London store moving

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After 40 years of operating from 25 Tanners Hill we have found that recent demand for our bicycles has forced us to expand and move to a new purpose built factory.

Our new facility will be based in Wales and will enable us create more modern fiber based bicycle frames together with our handbuilt steel bicycle frames which we have made for over 60 years.

If you have a bicycle with us for restoration or you have ordered a new build don?t worry, we will be contacting you as soon as it is ready and will arrange collection from this store.

Our plans will bring to the UK the most advanced bicycle workshop in Europe which will be grounded in our handmade and traditional craftsmanship.

We last had a factory in th 1970s also based in Wales when WITCOMB was at the height of it?s fame, so we hope this change will be equally prosperous.

We?d like to thank all our shop customers for the last 30 years. It is with great sadness we make this move.

Want to work with us?

We currently have a few positions within the company on offer at various locations in the UK and one position in the USA.

For more details look at our HR page by clicking here.

Snow!

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow in London. The office will be closed during the current snow showers as we are not sure all members of staff can get into work. Back to normal on Wednesday we hope.

2009: focusing on frames

From the re-opening on the 10th January 2009, we will be making changes to how we work at Witcomb Cycles. Over the last two years we have seen a vast turnaround in our business, at present we have more new frame orders than we have had during the last decade combined.

Keeping our focus on quality and handcrafting we will be focusing on making our bicycle frames and other Witcomb products by reducing some of our other services. We will now only be offering servicing and repairs to Witcomb bicycles or those restored by us. We will still offer our frame and bicycle renovation and restoration services to any brand.

The most dramatic of these is a change in our opening hours. Our workshop will be open, Monday to Friday every week, but only open to the public on Saturdays. We will also be open on Sundays during the summer months.

During the week we will be open for new frame appointments only. At weekends we will be open to customers for sale of Witcomb products and for same day servicing and repairs to any brand of bicycle.

We now have approval to proceed with our heritage center and gallery space, this will be located on the first floor of the building, the 2nd floor will be restored during 2010 to 2011 as part of our ongoing restoration of the 361 year old building.

2009 will also see some exciting new products, some of these include a new range of frames which will be made here in deptford as "off the peg" frames, retailing at £750 and for a frame & fork set. More information about these will be released in the spring, these will be offered alongside our custom frames.

The Limited edition London Cycling Campaign bicycle is also still available for the 2008-2009 period, at only £1500 for an off the peg frame or £1900 for a bespoke bicycle. We will also be adding a second limited edition to this, a thoroughbred velodrome bicycle, which again is in collaboration with a charity, and limited to only 50 bicycles.

Our clothing and accessories will be extended with new cycling products throughout 2009, and we'll also be introducing our own brand range of energy drinks based on collaboration with infinite nutrition's laboratory.

Barry is going to be continuing to train up Terry, our new framebuilder some of you may have met, together with other young framebuilders who will be joining us throughout the year.

Christmas and New Year opening

Our opening hours for the festive period

We close on 20 December 2008 at 5pm

and the workshop will re-open on the 10 January 2009

We would like to wish all our customers a very Merry Christmas, and best wishes for the New year!

VAT reduction!

As we're sure you know, in the 1st December 2008, VAT will be reduced temporarily to 15%.

We're eager to pass this saving on to our customers, so all sales an orders after the 1st December 2008 will be at the new VAT rate.

We will not be updating our price lists, as VAT is stated on these, so you may need to call into to confirm current pricing with the VAT reductions.

We hope this helps our customers through the current economic turbulence and look forward to welcoming you at our workshop.

cappa-mocha-latte-witcomb-chino

Just a note to say we've had our coffee machine fixed!

We always get people who just come to "be" at Witcomb cycles, look at our photographs, stroke our frames, chat about "the good ole days of cycling" and of course get into heated debates over tubulars or clinchers. So when we started the refurbishment last January, we added the sofas. This was good.

The sentiments of many of our visitors were summed up by one customer: "This is not a bike shop. It's a cycling happening".

In February we added the coffee machine. This was better. After two months it broke. This was not good.

But now it is all working again and cappa-mocha-latte-witcomb-chinos are available again for anyone who wants to "be" at Witcomb Cycles for some good chats about bicycles.

