As of MAY 2023 The Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme has now ended at DM’s Cycles & Repairs, after the announcement that the government & Transport Scotland will no longer be continuing to issue bicycle repair voucher funding.
Thanks for your interest in having your bicycle repaired at DM’s Cycles & Repairs.
Regular service booking are, of course, still available.
The Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme is your ticket to cheaper bike repairs and fixes! You may have read about the ‘fix your bike’ scheme at participating bike servicing locations, and now DM’s Cycles & Repairs, Clydebank is delighted to be a part of things!
You can get up to £50 (£100 for a non-standard recumbent, tandem, cargo bike or trike) towards your mechanical or standard electric bike parts and servicing* through the Cycling UK & Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme grant funding awarded to DM’s Cycles & Repairs!
*Service labour charges and certain critical wheel, brake, gearing & safety essentials like grips, saddles etc. are covered by the voucher. Bike assembly & fleet servicing are prohibited by SCRS & Cycling UK. Repair of E bike electrical components is not permitted under the scheme. Please read the SCRS FAQ page for full details of what’s covered.
Who is the Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme intended for?
Simply put- ANYONE of any age who is struggling with the rising costs of living, transport and travel who would like a bike service! The ideal candidate will be someone who loves and uses their bike, but through that very use it’s now in need of a few things like brake and gear adjustments and maybe a new part or two like an inner tube, cables or tyre. The bike should be in decent enough condition to benefit from the service packages without incurring extra costs to you. To quote SCRS directly, “The scheme is aimed at people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford standard cycle repairs at this time. That can be for an old bike that needs some work to make it roadworthy, or one that’s well used but requires some attention.”
DM’s Cycles & Repairs operates without prejudice in the community and no matter who you are, you can save some money on a quality bike service & parts (while funding lasts.) Funding is awarded on a first come, first served basis and one repair slot can be booked per day, Monday – Friday and is subject to availability. Service enquiries and booking confirmations will be worked through during business hours of 9am-5pm during these days of the week. Please only use the SCRS booking form on this page to book your SCRS free bike repairs, as contact by other means may hold up your booking.
So, how does the repair scheme work in practice at DM’s?
[example] You book your bicycle repair job at DM’s Cycles & Repairs, which may be the basic bike service at £35. I’ll confirm your booking/time and send you my address details for drop-off of your bike (until my shop lease is finalised with West Dunbartonshire Council, servicing is undertaken at my home workshop, in Clydebank centre.) Please note that DM’s is unable to collect and drop bikes off. Upon inspection, it turns out a new inner tube, tyre & saddle in addition to your service has been recommended. As well as paying for your basic service at £35, the remainder of your voucher could be used to put towards a new tyre & tube, leaving you only the saddle & remainder of the balance over £50 to pay. Great stuff!
Here, you can view the list of bike services and individual repair jobs you can book.
If you would like to book your bike in to take advantage of this great cycling repair offer, simply use the SCRS booking form at the foot of this page!
Your postcode is required to attach to the £50 free bike repairs voucher, which is sent back to SCRS & Cycling UK for proper usage, fraud monitoring and analysis purposes. Cycling UK & SCRS would like to contact each recipient of the voucher with a short survey to see how the repair scheme has helped them. If you would prefer not to be contacted by the Cycling UK & Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme organisation, please select the appropriate option while filling out the booking form.
Repair scheme work limitations
Where the customer does not wish to pay anything toward the bike repairs over the award amount, DM’s Cycles & Repairs reserves the right to refuse a repair voucher to any customer with a bike deemed to be in a non-roadworthy, and therefore unsafe, condition where £50 is going to make little difference to the safety of the rider. An example of such a far-gone bike may be that in addition to a full bike service, maybe both wheels, cracked tyres and flat tubes need replaced, a bottom bracket renewed, all cables and gear/braking parts and other parts like bearings need replaced. This will likely be far in excess of £50, and if only one or two things from that list are taken care of, the bike will be still be classed as unsafe due to critical components being professionally deemed worn, unusable or broken. Remember, my work for you MUST be completed to a high standard, and running poorly conditioned parts may be a recipe for disaster & injury!
You can self-assess your bike before booking!
If, for instance, your have an old, rusted shed bike which looks like its going to need a whole lot of new parts, you can look at a few key areas to assess your cost. If you don’t intend to spend any extra on this bike over and above the award amount, and the bike will be unsafe to ride after basic repair work, that’s potentially the type of bike that would be refused. Honesty is the best policy at booking in time to avoid disappointment. So it’s definitely worth your time having a closer look!
The good news is that you don’t need to know much about a bike to notice a few things and prepare a rough costing. If you know your bike is a starter-to-mid range machine, have a look at these items to prepare an estimate.
Start with the value of service you plan to book and then:
If rim brake pads are worn down with little rubber left (or cracks in the material,) they’ll need replaced – add £10 each set. The same goes for lubricant contaminated squealing, old disc brake pads, rusted brake discs etc.
If a chain is rusted and stiff, it’ll need renewed – add £10-£20.
If the teeth of your gear cogs (front & back) have sharpened into ninja-star like points (rather than having flat-tops,) they’ll need replaced to hold the pedalling load with a new chain – add £15-50 depending on part quality.
Check your V-brake wheel rims for a wear line. There may be an indent groove marked all around the rim in a continuous line. When that wears away and you can no longer catch your fingernail inside the line, it’s time to replace your rim. Not all rims have a wear line, if that’s the case with your bike wheels, check that the rim braking surface is flat and not ‘mushroomed’ at the edge of the rim where it meets your tyre. Hold a flat edge against your braking surface to check for mushrooming. Mushroomed rims are always best replaced to avoid potential collapse. If you think new wheels may be in order, add £50-90.
If parts of your bike have lateral play where there should be no movement, this could be hinting toward bearing damage or worse. Deeper inspection will be warranted and likely new internal parts like wheel bearings, wheel axles, bearing cones, a headset or a bottom bracket will be required – add £15-20 each rattling item/part with lateral play.
If you can find a large list of things that are rusted stiff or otherwise obviously broken, you can quickly see how things can mount up to around £150+. Extra fitting charges will apply to all new parts during all services except the full bike service where new parts are purchased through DM’s Cycles & Repairs. If you are willing to put that extra towards your bike and are happy to receive £50 off your bill, then your repair is only a booking away! If your bike is in good condition and just needs some minor servicing, your free bike repair work is a form away!
Further information
For further information about all of the good causes supported by Cycling UK in Scotland, please visit the Scotland section here.
For information, including FAQ’s on the Scotland Cycle Repair Scheme, click here.
