35 Main Road, Hout Bay
The road outside the door
A bike shop and workshop in the old post office, at the point where three of the best climbs in the country start.
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Suikerbossie
1.9 km at 6.7%
The last climb of the Cape Town Cycle Tour, and the one people talk about afterwards. It leaves town on Victoria Road and gains 126 metres before it lets you go.
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Chapman's Peak
9 km, 114 curves
Starts at the harbour and hangs off the cliff the whole way to Noordhoek. Most people ride it slowly, and not because of the gradient.
Why a bike shop here
There are three ways out of Hout Bay and every one of them goes up. Suikerbossie to the north, Chapman's Peak to the south, Constantia Nek at the back. You don't get to leave this town flat.
That is a good problem for a bike shop to live next to. It means the bikes that come through the door have been worked — brake pads that have been down Chapman's more times than anyone counted, chains that have been rained on all winter, tyres cut open on the mountain.
So we stocked for the riding that actually happens here rather than for a catalogue. Tyres, tubes, chains, brake pads and pedals in real depth, because those are the things that end a ride. Bikes on the floor you can sit on. And a workshop that does the work in this building instead of sending it into town.
The room
It's a shop you can walk around. Bikes are up on the wall and along the plinth at eye level rather than jammed bar-to-bar in a rank, so you can actually look at one before you ask about it.
There's a map of the peninsula painted down the far wall, a mountain painted behind the bikes, and usually something cold in the cooler. Nobody will follow you around the floor.
Who you'll find behind the counter
It's a small shop, so you'll get the same faces every time you come in. That's the point of it. The person who sold you the bike is the person who asks how it's going.
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Bryan Nicholson
Owner
Extensive cycling experience. If you email the shop, it lands with him — bryan@houtbaycycleco.co.za.
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John Van Wyk
Mechanic
Runs the workshop. Every bike booked in for a service goes across his bench.
The workshop is the point
Bikes are serviced here, in this building, not boxed up and sent to somebody else in town. Booking runs through Bikebook — pick a slot online and drop the bike off.
If you can't get it here, collection and delivery runs from R150 between Hout Bay and Fish Hoek, and dropping it off yourself is free.
Come and see us
35 Main Road, Scott Estate — the black building with the shop name painted across the roof. Open seven days: 07:30 to 17:30 on weekdays, 08:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, 08:00 to 12:00 on Sunday.