About Grim's Bikes

A small, home-based, family business

Grim’s bikes is a small workshop in the Surrey Hills that helps local bikers get the best service for their mountain bikes and road bikes. No bullshit; we treat every bike as if it was our own, and we try and have a fun time helping people.

The workshop is run from Grim’s home, so you do need to book in a time slot if you want your bike repaired or serviced.

About Graham

Written by his very lovely, very patient wife.

I was going to subtitle this ‘His love affair with two wheels’, however it actually started on three, as a toddler, with him crashing into a garage door on his tricycle. He hadn’t really appreciated the speed with which he’d be going by the time he arrived at the bottom of a very steep slope, resulting in broken bone number one… not much has changed since.

Throughout his youth, two wheels remained a constant, and home-built bicycles were replaced with bikes with engines… motorbikes became his thing, he still gets misty eyed for the Kawasaki GPZ900R that he owned when I first met him at college in 1986. Recently rushing to hit pause on the film Top Gun Maverick when Tom’s original GPZ900R, was revealed. Proving once and for all, that Maverick and Graham are surely almost exactly the same person… or at least have the same taste in bikes.

He then switched to a Yamaha Super Ténéré to circumnavigate the world… twice. (I shit you not.) Some might say it was an act of heroism, others might say he was putting off getting a job. Whatever, it was a helluva ride!

Before the trip, he attained a City & Guilds qualification in Motor Mechanics in the hope of snagging some paid work en route, and famously ended up as the RAC man in the mining town Kalgoorlie, Australia* for a few months while getting his bike back on the road.

[* – Well, you’d know this if you have ever joined us for Sunday lunch. Our world-class roast potatoes are always served up with a healthy dose of Aussie anecdotes.]

Back in the UK, his love of two wheels stayed with him, as he managed to juggle his new Digital Agency life** with racing, and after winning the BMCRC Powerbike championship he ended up in the BSB paddock racing British Superstocks, which apparently is a fairly decent level.

[** – Which is why this website looks rather more professional than you’d expect for a guy who fixes push-bikes out of his garage, he just can’t help himself.]

As the accidents on track became faster and took longer to heal, he returned to the pedal powered variety of two wheels, and once again, he was hooked.

Elated to be back on a ‘proper’ mountain bike, his rides got longer and more adventurous, the term ‘downhill trails’ started appearing in his vocabulary, and I couldn’t help but notice a growing number of cuts and grazes on his shins.

“Oh yeah, I fell off my bike again.” He shrugged off.

“Fell off???”

“Again???”

“Why are you falling off your bike, you’re 50 not 5???” I shrieked!

It turns out the Surrey Hills is the ‘Morzine of the UK’, and we have the mountain biking highlights of Peaslake and Rogate right on our doorstep. Apparently people travel in from all over, just to throw themselves and their bikes down some very steep trails, jumping over features as they go! Who knew?

Soon enough, the growing number of Trail Toddlers were meeting up every week, the WhatsApp group lighting up with footage of their latest jumps, crashes and smashed phones.

Graham’s mechanical knowledge grew with his own repairs, aided by the growing stream of friends and other Trail Toddlers with broken and bent bikes that needed some TLC. He also returned to his youth and built a bike from scavenged parts from Ebay; The Transition Sentinel was born!

So when he finally decided he had built enough websites and wanted to “exit stage left” from the corporate merry-go-round of Zoom & Teams calls, his thoughts turned to next steps and he decided he’d love to ease into semi-retirement with a small home-based business: So Grim’s Bikes was created to support his growing network of likeminded lunatics who also like to throw themselves down steep trails every weekend.

He is now Cytech qualified and ready to help get your bike back on the road… or trail, whichever you prefer.

There will also be trips to actual Morzine and Bike Park Wales… hopefully next time without the additional one week at the hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.

And me? I’m all in favour of this new venture, as he is never happier than when pottering in his garage, grinning like a small child, with grazed knees to match.

I on the other hand, will be focusing on my new Substack writing project, Off on a Tangent [https://katedarracott.substack.com] from the safety of the kitchen table.

Ride safe!

K8x   

Important note:

If you’re going to Bike Park Wales soon, you might like to read Graham’s 1-star review of the Corned Beef Hash at the local Hospital. And please bear it in mind when deciding whether or not to go for that ‘one last run’ of the day.