Ralphies

Down in Taunton with a part-built race bike after the big weigh in and service, I needed a few bits to finish things off. I’d given up building it on Wednesday night when I coudn’t feel my fingers any more in the garage.

For my bits I went to Ralph Colman cycles, one of those institutions that seems to have been around for ever. I even bought my first mountain bike from there in 1991, a Kona Fire Mountain, and my Mum is sure her first bike came from there, too.

I came out after a friendly chat with an XTR gear cable inner (teflon coated so good for slick changes), a couple of bar end plugs and some lube. Unfortunately they didn’t have the special Shimnano bottom- bracket preload-doofer tool I needed, but the staff said to call in with the bike and they would do it quickly to help out.

My new shiny handlebar has very thin walls,too, so the new plugs didn’t fit. Needing a shakedown ride I pedalled back into Taunton to exchange them for some bigger ones. On the way in I finally gave in to the need for a new middle chain ring, and decided to get one at the shop.

Ralph Colmans has really good service stock levels and it was a treat to be able to grab a Middleburn chainring straight off the shelf, a refreshing change from the normal ‘we can get you one for Monday’, and he double-checked it was the right one. He was still worried about my bottom bracket and offered that he was in at 7am the next morning if I needed any help!

Ralphies will always be ‘the’ bike shop in Taunton with helpful staff and great levels of stock – http://www.bike-uk.co.uk/ralphies.php. It would be great to find out just how long the shop has been there!

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