(PS. Tubulars are more fun. Tony.)

We've all got headaches, but we don't mind.

On Monday work started on re-building the street outside of our collection of old buildings in Tanners Hill, new paving, trees and better accessibility and drainage will be the result of around 6 week of work undertook by Lewisham Council.

The site was designed by Shirley Broughton, who has spent many hours looking at the plans and discussing her ideas with all the residents and business of Tanners Hill. All of the shops are open as normal during the works, and if you need any help accessing or getting to our workshop or any of our neighbouring businesses the workmen are very friendly and will go out of their way to help you through the roadworks.

We are all looking forward to seeing the final result and welcoming you to the new look Tanners Hill this Christmas.

Keeping prices simple

As the website has been updated, we've also had another look at our price list. There are so many options when choosing a bespoke frame, we've tried to make our price lists simpler to use.

We've also changed our prices for the first time in five years (except, we added VAT to everything during 2007/08 for re-registering for VAT).

Thankfully, this time it is better news. We can now offer all our frames with a Witcomb Lilac colour finish included in the cost of a new frame. Our enameling costs have also come down further on new frame orders. We've achieved this by welcoming new suppliers to supplement our in-house enameling. All our enameling work is still carried out in the UK, and to our own strict standards on quality control and finish, with an even faster service.

You can view our new pricelist for custom built frames on our downloads page at:
www.witcombcycles.co.uk/downloads

Or ask in our workshop for more details.

New opening times

As from Tuesday the 14 October 2008, our opening hours are changing.

Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 6pm

Saturday, 9.30am to 5pm

Closed Sundays and Mondays.

We've made a slight alteration to our opening time, this allows more of our customers to visit the workshop after their work hours. -A much requested change.

We will continue to be closed on Mondays and Sundays.

Changes are coming!

In August we not only launch a new look website but we'll also be showing you a whole new range of Witcomb components, clothing and accessories.

Watch this space!

Christmas and New Year closing

Over the festive period, the workshop will be closed from
4pm Saturday 22nd December 2007
until
10am Tuesday 8th January 2008
We will still be available via email for sales, trade and general enquiries. We would like to thank our customers over the last year and look forward to welcoming you to our workshop in 2008!

Everyone at Witcomb Cycles would like to wish you a very happy festive season and a prosperous new year.

Come and Collect your Bicycle

We are getting ready to implement exciting plans to renovate our shop and workshop in Deptford. In addition to providing a more welcoming show-room area, new office space, this will also increase our workshop space, allowing for an extension of team of frame-builders. In the long term, we are planning a Witcomb Cycling Heritage Centre hopefully ready for the 2012 Olympics.

Those of you who have visited us at the shop will know that it is currently housing many bicycles never collected after being left by costumers for repairs. We need to clear the space to carry on the renovation work.

If you think that you may have left your bicycle with us over two months ago, we would be very grateful if you could call in to the workshop to collect it. If a bicycle remains uncollected by 10 October, it will be disposed of by clearance sale and online auction.

Our workshop is open to the public on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday between 10am and 5pm. Please bring either your receipt or the exact details of your bicycle if the repair dates back to over a year.

Earls Court Cycle Show 2007

Witcomb Cycles invite you to visit our stand at the London Cycle Show 2007. Barrie and Ernie Witcomb, together with their new colleague, designer Tony Malone, will be available to discuss our forthcoming models for 2008. Our exciting new range includes road, track and touring bikes. We also offer one-off bespoke frames and special editions.

Witcomb Cycles is the oldest company in London still producing hand-built bicycles. We welcome visitors to our workshop in Deptford, and invite you to come and see your own frame being hand-crafted.

We offer a full range of frame repairs, from small braze-ons to complete rebuilds. We work with the leading enamelers to provide a level of finish second to none.

12-14th October 2007, Stand i7.
Email us for more details

New look. New website.

We're still gearing up for the fast approaching Cycle Show 2007 at Earls Court. But we're also getting ready to launch our new website.

Some of you might have seen us out with our outstanding track-bike (built by Barry in 1982 - picture) this week-end at London Freewheel and surely are already looking forward to viewing the exciting designs from our new range at the fair.

Barrie and Ernie will be on hand to say hello at stand 17.

See you there.