Cheeky Monkey Multisport in Sydney

[triode12]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience (good or bad) with the Cheeky Monkey Bike shop in Randwick, Sydney.

I'm thinking of buying a Cervelo. Are they a good place to buy from?

[sogood]

Cervelo prices varies very little if anything across the globe. I am aware of one who bought there and is happy with them.

[triode12]

Thanks sogood,

I'm more interested in the quality of service, especially their fitting service. I want to make sure that I get the right size.

[sogood]

I'm more interested in the quality of service, especially their fitting service. I want to make sure that I get the right size.

Not that familiar with their Randwick store but their Newtown commuter store is well spoken of.

[cludence]

I have not been to their Newtown store but know many people who have and every single one speaks highly of them.


Karen.

[daacha]

I used the store at central before they moved to Newtown and always found the staff to be very helpful.

[gururug]

Different sales people will also determine your level of service. Find the resident roadie expert try to do most of your dealing with them.

[531db]

My understanding (subject to correction by those who know better) of the Cheeky Monkey Cycles situation is the the original partners from the Central Station store amicably went there own ways with separate businesses both using the Cheeky Monkey name, with Cheeky Monkey Transport at Newtown being the commuter/messenger/fixie/retro store and Cheeky Monkey Multisport at Randwick being the tri geek establishment. Have used and recommend CMT at Newtown for stock and service, have'nt tried CMM at Randwick at this stage though.

[bikeboy]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience (good or bad) with the Cheeky Monkey Bike shop in Randwick, Sydney.

I'm thinking of buying a Cervelo. Are they a good place to buy from?

I went in there on Sat and was really impressed with what they had to offer. The sales guy was really really helpful. I told him my circumstances and budget and he took me through pretty much every bike they had in there, telling me the pro's and cons of each. It was really helpfull cosidering Im quite new to the sport. They dont have a huge range in there but as they guy said once they take your messurements and fit you out properly if they dont have your frame size it will only take 4-5 days to get the bike in.

He has pretty much sold me on the Pinarello Galileo, I was torn between a Cervelo though, very nice bikes.

Good luck.

[geoffs]

Just have to chime in on this one.
A couple of women I know, took their bikes into bikes into CM to get them serviced just before the Big NSW bike ride. They are not mechanically minded at all and were relying on CM to do the right thing.
Cost was $180 per bike which included replacing all the cables which they were told were worn out. (both bikes have done under 2,000km's)
So today I have readjusted the brakes - pads out of alignment, readjusted the cables as they were at the limits of adjustment and oiled the cables which were bone dry.
One of the bikes which is a Trek 520 was fitted with Avid V-brakes and Tiagra STI levers when bought from Clarence St. Not a good combination as V-brakes need more travel than STI levers have. The easy fix is to install Travel-agents which increase the amount of cable pulled. I installed these on the bike as I had a couple of spares. The reaction was "Wow this is so much better, knew there was something wrong before". Like I said, mechanically challenged.
However when you are paying a professional bike mechanic $180 for a complete service per bike, I would have thought that properly functioning brakes would have been high on the list of things to get right. Instead of replacing as new cables and doing a poor job of it.
I was very unimpressed by the over servicing and poor workmanship. Did this happen just because they are women and couldn't tell that they had been fleeced?
To cap it off, they were also sold a couple of 18/23c tubes for their 28c tyres "because we don't have that size at the moment and these will be ok". Like stink! A group of us went on a ride this morning and she had a flat tyre this morning which I showed her how to change (so that's how you do it!) and we tried installing the wrong size tube. It took me a while to install the tube as it's small size kept lifting the tyre bead out of the rim. As we were less than a km from my house we went there for a cuppa and I installed a 28c tube from my pile of parts.
So although I've heard lots of good things to about CM it seems their servicing is somewhat lacking.

Cheers

Geoff

[mikesbytes]

Just confirming Geoff,

They were charged $180 to replace the cables and adjust the brakes.

[geoffs]

Just confirming Geoff,

They were charges $180 to replace the cables and adjust the brakes.

Not just changing the cables. It was for a full service which I think would have included oiling the chain, checking the crank and headset bearings for play, checking the wheels for true, checking the gears etc.
$180 for a FULL service is most probably a reasonable price if everthing on a bike is checked and adjusted.
I've never had a full service done by a bike shop since the time when I snapped my chain the next day after the service! Ouch!
A skilled mechanic should be entitled to charge a reasonable amount for their skill.
I can only judge from what I have seen and that was that the service was not what I would expect from a professional mechanic.

Cheers

Geoff

[sogood]

Starting to sound like car service. They'll have a full on list of items and charge an arm and a leg for it. But in fact, they only touch less than 1/4 of the items listed.