Items purchased in EUR, USD, AUD, JPY, CAD, DKK, SEK, NOK and CHF will be paid in these currencies. In other cases, payment will be made in GBP UK pounds sterling.
Proceed to payment via payment system PayPal can be done directly from the shopping cart by clicking the corresponding button labeled Check out with PayPal.
In all cases, the store will conduct a warranty inspection of the returned goods and will contact you to inform you of the result.
The store is not responsible for defects and malfunctions resulting from: non-compliance with technical requirements for installation, maintenance, mechanical impacts, use of equipment for other purposes, modification of the product.
The store's warranty does not cover wear, punctures/ruptures of tires, tubes, brakes, cables and cables, brake pads, light bulbs, sprockets, chains, cassettes, rims, batteries and other things.
Corrosion and/or wear caused by material fatigue is defined as the natural breakdown of a material that occurs as a result of prolonged use. Such cases are not covered by the warranty.
After 30 days from the date of purchase of the product, the store reserves the right to repair or replace any defective (defective) parts under warranty.
If you have not received your parcel after 30 days from the date of payment, contact the store support service. In this situation, the store may try to find your package or return your money. But we do not advise you to engage in “buying extremism”; wait at least until 42-43 days from the date of payment. Often, delivery delays do not depend on the store, but rather depend on the work of postal and customs services. If you have not received anything within this period and the store has not yet issued a refund for the purchase, then do not forget about the PayPal buyer protection program, unless, of course, you used this particular payment system for payment.
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2014
In July, I was lucky to visit Chain Reaction Cycles, which is the largest online bicycle store in the world. In fact, this is what attracted me. Of course, I've been to a bike shop before. Not even alone. Even in different countries of the world. Including in Germany and Italy, France and Spain. But here it’s completely different. Online store. Of course, unlike a regular store, you can’t get there so easily. Luckily for us, in Cheyne, I believe, we have blat. A girl, Anastasia, works there, who comes from our region. Her position is quite large - she is responsible for our Russian market, and the markets of several other countries. I wrote her a proposal. Alas, not marriage, as you might think, but an offer to invite me to visit Northern Ireland. By the way, Northern Ireland, if anyone doesn’t know, is part of Great Britain. There is also “ordinary” Ireland with its capital in Dublin. I tell her: let’s take a walk around the warehouses and offices together, it will be an enchantingly romantic pastime. And the key, if not to the heart, then to Cheyne’s office, was found. I’ll say right away that I don’t regret the time spent. It was really very interesting. And my review turned out to be laudatory.
What exactly is so interesting about an online store? Well, judge for yourself. I’ll start not in order, but with what I remember most. We go into one of the warehouses, and there are bicycles at the entrance, not new ones. And not cheap. They have pieces of paper with names on them. I ask: what is this? I get the answer: a corporate bicycle park. Any employee can borrow a bicycle for a couple of days and ride it. Bicycles are very different. From highway bikes to dual-suspension bikes. But everything is quite expensive. Interesting experience to try the bikes different types. Available to every employee. And that’s right, you shouldn’t sell something you haven’t tried yourself. How do you try good quality bikes? No salary is enough to buy them.
By the way, previously “Chain” simply didn’t hire people without a love for cycling. Don't ride? Well, go work where they don’t skate. Now the conditions have become a little softer. After all, people aren't born cyclists. They become cyclists. Take a bike, it's free. Look for your ideal. I can’t help but tell you the “fried facts”. Cheyne employees have connections in Cheyne itself and can assemble a bicycle for themselves, buying spare parts at low prices. Do not consider this an advertisement for work at Cheyne - only EU citizens are accepted. I am writing these lines not so much for us cyclists, but for those who run shops in Russia. How do you improve the skills of your employees? No way? They don’t differentiate your dual-suspension bike from a highway bike? Badly. Here, learn from the experience. In the picture below: “In the bins of CRC.”
Now let's start from the beginning. Chain was founded in the blessed year of 1984 in the small Northern Irish village of Ballynure. It was founded by George and Janice Watson. George was a road worker and took out a £1,500 loan to open a shop. Let's be honest, there was no talk about global sales in those years. And there were no prerequisites. Of course, people ride bicycles in Northern Ireland. It is a fact. I saw it myself. However, the number of cyclists can in no way compare with what can be seen in Denmark, Holland, France, and Belgium. Moreover, the store was not just in Northern Ireland (to put it mildly, not the center of Europe), but not even in its capital. The store was in the village. Country bike shop! I did not find data for 1984, but in 2001 677 people lived in this locality.
