Guvnor

We present a very special offer for GOC members, from our own Duchy Wheeler

Pashley Guvnor Wing Nuts, £10 a pair

They are Gripfast No.2, M9 threaded wing nuts, they are suitable for Sturmey Archer X-FD and X-RD hubs with 9mm thread axle ends. They have been sourced via the liquidator, who are the successors of the Gripfast brand. They are new/old stock that have been refurbished and tapped with 9mm thread, so they are the ‘real thing’, identical to those supplied through Pashley.

To order, send payment by cheque payable to: Mr G F Baker, with a note of how many pairs required with UK delivery address, to:

Duchy Wheeler
10 Williams House
Park Drive
Bodmin
Cornwall
PL31 2QJ

Once received, follow this simple fitting guide:

I encourage all members to buy a pair and to let us know how you got on in the comments below, or in the original forum discussion.

Many thanks to Duchy Wheeler!

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First and foremost, apologies for my lack of involvement in the club over the summer. Please glance at this photograph; you can tell this is a sorry tale from the off.

One sunny afternoon in early June, I was cycling home with the usual absence of despair that comes from riding the Guvnor. I’m sure you know the feeling too: heightened moments of appreciation, widened perspectives, issues solved. Yet upon a sturdy climb the handlebar set loose a little. A first, and only a minor inconvenience for sure? I was three minutes from a family homecoming so decided to keep calm and carry on.

Later that evening an investigation revealed the break you see above. A disaster, no doubt about it. A day or two was spent investigating online and by telephone the options available to me.

• Several high street bike shops: no stem available, try elsewhere.
• Bobbin Bicycles of Islington: we’re very sorry to hear about this and we’ll happily order a stem (they kindly did, and I foolishly told them I no longer needed it)
• Velorution of Fitzrovia: we can order a stem for you, but we strongly recommend you make a warranty claim. The handlebar stem is a dangerous item to break and the manufacturer ought to know about it.

As the warranty was just a couple of weeks shy of expiring, I followed Velorution’s advice to the letter, and took the injured machine to where I bought it, Cycle Surgery of Highbury.

On the shopfloor, numerous mechanics were rounded up for their opinion. The predominant message was thus: the claim is unlikely to be valid because there is a washer missing from the stem. It was made pretty clear that I would be better off simply ordering and paying for a new stem.

I strongly disagreed. It was at this moment I began to identify a hitherto unrecognised maxim of bicycle sales, doubtless unwritten but integrated into retail prioritisation:

A sale is about maximising profit, so a warranty claim is about minimising loss.

More on this later. I pressed the staff to process the claim despite the difference between their professional opinion and my amateur one, and left the shop, Guvnor-less but still optimistic, on Sunday June 13th.

What day do I write this? Ah, Monday August 9th. Where did July go? Oh, it came and went. Today I rode the Guvnor to work for the first time since then. What happened inbetween?

Weeks 1–2

Why am I even having to describe the timetable of a warranty claim in fortnightly intervals?! Anyway, a couple of follow up calls to Cycle Surgery per week, but no sign of progress. “waiting for Pashley to pick the bike up” was bandied about around week 2.

Weeks 3–4

“Haven’t heard from them as yet” was the unhelpful response from the shop. “Can you chase them up?” “To be honest it always takes ages, I wouldn’t expect the bike back for a while yet.” So I contacted Pashley myself by phone, essentially “You need to speak to the shop”. Hmmm. By this point the shop was not returning my calls as the ‘warranty guy’ was conveniently missing or on lunch or on holiday (clearly a busy and highly-skilled man).

Weeks 5–6

Hang on a minute, it takes 6 weeks to get a brand new Pashley Guvnor built and shipped to most of Europe. Why on earth is it taking this long for a single part to be replaced? Pashley again, this time in email. An apology, an explanation of a staff member unexpected time off, and a promise of an expedited order. Hope at last. Calls to the shop every other day, almost never returned, still no sign of the part.

No, I think you mean 8 weeks

Weeks 7–8

Endless calls unreturned, yet eventually I hit the jackpot of someone who knew what they are talking about on the very day they had something to talk about. The part has come in and will be fixed immediately, they’ll let me know. Next morning I call (have you noticed who is doing all the calling and emailing here?) to arrange pickup. Oh, a new problem, the old stem is seized. Okay, how long do you think it takes a professional bike shop to free a seizedhandlebar stem from a 2 year old bike? An afternoon, maybe a day of soaking? Think again.

