It’s not always easy to find classic bike specialists who give top-notch service, but RC readers are on the case. Here’s the latest recommendations from real life old bike riders...

Top Man(ual)
I ordered photocopy manuals from Bruce Main-Smith for my ‘new’ Ariel W/NG on Thursday. They arrived very quickly. Good price too. Efficient and clearly has a way with the Post Office! Well impressed – he must have got Santa to deliver them!
FerG3

BMS: www.brucemain-smith.com

Battered!
Paul Goff has just replaced under guarantee the gel battery I bought for my T140ES in January 2007. It stopped working; Paul was happy to replace it, and I didn't have to go through the rigmarole of posting the old one back for testing.
NVNL

Paul Goff: www.norbsa02.freeuk.com

Diamond (girls, not geezers)
I needed to insure another classic bike at short notice, and was inevitably out of the office for the vital couple of days before collecting it, so sent out-of-hours emails to Diamond Insurance Consultants and a couple of the big name firms (the guys who take huge adverts. You know the ones). I got back some auto-replies from the big companies but, despite giving them all the details of the bike, its value and so on, heard nothing more.

Diamond tracked me down and rang me in plenty of time with a competitive quote, so they got the business. Diamond are a small company and you tend to speak to the same person, not a call centre. Their renewal quote is within twenty quid of the competition, so I’m happy to pay them a little bit extra for the excellent service. I’m still faintly incredulous that two other insurance companies couldn’t even be bothered to quote!
Rowena

Diamond Insurance: www.diamondinsurance.net

Shocking!
I would like to nominate Hagon Shocks for my ‘the sun is out - it is a good day’ award. New shocks for my RD400 (OK, not the rarest and most esoteric of machines, but still 30 years old) were ordered yesterday at 10.45. They arrived today at 08.45. 0208 502 6222
NLB

Hagon are very good at providing ‘special orders’ too. I ordered some for my BMW and stated that it had a heavy sidecar fitted and therefore needed to
be uprated. ‘No problem’, I was told and perfectly
adequate shockers arrived the day after.
MZ Mark

Racking!
We ordered a rack for our Enfield Electra at 16.30 via the Hitchcocks’ website. It was delivered at 10.30 the next day and was so straightforward to fit that it was on the bike by lunchtime. The only thing even resembling a complaint we can think of is that it was wrapped in copies of the Telegraph… 01564 783192
FW

Sprocket To Me!
Special Sprocket Services have just re-toothed the drum sprocket on my DKW and they’ve done a lovely job for the money. 01547 540326
Phil Speakman

Austrian Excellence
Excellent service from British Only, Austria GmbH who have just supplied me with a new high quality saddle from Austria in eight days at a considerably lower price than I could find from UK home market suppliers. 0043 7586 7446 10
Bob4322

Top Tri-Supply Take a bow, Tri-Supply and the Royal Mail. I ordered parts yesterday afternoon, and they were delivered today at 08.30. Now that is what I call service! 01404 47001. Jerry2 Speedo Shenanigans For some weeks now my T100 has felt the lack of a working speedometer, the original having died shortly after the bike was recommissioned in April. The instrument was sent to Ashley Pople of Speedo Repairs (01252 835353) who measures his turn round time in weeks rather than days and was as good as his word. When the shinily fettled clock was refitted (still with the original mileage on the odometer) the inner speedo cable was too short to make the needle go round. No amount of jiggery pokery rectified this. A line was drawn at the prospect of shortening the outer cable and JJ Cables (01926 651470) were commissioned to provide a suitable inner/outer pairing, which they did. The whole set-up was fitted yesterday and earlier this morning a very rainy moorland ride confirmed that everything is now in order. NVNL Top Marks To TMS Top marks to TMS of Nottingham for delivering the bits for my T140 within 24 hours, at no extra cost and for knowing the part numbers for what I wanted before I could read them out! Top service... unlike another very famous Triumph specialist whose order (placed ten minutes earlier) has not materialised despite another two days passing. 0115 950 3447 Simon

T140 stuff on eBay

Braking!
I needed some pads for the c*r and found EBC Direct. A complete set of rear pads for the c*r £23 delivered. Ordered them Friday and they arrived this morning (Monday). Top service! What's the relevance, you may ask. They do bike pads too. 0845 22 55 0 11
PaulG80

More Service Stars Wanted!

Have you enjoyed excellent service from your local bike shop or a national specialist? Don't be shy in sharing the details - your report will help other classic bike riders choose who to use, and will reward good performance with more business.

So send reports to the fabulously delicious Typing Person (TP@RealClassic.net) who will knock them into shape - don't worry about writing great literature because she'll sort out full stops and such as she goes. But do include contact details and plenty of info about what your products or assistance your Service Star can provide.