Another New Brand at Cycle Heaven: 

Once again we are pleased to announce the arrival of a new brand at Cycle Heaven - the no nonsense, US brand Surly. Surly are famed as much for their uncompromising steel bikes as well as for their uncompromising attitude ("no BS" they like to proclaim). We're delighted to introduce their Long Haul Trucker into our now burgeoning range of touring bikes, with its pared down, fit-for-purpose, on-the-money spec as well as their well known Steamroller (see pic). We already have staff riding Surly - ask Ash about his single speed Karate Monkey! The best thing about Surly is that being a bit of a bikie's brand, you can get all the frames on their own.

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The Condors have Landed

Ah... the Condors have landed. We are delighted to unveil the first samples of our newest and possibly our most beautiful road bikes. If you fancy a high class road, sportif or touring bike (in any Italian made frame material) - and one that eschews the bling-bling of the big brands, then take a look at the bikes now resting in our window. Condor have been designing and making bikes for 60 years and have been ridden by many of the greats of British cycling. They have a famous road team, but their bikes have a regal, understated styling which is why they have found a suitable York home here in Cycle Heaven.

We shall shortly be taking delivery of our first framesets which are available on their own or as the basis for a complete custom build. For custom build bikes all our customers will be fitted using our new fitting jig, by our in house roadie crew. Condor build will be carried out by our senior (Cytech 3) mechanics.

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Now in Store: Chic New Bobbin Town Bikes

We're delighted to announce the arrival of a new brand at Cycle Heaven - Bobbin Bicycles. Bobbin are pioneers chic cycling - with their gorgeous and decidedly un-geeky, female friendly, lycra free store in London. Bobbin bikes are all about comfy, urbane and stylish cycling - for pleasure and practicality - something that we've never been strangers to here at Cycle Heaven. So we're pleased as punch to be be carrying their brand now that they have branched out into manufacturing. These bikes are elegant, simple and stylish in classic colours and great value. Starting at just £299.99 they offer a more affordable alternative to our classic dutch bikes. we have taken our first deliveries and and they're ready to ride!

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Gorgeous T Shirts - Now Available Online!

Our fabulous designs are now available online. What's more, you can choose from a gorgeous selection of colours and a wide variety of garments - see here. We use a very efficient  third party provider for this service and they handle all the printing and logistics. We will continue to stock locally sourced T-shirts in store which are cheaper (£14.99) and feature Cycle Heaven branding but in a more limited range of colours.

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'Radial' Innaugurates New Art Project

Radial is a stunning abstract sculpture by installation artist Susanne Davies inspired by the art of wheelbuilding. You can view it in our window throughout the month of January. It's the first piece in a series of artworks that we will be featuring as part of a joint project with Bar Lane Studios promoting local artists. It looks best at night, but don't let that deter you from visiting us in opening hours!  Susanne is used to working on a much larger scale...

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Makeover Time

November 2010. Check out our luscious new shop exterior resplendent in Sugar Bag Light and Tallow for the fascia and Dove Grey on the brickwork. We've also given our signage a lift too. We love it, local residents seem to approve. We hope you do too. The entire edifice was painted by one man - painter and decorator Graham Brown. If you like his work, we can give you his number.

Photo by Pete Byrne http://www.peterbyrne.co.uk/.

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October 2010. 
2011 bikes are now coming into stock from all of our key brands. In stock, yes - but not necessarily on our website yet, as it takes a while to write our thoughts on them and to upload hundreds of new images. But, rest assured - they are already starting to appear here. Sadly, in line with recent recession experience, there are price rises from all manufacturers. We still have plenty of 2010 stock left however, so our advice is get it while it's cheap, rather than putting things off until Spring! But to soften the blow, we have worked hard to source some more afordable bikes (Saracen hybrids and mountain bikes ) and have put togther some fantastic value packages referenced above.

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06.05.10 New Bike for York Paramedic

Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedic Sarah Gallagher receives her new bike from Piers and Andy of Cycle Heaven. We've been sponsoring York's cycle paramedics for nine years now - providing their cycles, cycle parts and servicing free of charge. We support this project because we believe that you can do anything on a bike - in this case provide the fastest paramedic emergency assistance in the city. Proof, as if it's needed, that bikes really are the fastest way around town.

This is the latest - a custom built rig based on the Genesis IO ID steel frame with rigid forks and Shimano Alfine gears.

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Bishy Road Street Party Success!

This was the place to be on the evening of Thursday 1st of July and you would have have done well to leave your car at home, for this was the occasion of Bishy Road's first ever street party. The road was closed and reclaimed for human life instead of 30mph one ton metal boxes.

The shops stayed open late, there were stalls, street performers, music, including a brass band and it seemed like the whole community turned out. It is reckoned that 2000 people packed the area of our shopping parade and people have been raving about this night to us ever since, so we intend to make this an annual event. A big thank you to all the other retailers and to the volunteers who helped make this such a special event.

Extra special thanks to Richard Lane and Randall Ghent, organisers of Towards Car Free Cities IX and all the marshalls - drawn largely from the ranks of York Friends of the Earth. What a night!

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Towards Car Free Cities comes to York

Monday 28 June to Thursday 1 July 2010
www. worldcarfree.net/conference

This summer, York will be playing host to the Towards Carfree Cities Conference IX. Never afraid to wear our colours on our chest we're proud to be one of its sponsors. We get involved in such projects because we are strongly commited as a business to promoting alternative transport -  walking, cycling and public transport. This is because the way that we choose to travel across the face of the earth has a decisive impact on the kind of urban environment we inhabit. We want to live in physically safe, attractive, socially cohesive, economically vibrant, people friendly, diverse and fundamentally liveable cities.  All of  these...

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Vote for Option Three!

25.02.10 Blossom Street Consultation

York City Council are currently consulting the public on proposals to make improvements to the nightmarish, five lane, racetrack-like Micklegate-Blossom St junction. There are currently three options being considered and you can read about them, and vote on them here:  http://www.york.gov.uk/blossomstreet. Given that options One and Two offer precious little improvement to cyclists, we are strongly urging all our customers to vote for Option Three, which in addition to reducing the number of traffic lanes, also introduces the novel concept of cycle lanes onto this street (thanks for that!).

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Beauty and the Bike

10.12.09 Last night I attended the premiere of Beauty and the Bike - a documentary that explores why teenage girls in the UK don't cycle. Based on a project oragnised by the Darlington Cycle Campaign that encourages teenage girls to cycle, it follows their experiences when they conduct an exchange visit with girls of similar age in Bremen Germany. What emerges is a indictment of the frankly pathetic state of cycle infrastructure in the UK...

Photo: Phil Dixon

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Stolen: Brompton M6LX in Purple Haze

We have had one of our tester Bromptons stolen from our shop on Thursday 15th October between 5pm and 6pm. Unfortunately for us it's pretty top of the range: M6LX, titanium, colour -purple haze, with a SON front hub dynamo, silver mudguards.

If you come across such a bike and have your suspicions please call North Yorkshire Police on 0845 6060247 or us on 01904 636578/651870.

It's sad, but we are now going to have to lock up such bikes inside the shop!

Warning: Supermarket Bikes Can Damage Your Health

As seen on TV... 
A well known supermarket recently aired a commercial, trumpeting its £70 adult bike with the front forks on backwards. It only goes to show that you get what you pay for. For those of you not technically minded, you would be strongly advised not to ride this bike - the steering will be very wobbly.

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