The bike shop that fixed half the town’s bikes for free
Spoke & Chain ran a free repair morning every month for a year. It cost them about £4,000 in parts and brought in more customers than any advert.
Tom Ridley
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6 min read
Jess Varley in the workshop behind the shop on Tanner’s Row.
When Jess Varley opened Spoke & Chain on Tanner’s Row in 2024, she had a choice: spend her marketing budget on adverts, or spend it on inner tubes. She chose the tubes.
Once a month for a year, she opened the workshop on a Saturday morning and fixed whatever anyone brought in, free. Punctures, brakes, gears, a 1970s tandem that took three hours. By the end of the year she’d done 812 repairs.
Did it pay?
‘In parts, it cost about four thousand pounds,’ she says. ‘But I’d guess two thirds of my regular customers came to a repair morning first. You can’t buy that kind of trust with a leaflet.’
The free mornings have now become a monthly bike clinic for £5, with the money going to the Riverside Primary bike club.
About the writer
Tom Ridley
Deputy editor, business
Covers the high street, the council and anyone opening, closing or moving a shop. Grew up above his parents’ newsagent on Bridge Street.
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