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TECH NEWS
Brooks open London concept store
Brooks have opened their own concept store in London, selling their complete range of saddles, bags, clothing, and other components and accessories.
The store, situated in Seven Dials, Covent Garden, is called B1866 and it began trading on Saturday. 1866, by the way, is the year in which Brooks was founded in Hockley, Birmingham by John Boultbee Brooks.
As you might expect from a brand like Brooks, B1866 is a classy, traditional-looking joint with everything very neatly displayed. Brooks themselves are referring to it as the Brooks Cathedral. The large range of leather saddles for which Brooks are best known, of course, get pride of place.
Brooks make more of their heritage by displaying photos of John Boultbee on the walls.
The shop sign is made from copper – an allusion to the copper rivets used in Brooks saddles – and it’s a theme that continues inside.
As well as the saddles, Brooks have a large range of bags, covering everything from backpacks to panniers, and it’s all on display at B1866.
B1866 is located at 36 Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LH. It is open 10am-7pm Monday to Saturday, and noon until 6pm on Sunday.
For more info on the Brooks range visit www.brooksengland.com
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 20 min ago
Thanks. I guess the question is "need". If the road is busy, it sounds like it is a desired route between places? In which case (given this an...
- mdavidford 27 min 57 sec ago
Don't know what you mean. I thought my suggestion was entirely practical.
- hawkinspeter 28 min 17 sec ago
So, it looks like she can choose a 45 minute drive or a 26 minute walk. It's almost as if the scheme is encouraging people to walk short distances...
- mdavidford 30 min 27 sec ago
...and a square of faux sheepskin for the back of your saddle.
- hawkinspeter 40 min 11 sec ago
They've got GPS tracking information, so the app can not allow the journey to be "finished" unless the bike is left in an authorised parking...
- chrisonabike 40 min 40 sec ago
An excellent idea but then - due to expensive lawyers and accountants - no doubt the richer would be found to personally not own or control a penny...
- mitsky 49 min 23 sec ago
Re: the shipping container bike lane......
- Rapha Nadal 1 hour 2 min ago
I'd buy a motorbike fo rthat kind of money!
- ktache 11 hours 55 min ago
There are people out there who will make you the belt out of your old tyre.
Add new comment
9 comments
Yeah, fair play to them. I don't quite chime with their over-egged 'artisanal hipster' thing (though to be fair that is with an eye and a half on the US market), but bottom (arf!) line is that the product is great, well-made and lasts decades. My granddad road a B17, now I do, and I expect my grandson will.
Sorry, that all went a bit Werther's Original didn't it?
Some people need to cheer up a little. Its a concept store. By definition, it is meant to show what the brand and the products are all about. Brooks quite clearly has heritage and they show it. Its a sleek and stylish shop and I for one like it.
You dont like it? Nobody forces you to visit it or buy their products!
Here's a concept. Fill the empty shop with bikes with your saddles on them so people can actually sit on them and see what they're like.
The fetishing of cycling continues.
Ah, I see things have moved on from the days when you could buy a "Brooks Professional", with those large rivets, from ads at the back of Cycling Weekly for just ten quid a pop, in the early eighties.
Mind you, this sort of "select outlet" helps keep Britain on the modern map, and brings in lots of lovely foreign revenue to help keep the lights on; so three cheers I say!
Ah, so that's why they are so expensive now....
All very cool & trendy, which means in a couple of years it will probably look very '2013'...... I'd much rather the Brooks range wasn't image led. For me, a well (UK) made product being sold at a reasonable price was what it was all about, and I'm uncomfortable (no pun intended) about the current branding exercise. I don't want something because people think it's cool, let's not forget we're talking heavy leather saddles ffs!
You can't really blame them. You can have the best product in the world, but you won't sell many if your image is wrong, and it wasn't that long ago that Brooks were viewed quite widely as a bit of a fuddy-duddy old man's brand that no "serious" fashion conscious cyclist would buy into. So if their product has come right back into fashion now, it's only natural for them to capitalise.
Good luck to them, I say. The B17 on my tourer is one of the best purchases I've ever made, so I have pretty much unlimited goodwill towards them as a company!
That's one of the wankiest thing I've seen of late.
It'd be good if they come up with a 'concept' to stop f**kers nicking the saddles! I've stopped buying them....
B1866, a great name for a Brooks saddle!