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!

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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

Ladies and gentlemen, the Guvnor Owners’ Club is launched.

At long last. A members’ club for owners and riders of the Pashley Guvnor.

An inspirational bicycle. A members’ club to match.

You may note we head out with some finishing work to be done. But the frame is sound, the brakes checked and the tyres all set. We have food and drink, and engineers to help finish the job while we’re on the road.

Our motto:

Verve, Dignity, Curiosity

Let’s ride together!

James Davis
Founder
Guvnor Owners’ Club

An exclusive glimpse at a fashion shoot from Esquire’s US edition. This shot, by Barnaby Roper, features in the magazine’s forthcoming Big Black Book, Spring 2010. And it continues the trend of the Pashley Guvnor as the prop of choice in fashion photography.

Many thanks to Nick Sullivan of Esquire.

It should be standard issue now, but early adopters and international importers may have missed out. For the record, here is the Pashley Guvnor Maintenance Kit.

It comprises:

1 x 6mm Allen key

1 x 13/15mm spanner

25g of Brooks Saddle Proofide

100ml of 3-in-1 oil

1 x spare inner tube

125g Guvnor blend tea

Owners and riders, gadabouts and buyers, we now have a Guvnor Owners’ Club forum.

It is open to all for discussion on topics of interest to Pashley Guvnor owners.

• Consider your postings there to be public
• Please be polite and courteous

Welcome to the Guvnor Owners’ Club forum. Let us aspire to discussion both fervent and fascinating!

Another super customisation, this time for the 3-speed. And from the first verified Pashley Guvnor in the tropics no less…in Darwin.
Ian Martin’s work centres around the inspired installation of a vintage Campagnolo friction shifter on the down tube. To further free up the bars, the bell is popped on the stem. Swap the brown B-17 saddle for a Brooks Team Professional in honey, add a kickstand and a natty light…all set for a sunset ride around a tropical harbour.

The shifter is the highlight here: most elegant. Personally I think the lights are a little too 1950s, but then it’s taken me 18 months to fail to find lights I personally like. So perhaps ignore me!

Many thanks Ian for sending these in, how about some snaps in exotic surroundings?

Images copyright Ian Martin

The Guvnor owner wants a perfect bicycle, and Pashley have come pretty close. But the desire to tweak and tinker remains. Here, what shall be known as the “Fairhurst Cotswold Speed Conversion”, takes starting inspiration from the handlebars on the Plus Four, whereby a single speed Guvnor takes on some very special attributes:

Click images to enlarge

The owner Mark Fairhurst describes it thus:

A. Brooks leather bar tape…made in China…
B. Brooks B-17 Aged saddle with leather laces.
C. Reverse brake levers from the “bargain bucket” from White’s of Malmesbury.
D. SPD peddles…with the hills around here in the Cotswolds and single speed one needs all the help one can muster!
E. Metal valve caps: lightly grease before fitting as corrosion makes them impossible to remove!
F. “Ding, Dong!” The only type of bell one should fit.
G. Fore and aft bags were a pair of old camera pouches I have had lying around for years. The Guvnor was crying out for something like this!

All work was done in around an hour with not a drop of blood spilt! The levers required a little drilling and fettling. Braking has been improved as has speed. One can adopt a more stealthy position now the old levers have been replaced.

What more to add? A customisation truly in the spirit of the machine. Thank you Mark!

Images copyright Mark Fairhurst 2010

The Guvnor is becoming the prop of choice for art directors and fashion photographers. This exuberant image of model Arlenis Sosa, from a shoot by Alexi Lubomirski in Harper’s Bazaar, offers a vivacious twist on the usual men in tweed.

Thanks to Riding Pretty and Design Scene.

Some may have missed the new service offered by Velorution: the fitting of Sögreni mudguards to the Guvnor (a complex but worthwhile undertaking).

Sögreni build great bikes and accessories. Although contemporary in design, their mudguards are simply so minimal I can’t think of a better pairing.

I visited the workshop in Copenhagen a while back and it was pretty inspiring. Elegant and gritty craftsmanship coupled with justly renowned Danish design principles, all happening in the back of the shop.

Enter, buy something incredible that was made 6 feet away, leave deeply satisfied.

Brass, copper and alloy mudguards await, Sögreni workshop, Copenhagen

Take a peak at some extras on the Guvnor Owners’ Club flickr stream.

John Bange, Queensland, 1930

You have to love this picture, of gliding pioneer John Bange in his garden around 1930. The impossibility of the angle, the crouch of his body. The gloves, goggles and hat. Proof that tenacious belief will take you far, as it did for Mr Bange in the air as on the ground.

Writer Nick Moore has some belief too: he took his Guvnor on a time trial, in a carbon fibre world. While he may not have achieved the lean shown above, he did write a great article about it:

Blast from the Past

As we all know, the object of a time trial is be the fastest over a given distance. On that basis, last Wednesday night’s outing was an abject failure. But having set myself the altogether more imaginative goal of completing the course while having as much fun as possible, it was nothing less than a triumph.

Read on…

Clive Horton, former Head Brazer at Pashley Cycles, with the first pre-production Guvnor

Renowned photographer and proud Guvnor owner Mark Fairhurst recently got in touch. Amongst his iconic portraits of royals, luminaries and sports stars, he captured this wonderful picture of Clive Horton, displaying the first pre-production Guvnor, which now belongs to Mark.

I confess the photo left me in awe. What a man, and what a bicycle!

Thank you Clive for your work on this machine. And thank you Mark, for the kind permission to reproduce this image, and for capturing something so close to our hearts, so spectacularly well.

Mark Fairhurst Photographer

Ladies and Gentlemen, a cause most admirable: riding Guvnors from London to the Alps in memory of Heidi Beer, who lost her life to breast cancer aged just 29.

Read more at The Angel Ride site, or open your wallets directly at Just Giving. Funds raised go to the Lavender Trust, in support of young women with breast cancer.

For many Guvnor owners, inclement weather is the time to keep him tucked inside warm and dry. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But for others, it’s time to test the mettle of this fine machine. Based on today’s challenge — 12 miles through everything from 3 inch snow to razor sharp sleet — it handles brilliantly. The Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tyres must take the lion’s share of credit, snaffling powder like a thirsty wolf.

Goose meets the Guvnor

One of those mirrored shop windows that you suddenly find in a sleet blizzard

I can heartily recommend taking your Guvnor out in the snow. It remains poised and stable, and its sturdy momentum banishes crunchy lumps and tyre ruts.

Today, simply, was the best commute I’ve had in ages.

Just a lovely 3 speed

Hold on, what’s this?

Right. Miles, I’m coming to get you.

Mileometer, Guvnor and photographs courtesy of Andrew Hickey.

A most appropriate solution don’t you think? God forbid a plastic cycle computer ever be attached to those North Road handlebars…