A well-known name in the cycle trade has just celebrated a recent move to 70 St John’s Road by winning an award at this week’s Cycling Scotland awards.
Graeme Hart and his small team received the recognition for the “contribution they have made to encouraging people in Edinburgh and beyond to adopt cycling, as well as owner Graeme Hart’s role as a campaigner for positive change”.
Graeme said: “Thank you very much indeed for this award, I’m immensely grateful and it’s lovely to get recognised. It’s great and humbling that people have noticed the work that we do getting people on bikes and talking about how we can encourage even more people on bikes in future.”
This cements what has been a busy year so far with the business moving into a retail unit on the north side of St John’s Road. The shop used to be a branch of the Bank of Scotland, and was most recently occupied by Specsavers.
The business had already moved to temporary premises in the former Woolworths across the street knowing that they would have to move out a few months, but their original shop had just become too small.
The new larger brighter premises have more room for displaying all the kinds of bikes which Graeme and his staff of four have for sale – and they also now have a “dirty area” round the back where they can wash bikes down before servicing them. Storage and workshop space is also vital to the business where Danny Stewart who is photographed here with Graeme is described as the bike magician and stunt man.
Graeme first moved into Corstorphine in 2012 believing it was the area which had most other types of retail outlets but was obviously lacking a bike shop. He felt it was almost an essential for the centre of population to have this service. And the rest is history, as they say. Now Graeme and Harts Cyclery occupy their biggest shop unit yet.
Graeme said: “With all the development that is going on it is going to be more and more necessary. Corstorphine is going to be an urban centre for more and more people.”
The business now offers a full range of all kinds of bikes from children’s bikes by Puky to racing bikes and e-bikes which is all part of a growing business, and is the longest standing dealer in Gazelle bikes.
Graeme expanded on the business’s way of operating. He said: “We know all our regular customers by name. We are a proper independent bike shop offering service, good products, and expertise. If something goes wrong our customers can always find someone to speak to for assistance.
The new shop may well allow for more staff in future so if you are a keen bike mechanic then do feel free to send your CV to Graeme.
Harts biggest seller in terms of value is of course e-bikes simply as the unit cost is higher. Graeme said: “This is an area of massive growth for the trade, but we can service these as well. There are some businesses which sell e-bikes which are not great at servicing them. We have a full service workshop and can fix anything, pretty much.”
Harts Cyclery 70 St John’s Road Corstorphine
Tel 0131 334 1441 Open every day except Sunday
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