Bohemia Village Voice

Landmark cycle shop goes under the hammer

Bohemia Road is to lose its bike shop. Nick Alff, (43), who has been there for 8 years says ‘I’ll be moving out in October’. By the time the Voice goes to print, the property will have been auctioned off and Nick will have started moving out his stock. ‘There’s a lot to clear out,’ he says ‘I intend to sell most of it on e-Bay.’ Nick, who lives in Brede, wants to become a mobile bike repairman. ‘I’ll pop into Hastings twice a week to collect and deliver bikes and by working at home, I won’t have the overheads of a shop. The business has changed: it used to be 60% retail sales, now it’s 70% repairs. I only sell bikes with aluminium frames for £200+, but some other stores are offering new bikes at £49.99 – complete rubbish of course.’ Nick has the contract for maintaining the local police fleet of 20 mountain bikes.   His fath-er, Vince Alff, (71), started selling bikes at the shop over 40 years ago.

Nick - going mobile