of puzzlement. It’s on a quiet residential street for starters. Then you have to walk through a car spares shop, past the windscreen wipers and Autoglym polish in order to get into the bike shop. Once there, though, your puzzlement soon changes to happiness as you start to take in the many splendid corners of this tiny shop. It might not have much space, but the space it has is full of quality gear. Where else do you have a local kid coming in for a BMX tube, standing next to a happy customer picking up a custom Borealis carbon fat bike? Tim and his wife Judith have been running the shop forever and they have a fiercely loyal following of customers who travel a long way to make the pilgrimage to Sideways. Tim was an early single speed adopter and has probably the only complete set of Outcast magazines, sat in a trophy cabinet next to awards from magazines, trophies from races and titanium freewheels. Look deeper and you’ll find Maverick service parts, Independent Fabrication frames and some of Tim’s legendary wheels—usually built with a cup of tea while watching TV in the evenings. –Chipps Chippendale
Check out www.sidewayscycles.co.uk