What would the world's best bike repair service look like?

What would the world’s very best bike repair service look like?

That’s a question that’s interested me ever since the Mobile Bike Surgery grew from the germ of an idea at the start of 2025 – and it’s one I’m still thinking about every day.

While I’m not even close to perfection yet, there are some tenets which I’m already applying. Convenience is king, that much is clear from the stratospheric rise of Deliveroo, Amazon Prime and Netflix. And personal service ranks highly too – in fact, it’s the queen to convenience’s king.

Let’s take a deeper dive, and help you understand what’s going on behind the scenes when you Google ‘bike repair near me’ and (hopefully) click through to the Mobile Bike Surgery.

Convenience is king

I see around 25 customers a week, and speak to dozens more cyclists who stop for a chat while I’m fixing road bikes, hybrids, kids’ bikes and mountain bikes on driveways and pavements across west central Scotland.

They all tell me that they love their bikes (that’s a given, right?), but that they find maintenance (vital for a smooth and hassle-free ride) and repairs a total pain.

I get that – I used to, too.

That’s why the best bike repair service in the world would, 100% definitely, come to you. No more humping the family’s machines onto (or worse, into) the car. Just quick, easy access to a pro-level workshop at your front door.

The personal touch matters more than ever

Think about your worst retail experiences. Chances are they happened because the person serving you wasn’t engaged with their job – they saw you as just another face among thousands.

So the planet’s best bike repair service would fix that – you’d be listened to, treated with professionalism and courtesy. And the mechanic who worked on your bike would be the same person who explained what they’d done, what extra work might be needed and how best to look after your bike.

Hell, they’d probably be up for a chat about where you enjoy cycling in the local area, and have an encyclopaedic knowledge of road, mountain and family rides within easy reach of your house.

Yep, that’s another tick for the Mobile Bike Surgery.

Reasonable rates rock

If you were running the globe’s top bike repair service, you’d be focused on the happiness of your customers – on doing things that made people’s day.

You’d want people to come back. And they don’t come back if they don’t feel they got great value (about 20% of my customers are already, after nine months in business, ones who’ve used the Mobile Bike Surgery before).

That’s why our pricing is transparent: our website, and that of Cycle Tech UK, the trusted, UK-wide network of which the Mobile Bike Surgery is part, sets out exactly what you’ll pay for various service levels, and if you need more info, we’re there for a friendly, no-commitment chat.

Knowledge matters

I did some work for a large, national cycle retailer recently. Many of the people working on bikes there weren’t cyclists, they’d just fallen into the job and were following the training they’d been given.

In contrast, a day for the Mobile Bike Surgery is all about problem solving. I’ve been fixing bikes since I was 11, often by the side of the trail, when failing to find a solution to a breakdown means a 10-mile walk.

Rather than blindly replacing components, I work with bikes (and their riders) to find repair solutions that work for the environment, the bike’s intended use and the owner’s wallet.

There are more things the best bike repair service in the world would be doing, too. They’d be posting more on social media (I’m trying!). They’d be working to improve cycling for their customers by building relationships with decision-makers (yep, doing that, with SPT and Cycling Scotland among the organisations we’re currently talking to.

And they’d definitely be continuing to think about what very best, most trusted, professional and helpful bike repair service on any of the seven continents would look like.

All of which makes this blog a work in progress, doesn’t it?

• Got a bike that needs some love, or just want to chat cycling? Get in touch.