So, the start of a business: in a village where 677 people live, a bicycle shop opens... Among the attractions in the village, there is a football team called “Ballynure Old Boys”, which plays in the local provincial league... There seem to be no prerequisites for success. And what did the bank think when issuing the loan? They won't pay!
The founding fathers (and mothers), however, made a good project, which attracted customers from all over the area. Five years later, the future Chain (then called Ballynure Cycles) moved from the village to the neighboring town of Ballyclare. This is also the “same” capital. Population: 8,700 people. By the way, there was no bike shop there at all. In the same year, the name “Chain Reaction Cycles” appeared. Interestingly, there was an old cycling club in Balikara, founded in 1922. Today it continues its activities and is sponsored by the CRC.
Then, briefly, it was like this: CRC began to deal (including) with a new technology at that time - MTB, which began to gain popularity. Caught on the wave. Then, working in the English open spaces, I decided to send goods by mail throughout England. This stage was successful. With the advent of the Internet, CRC was able to trade all over the world, and thus became a CRC. The company's website launched in 1999. By the way, CRC also asked me a question: how did buyers from Russia find us? Today there are a huge number of them. But who were the pioneers? To this, of course, I did not give an exact answer. However, I can note the following: the choice of spare parts in Russia is offensively small. Recently I was looking for pads for my brakes - I found them in the FOURTH store. This is in St. Petersburg. In Voronezh or Volgograd, maybe I wouldn’t have found it at all. Our prices for spare parts are also quite sad. The situation with the competence of salespeople has improved a little in some stores, but here, alas, ours still has room to grow. But the number of riding cyclists is growing and growing. That is, CRC came in very handy in our market. I think, among foreign online stores, it is also number 1 in terms of sales volume.
Now let's talk about how it all works.
CRC today employs about 700 workers. These include warehouses, support services, marketing, and ordering services. All these services are united by information systems, which is important. What do they give? The website has accurate information about what is in stock and what is not. This is important to us, customers. And in the marketing department and the purchasing department they see what is being purchased and in what quantity. What is required for an accurate order for the future. The customer support service is also connected to the information system. By the way, the support room is a very interesting place. Since the company operates all over the world, people with knowledge of a variety of languages are required. Therefore, the most perfect international is gathered in the hall. There are even two Russian-speaking girls working there. Honestly, in Europe it’s like this: if you see a beautiful girl, be sure she’s from Russia. Or from Ukraine. CRC support is no exception. Although in the hall, where, at first glance, there are about 70 people sitting, there are both Spaniards and representatives of Asia. It's a pity that the girls didn't give me the right to publish their photos. In words I will say: one is white, and the other is black. You may envy me, I saw them, but you didn’t!
So, whether you are a blonde (as in the photo on the right, alas, we were unable to meet you), or a red-haired brutal Irishman, you have a computer on your desk running a special mail client. You receive a letter and you must answer it. If you don't have time, the email header turns red. I would even say blood red, since the manager also has a computer, and he sees how many “bloody” letters you have. There is a screen on the wall that displays generalized information about how the department as a whole works. Let me note that there is little chance of not answering the letter. This is facilitated not only by the monitor on the Chief’s desk, but also by… posters on the walls.
Those who began their career under socialism probably remember the visual propaganda hanging in the workshops. There is one here too, only cheerful, and in its own way. For example, the well-known Uncle Joe from a war poster from the Second World War points his bony finger right at you and says: “Your clients are waiting for you.” There is also an honor board at the enterprise, where people are selected according to one of two criteria. Either according to managers' assessments or customer reviews. Does this give those who work anything other than glory? This question remained behind the scenes. The salaries, as I was told, are “not bad.”
In addition, CRC is the largest local employer. I don’t know if local Irish guys dream of working at CRC, but for the most part it’s the locals who work. Including not in the most intellectual jobs. In contrast to Russia, where the menial work is usually done by guest workers. But here - no. Quite Irish-looking red-haired guys and older men, blondes and brunettes work as both managers and loaders. The photo below is a visual campaign from the CRC.
