Mini Feature: Simon Harvey (Cycle Division Mechanic)

Over in Barton Under Needwood is a popular bikeshop, the Cycle Division, where Simon Harvey is the mechanic – the most experienced bike technician in the Midlands I’m told

Mini Feature: Simon Harvey (Cycle Division Mechanic)

Simon Harvey .. The most experience bike technician in the Midlands

Bikes are getting more and more complicated like cars and so getting your bike, whether it be a sit up and beg one or a performance weapon, getting it to perform at its best can require the fine fettling of a mechanic who has been there and done it. During a day at the Cycle Divison taking pictures of loads of bikes, I had a quick chat with Simon between jobs on all sorts of bikes being brought into the shop…

The Cycle Divison shop in Barton Under Needwood has a fully equipped work shop where Simon Harvey is the master mechanic. Simon has been in the industry for 31 years. A very keen and fit rider too often seen leading local rides!

“I used to own a bike shop myself and started at 12 working in a cycle shop” he explained. “Then, at 15, I left school and went straight into a cycle shop and I’ve been in the bike trade ever since! I’ve built everything from £20k MTB’s to top of the range & money no object build Colnagos and looked after most of the Midlands based pros bike for years.

“I came to the Cycle Division in 2018 after I closed my own business and here we do custom builds as well as a lot on the repair side of things. The most common repairs are headsets, bottom brackets, and gear adjustment. We also do full strip down services or an intermediate strip down of the bike.” We also put together a lot of custom stuff and some of my long term clients still come to me here at Cycle Division to look after their kit.

Simon is very experienced at wheel building as well and with the Cero wheels, the shop’s own brand, he can do rim swaps, bearings and so on. The workshop does a lot of race bike tuning too and they get riders from the local midlands teams and clubs in the surrounding areas bringing them their bikes.

Di2 wires – and a mechanic to fit them too at the Cycle Division shop

With bikes getting more and more complicated, Simon can help customers with their disc brakes too with new pads or bleeding the hydraulic system and adjustments. Other areas of a bike that many customers find better left to a mechanic are electronic gear systems like Shimano Di2 which Simon can adjust for customers. There’s no one better equipped with all the computer diagnostic software.

Whilst the shop has a lot of high end performance bikes, the workshop caters for every day bikes used for casual riding to the very high end race bikes. So call in to the shop and see for yourself how the Cycle Division can help you keep your bikes in tip top condition. They also have loads of accessories too like tyres/tubes/chains/handlebar tape/cleaning products and so on.

Very much worth paying a visit!