Hawk Cycles Coventry, Baby/Child Seat and Servicing

Now our baby is one year old we’ve decided to take her cycling with us, and hopefully give us all a bit more fresh air and exercise. My bike has been sat in the shed since before she was born.

We looked at both cycle buggies and baby seat and decided to by a baby seat. One of the main factors was that a child seat is smaller and easier to transport, but also that our baby is more likely to enjoy the higher sitting position with a good view.

Although we looked in Halfords we wanted to go to a cycle shop that could give some proper advice. After a search on the Internet I found Hawk Cycles, who have a shop on the Fosehill Road in Coventry. We’ve actually driven past the shop many times, but hadn’t really taken much notice.

We went into the shop and asked about the baby seats. Specifically we asked whether they were reclining as that was a feature we’d seen in other stores. The sales person said that whilst they do sell reclining seats that they really didn’t offer that much compared with the additional cost. The reclining seats cost twice as much as the one that we bought. After we thought about it, we don’t actually use a reclining seat in my car and whilst my wife does have the option of reclining the baby seat in her car I don’t think it’s a feature she actually uses much. As we (at least initially) are only looking at a few leisure cycle rides we decided on the non-reclining seat. At least the sales person didn’t try and sell us up.

I’d also read on cycling web sites the recommendation of getting the bike properly serviced. In the past I’ve done most of the servicing on the bike by myself, but this time I thought that it’s not just me that’s at risk so I took the bike to Hawk Cycles for servicing as well. I originally asked about the deluxe service which cost £13 extra. After looking at my bike the sales person said that he’d be able to do everything I asked for on the standard service. I think that there we a few things he did that would normally only be included on the deluxe service (e.g. tightening the bearings on the rear wheel). The total cost included a new inner tube and still ended up a few pounds less than the deluxe service. It’s really nice, and uncommon to see someone that cares more about the customer getting what they need at the right price over their profits.

I was very happy with the service I received and will be going back to Hawk cycles for my cycling needs in the future.