So, the whole chain works like this: the customer orders, the system processes it, and sends the information to the warehouse. There is a real conveyor belt running there. Dozens of employees complete parcels, for which they have special equipment for communicating with a computer. With a computer!!! And my wife scolds me when I talk to the dog! And the dog is alive, a Doberman! Eyes are smart! Why not talk? So, the computer contacts one or another warehouse employee. He has a special headset on his head. He hears what needs to be taken, where to put it, and the most interesting thing is that he can ask the program again.
What kind of rim do you say I should put on?
And the computer obediently repeats:
You need to wash your ears in the morning! Alex Rims Tubular 2.0!
Then the selected product is put into a box, and the box is made immediately by an automatic machine. The box with the goods goes along the conveyor belt, a special machine adjusts the size of the box to the order, then postal information is automatically glued onto it, the box is sealed, and sent to the customer. A real factory. By the way, this is partly true. After all, some assembly operations are carried out directly on the CRC. There is a wheel collection area and a cassette collection area. There is a bicycle assembly area. Bicycles come from the manufacturer in a more disassembled form than we receive it from the store. The store assembles the bike to the level we are accustomed to, checks it, puts it in its own box, and sends it to us. In addition, there is an equipped studio for photo work, where photographs are taken, which we see on the website. There is a service that deals with warranty situations and product returns. There are returns. Judging by the picture on the CRC wall, they have a 0.7% warranty issue rate last year. That is, 7 problems per 1000 submissions.
There are people sitting in a special place who review each case. Why did it break, why? Of course, I asked them what they thought about clients from Russia. It turned out that we are in good standing. CRC has a concept called problematic reference. This is a shipment that has non-warranty issues. So, the level of such problems with Russia is less than 5%. This is noticeably lower than in many other countries. It seems to me (this is my opinion, not the thoughts of the Cheyne employees) that we are less demanding. That is, I don’t know, if the shade of color is not quite right, or, I don’t know, there is a scratch somewhere, then we, as they say in Russia, “don’t worry” about this. For the most part, it’s understandable.
There are 60,000 items of goods in CRC warehouses. To better understand what scale this is, look at the pictures.
Let's talk separately about a warehouse with bicycles, and about bicycles in general. CRC now has its own bicycle brand, which is developed right in their office. Brand: Vitus. From what I've seen of computers, the bikes are designed using a 3D modeling program. At one time I worked with such programs in shipbuilding. The idea is this: you draw a three-dimensional model of a bicycle. Fully. Ramu, first of all. You draw - as you understand. This is the engineer's task. But then the program also helps to make developments, blanks, and cutting of material without human intervention. You can try to draw different options. You can immediately calculate the strength if required. I saw the rear stays of some kind of bicycle, apparently a road bike. There aren't many people working on bicycles. I may be wrong, but there are only 5-7 designers. Unfortunately for me, they were at lunch, and I could only appreciate their jobs and the pictures on the monitors. The Vitus model range is quite wide. There are MTB, road bikes and cyclocross. In the photo there is a Vitus roadster waiting in the wings in the CRC show room.
Postal trucks of different types are constantly parked at CRC warehouses. postal companies. Which is not surprising. And once upon a time, store employees themselves carried boxes of goods to the post office. That was a long time ago. And in conclusion, one more tidbit about the work of the CRC. In the office there is a box “for crazy ideas” hanging on the wall. Any employee, being of sober mind and bright memory, can be visited by a crazy idea. So, management is ready to accept and consider these ideas. There is a box hanging for this purpose. Have you come up with a non-standard idea? Throw it in the box. They will consider it. Might be useful. And then take a corporate bike and race. This is such an interesting company.
How realistic is free delivery from there, does it make sense to buy the whole bike or just spare parts and accessories, etc. Since I, like almost all enthusiastic cyclists, shop on these sites all the time, I have plenty of information.
ChainReactionCycles and Wiggle are physically based in the UK but ship worldwide. Why even buy abroad and not in our bike shops? The thing is that cycling in our countries is not developed at a level that would make sense to import a full range of cycling products and sell them with high turnover and low markup. Add seasonality to this - at the end of summer, bike shops switch to selling goods for winter sports, and bicycles are returned only at the beginning of April.
The mentioned online bike shops are the two pillars on which at least half of the European bike parts traffic rests. The range of goods there is simply huge, the prices are often lower than ours.
In both stores, much attention is paid to Russian-speaking customers; they not only have a Russian support service, which you can always contact with any question, but also free delivery to the CIS countries and Eastern Europe.
