Positive Outcomes

As many of you know it's very rare I write a short blog, some of my friends say "Glenn you don't half waffle on, we much prefer to just skip the text and move along to your photo's". Well in this case I don't have many photo's. The pics  Ern (my dad) had taken came out pants. Not really Ern's fault, it was just that the camera is a small compact, under artificial lighting, late in the afternoon so it was dark and indoors.

Really I should have got more shots when my two new friends Si from Cycle Solutions and Andy from Bike Swanky arrived. But taking pictures was the last thing on our minds as we came in doors practically as soon as Andy and Si pulled up in Bike Swanky's logo'd up van. We just had so much to talk about.

Si (Cycle Solutions),Me, Andy (Bike Swanky) and my new De Rosa Idol

 I have now known Si for a good few months. My meeting and making friends with him was by pure chance. Another of my friends Wayne had seen Si out in his car which has his business name upon it. Wayne had asked Si if he could service a pair of forks for him and then mentioned Si and Cycle Solutions to me. At the time I didn't think much of it, however a week  or so later I was having issues with my gears on my Fat Bike so got Si's number from Wayne and gave him a call. Si arranged to call over and have a look at my bike that very same night and sorted it out in no time at all and at a very reasonable rate. From then on we became firm friends as we found we shared so many interests in common.

Now Andy and I had never met before, as he lives way down South. How I came to know Andy was when I was searching for a new road bike. As many of you will know I'm not really a 'roadie', I've always been more into my mountain bikes. However with doing stuff with Arctic One and requiring a road bike to take part in triathlons and help support Arctic One in supporting me get a running limb I thought 'you know what I may as well invest in something I'm going to use'. After looking around I had my heart set on a De Rosa Idol in Blue and White. Now I couldn't find this model bike anywhere, then came across one advertised at Bike Swanky. I immediately called them and got to speak to a lovely gentleman who is the co-owner and partner of Andy named Paul. Straight away we hit it off and when I told Paul my story he was eager to help me even further and mentioned that I would be a great ambassador for Bike Swanky's sponsorship scheme. Long story short I went with Bike Swanky because they came across as being passionate, genuine, offered really good deals and where really, really pleasant on the phone.

Anyhoo through no fault of Paul or Andy's it was discovered that De Rosa couldn't supply an Idol in the Blue and White colour scheme. De Rosa had the bike advertised on their website, however it was a 2015 colour and just not available. As time had almost come for my triathlon this left me in a right pickle and without a bike. this is where Paul and Andy stepped in and sent me up a Black and White demo De Rosa Idol and this allowed me to get in some valuable road time, get a good bike fit with one of their fitters Craig at Performance Sports Consultants Ltd in Harrogate and have a bit of a practice before my event.

Now I mentioned sponsorship, me being me I got a bit excited and instead of just getting sponsored on a bike, saw all this bike porn on Bike Swanky's web site. 'Mmmm I thought' and after reading a review on a 29'er shoot out in Mbr Magazine and then seeing that Bike Swanky could get the bike in I decided to buy my road bike and see if I could get sponsored on a PYGA One Ten 29'er. ' Sure' Paul said and even sent up a PYGA for me to use in a recent mountain bike magazine shoot which I'm hoping will be out in the near future.

Following various conversations with both Andy and Si, it got me thinking 'hey why don't I see if these guys can possibly network with one another'. Thinking it would be really handy to possibly drop Si and Cycle Solutions some work here in the North East, and it would be great for Bike Swanky to know they have a good qualified mechanic in the area for their bike sales up this neck of the woods. I have to say I'm very happy and quite proud that I could facilitate the coming together of these two businesses as I can see them being very good for each other.

So getting back to yesterday the purpose of Andy's visit all the way from down Surrey was to hand deliver my brand new Blue and White De Rosa Idol and also bring up my boxed PYGA One Ten 29'er which Si is going to be building up for me.

Andy and I had had some very long  telephone conversations over the weeks, we just got on so well together and well meeting him was no different. I know both Si,Paul and Andy have businesses to run, but dealing with them is very much about the personal touch and making sure things are just right so that's why I now consider them friends rather than just my mechanic or a retailer. I don't know they just go that extra mile and have been very supportive.


You will now find I will be blogging about my adventures concerning Cycle Solutions and Bike Swanky. Si will be looking after my bikes and  Bike Swanky well they are supporting me in what I love doing, getting out on my bikes.