7 days later (after more unreturned calls) I finally get the message that the part is replaced and the bike is ready. I pick it up the following day, 7 weeks and 6 days since I dropped it off for a minor repair.

Most of the summer lost, never to be ridden. Countless frustrating calls, repeatedly unreturned. A strong sense that the only reason it got fixed in as little as 8 weeks is because I spent the entire time reminding both Pashley and Cycle Surgery that I was a customer in need of some service.

Lessons learned.

• When a customer makes a warranty claim they are already at a low point on any satisfaction chart. You can choose to either let them down (much) further, or convert them back into a satisfied customer with some good service and attention to detail. Neither happened here.
• When service has got so obviously bad it is universally agreed by all parties, one party needs to stand up and take responsibility, whether or not they think they are fully responsible. The party that does this reveals their understanding of good service and will convert the most dissatisfied customer.
• After sales support is where a short term small gain can be turned into long term larger gain. Or it is where a desire only for short term gain can be revealed.
• It’s too late now for me to be a Cycle Surgery customer again, in any capacity. I am rather stuck being a Pashley customer, but this has thankfully been more positive over the last 2 years.

Finally, the bottom of the receipt above contains the following warning: “If repair is not collected within 1 day of agreed collection date a storage charge of GBP 10.00 per day will be levied”

I think it’s time customers began issuing similar warnings to shops.

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Kindly GOC member Adam sends us this from his intercontinental excursions:

Spotted in Bicycle Habitat, New York, this Guv’nor watching over Lafayette Street in SoHo.

The shop itself was a pleasure to go in with racks of goodies to peruse and the de-rigueur New York Fixie. Established in 1977 when SoHo was a run down area of Manhattan (a few buildings down was a Methadone clinic) an independent store run by true enthusiasts, the real plus was the desire to stock less mainstream bikes like Mercian and of course in pride of place a Pashley Guv’nor.

Thank you sir. It is the mark of a well-travelled gentleman to have both the roving eye and the ready equipment to capture species in the wild…a doff of the cap to you!

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The chaps are off on Saturday, leaving Islington Green in London at 09.30

Do pop by their sponsorship page

The Angel Ride

Original post

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Competing objects

A Bentley foregrounds Farlows of Pall Mall, the great country department store. But which gets the attention of passers-by? Neither of course: there happens to be a Guvnor chained to a post between the two.

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With British Spring on momentary refusal, these timely photos from a fashion show in Santa Barbara might warm the cockles, or tickle them at least. Once again we see the Guvnor take centre stage in the world of cycle chic fashion. While I’m not sure the outfits would pass muster in London Fields — or anywhere near The Row — in Santa Barbara they make a whole lot of sense…

Thanks for the heads up to Loring of British Bicycle, the US distributor and retailer for Pashley. Photos reproduced by very kind permission of Jeff Clark. Guvnor and Princess supplied by Cranky’s Bikes. See more events in Santa Barbara’s CycleMAYnia programme, including their Tweed Ride on Saturday 16th May.

Photos copyright Jeff Clark

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Fabled and invisible to date, the Pashley Guvnor accessories hinted at since 2008 have yet to see the light of day.

However, movement is afoot. In 2009 Pashley Cycles engaged the creative services of MA Product Design students at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, specifically to design new accessories for the Guvnor.

Participants were given one of six accessory types to work on: water bottles, reflectors, tool kits, mudguards, bells and pumps.

Glimpse a fraction of the results here…

Flask by Alexia Delas

Bell by Anais Groisy

Toolkit by Fabien Rolland

Front mudguard by Xunbo Tang. Click to enlarge

Rear mudguard by Xunbo Tang. Click to enlarge

The exhibition as presented to Pashley Director Adrian Williams and team

Some ideas that may end up in development…

It seems not only are Pashley getting serious (at last) about Guvnor accessories, but these could be exactly the kind of products that emerge. What’s more, a graduate of the MA Product Design 08–09 course now works as a designer at Pashley. It all falls into place…

For more snippets and other fine projects follow the inspirational MAPD course director Graham Powell on twitter.

Oh, I nearly forgot, one of the prerequisites for course entry seems to be a moustache!

Well, how about that…Happy Easter!

Outdoor photography by Chris Webb

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