To receive free delivery, you only need to reach a minimum order amount, for example, for Russia and Ukraine free delivery starts at 149 usd (except for oversized items, then delivery is priced separately). Therefore, it makes sense to buy the entire bike from there if you get a good discount (sometimes it happens when they sell leftovers). But it is profitable to buy spare parts and accessories.
Do I need to pay customs duty?
The customs limit in the Russian Federation for 2019 is 500 euros per month for a private individual, but in Ukraine, as far as I know, now you can only get duty-free for 150 euros. If you do not exceed this amount, then you do not have to pay tax.
However, even the Ukrainian limit still allows you to place an order with free delivery and not pay any duties. If you can’t reach the required order amount, then just call your cycling friends and put together a general order, we always do this. One person will place an order, everyone will transfer money to him, and as a result, free delivery even for small items is profitable.
VAT is deducted from the price
A huge plus for countries outside the European Union is that for them English VAT is deducted from the price, that is, buyers receive an automatic discount on all goods. Considering that even without this, prices there are often cheaper than in our stores, you can save quite a lot of money.
To see the real price for you, on the store’s website you need to switch to your country (in the right top corner), then the cost of goods will be automatically adjusted.
How long does it take to deliver from ChainReactionCycles and Wiggle?
There is some disadvantage in that you have to wait quite a long time - from two to four weeks. Unfortunately, this is a problem with local mail, because the stores themselves send orders within 12 hours, and the package arrives at the Russian border no later than a week later. And then the delays begin.
If the package somehow gets lost in transit (I've heard about this a couple of times), then these stores resend the same product. It even turned out that both parcels arrived - the first lay somewhere at customs or the post office for a couple of months, and then still arrived.
I myself started using these stores in 2006, when I was still living in Scotland, and I still shop regularly to this day. Well, a couple of days ago I received another package from Chainreaction with consumables for the hybrid (cassette, chain, cables, brake pads, etc.).
The reader may ask me why, because of such trifles, I don’t go to the local bike store and shop there? In this case - greed and laziness.
For example, on an order of approximately 120 euros, I saved at least a third. Secondly, I’m too lazy (and I don’t have extra time) to go to the store. Moreover, most likely there won’t be exactly what I need on site, and I’ll have to take what is there, and also overpay.
Chain Reaction Cycles or Wiggle, which bike shop is better?
On this moment Both stores belong to the same holding company, but nevertheless, there are differences in both assortment and prices. I didn’t notice the system - something is more expensive on Wiggle, something on Chainreaction, sometimes what you need is not available there, but it is here. I mostly end up shopping on Cheyne more often. But I can’t say anything bad about Wiggle either, they didn’t let me down either.
How to pay when ordering
To buy from these online stores, you must have a credit card (you can make a virtual one at the bank, purely for a one-time payment) or PayPal. All you need to do is register on the stores’ websites, and a wonderful world will open up to you, as it has already for many hundreds of thousands of cyclists, including those from Russia. The main thing is not to get carried away, because there is a lot of everything, everything is needed - you can spend a lot of money and not notice. 🙂
The stores are absolutely reliable, over all these years I have not had any problems with payments or delivery. Returning items you don't like works great - I myself sent back clothes and shoes that didn't fit several times (though at my own expense - it was my mistake). If the case is under warranty or they sent the wrong product by mistake, then all postage costs are paid by the store.
The support service is at an acceptable level, replies within a business day or two, in Russian. Processing and shipping of orders in both stores without any complaints.
I post reminders on the website when there are discounts in stores, sometimes I can actually save money. For example, the legendary Brooks saddle, which I highly recommend to all cyclists, I grabbed at Chain Reaction Cycles during spring discounts.
Look at sale page in this store, maybe there is something interesting for you there now.
I note that both stores do not limit themselves only to cycling. They also sell a wide range of accessories for triathlon, swimming and running.
So, in short, what are the good things about the stores described.
- Huge range of cycling products
- Great prices, constantly having sales and discounts
- Free delivery on orders over 149 usd
- Delivery time 2-4 weeks (depending on our mail)
- English VAT is deducted
- No need to pay duties at customs (limit 500 euros for the Russian Federation)
- Full warranty on all products
- You can return any product within 30 days and get your money back.
- Russified interface and Russian support service
- Product database with customer reviews and ratings
I am sure that if you continue to be interested in cycling, then purchases in ChainReactionCycles And Wiggle sooner or later you cannot escape. 🙂 Remember my review about these stores and buy with confidence.
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