Balfe's Bikes Avis 

My road bike was delivered with severed brake cables, even with the delivery checklist having indicated that they had been verified as working. I discovered that they were faulty on a test ride as I was going downhill approaching a roundabout. I managed to brake by scraping my heels along the road, but it could have resulted in a dangerous crash. After phoning the helpline, Balfe’s Bikes did pay for the remedial work needed to fit new cables, carried out by my local bike shop, but there was no explanation or apology for why it happened in the first place.

Good deal on my pirelli p0s.

Good deal plus i had some discount due to order size and could use some additional discount earned on a previous big purchase. Arrived promptly too.

Fast availability and collection.
Staff polite, all good.

Ordering was easy. Delivery took longer than indicated with no update. I sent a chaser email. Then got delivery quickly after.

Efficient service. Product arrived on schedule.

The purchase initially seemed excellent. I paid Balfe’s the required 10% deposit to reserve a bike and accessories while waiting for my Cycle to Work voucher. I was informed that the deposit was used to reserve the bike and accessories.

When my voucher arrived, I completed the order as agreed. However, when Balfe’s came to dispatch it, I discovered that the basket had not actually been reserved and that some of the equipment I had selected had subsequently sold out.

I received part of the order after about a week, but after several weeks I still had not received the remaining items. I chased Balfe’s and only then was told that those products were out of stock. When I asked when they would be available again, I was told they would not be, because the supplier had gone into administration.

I then paid extra to upgrade to a different jersey after staff confirmed on the phone that it was definitely in stock and would be shipped to me as a priority, given the long wait. After waiting more than a week for the replacement jersey to be dispatched, I followed up and was then told that it was out of stock in all of Balfe’s stores and that their national supplier had no stock either, despite Rapha listing it as available on its own website.

At that point, the experience felt either deliberately misleading or seriously incompetent. I had paid a deposit to reserve stock, paid more to upgrade based on a stock confirmation, and still ended up without the items I had ordered. The repeated chasing and contradictory information made this an awful customer experience.

I will avoid Balfe’s in future and recommend that others shop elsewhere.

First class service great noligable staff to talk to and get advice from they're my number one for all things cycle .Fast delivery great bike price's I cannot recommend them enough.

Excellent service in a very friendly & helpful environment.

Great dealer in bike accessories, many thanks.

Was a smoth/fast delivery without stress. I love ❤️

Exactly as described and quick delivery

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Phoned company to check on bike availability and when it would be delivered. person on phone was very helpful.
Bike dispatched and arrived when expected beautifully packaged.

It a lovely bike to ride and i enjoy take it to work...

I purchased an ebike from the Islington branch of Balfe’s on 9th June 2025 which subsequently developed an issue with the crank drive ‘disengaging’ erratically. I took the bike to the Waterloo branch on July 31st (2026) as the Islington workshop was booked up and the issue felt to me to be reasonably serious. I explained this issue as best I could to the guy on reception at Waterloo who, based on the fact that the workshop just tweaked the gears (in a ten minute job which nonetheless took them several days to achieve) it seems that my description of the issue was all but ignored. As soon as I rode off it was obvious that the issue remained. I returned it immediately and was asked if I could “come back the following day” as the mechanic who worked on my bike had gone home for the day. Given that I’d travelled from Highgate the answer to this was a definite “no”. One of the mechanics took it out to test ride it and seemed to consider that all was well. At this point it seemed best to just go directly to Islington where I bought it. Islington were far more helpful and the (mid-drive) motor was identified as being potentially the issue.
The scant information that I’ve subsequently received (when prompted, never offered) from Islington is that they’re waiting to hear back from Bosch but given that between the two workshops I have been without my bike for over ten weeks now I am absolutely appalled by this whole experience. My bike is my main/sole mode of transport and I rely on it heavily.
I was advised earlier this week to email the service manager in an attempt to resolve this issue and several days later I have yet to receive any form of response, not even a “we will get back to you in due course” which seems the bare minimum that one might expect.

I felt the staff were very knowledgable and gave me time to try out the bike.

Always efficient and helpful on any repair and maintenance matters. Huge range of bikes

Had to wait for a week before a mechanic reviewed my bike. My bike then needed new parts so it was around 2.5 weeks before I got my bike back. If there’s not time for the mechanic to fix my bike, perhaps the slots could be taken off the website until there’s enough staff available.

Efficient service

Easy to use website, fast delivery and good price.