humble bikes

Hello! I’m Rob and I’m the man behind Humble Bikes bicycle workshop and eventually….Humble Bikes - the Bike brand. More on that later though. For now, I’ll tell you a bit more about me and what i do.

I live in Burley in Wharfedale with my Wife Rachel.

Cycling is my life passion and I’ve been riding bikes since I was a lil nipper. Mum and Dad got me and brother Tom into riding bikes and we’ve been hooked ever since!

On the tools

It all started at JD cycles in Ilkley for me. We had always been customers of the shop and loved the crew that worked there.

I joined the ranks in the workshop at the age of 21 and worked under Jim and John, learning the ropes. We worked hard in that workshop and earned a great reputation as one of the best bike workshops in Yorkshire. I passed my Cyctech levels 1, 2 and 3 within a year and started to progress onto the more technical jobs in the workshop, taking an interest in mountain bike suspension in particular.

On the riding front, i organised the Tuesday night ride from the shop and gradually built up a following of riders, who would become some of my best friends. We started to venture further afield for riding holidays to the Alps, Canada and ride in some sublime locations.

I would spend nearly 5 years at JDs and then a further year at Ilkley cycles before moving on.

Hope Technology

In 2015, i was luckily enough to make the move over to Barnoldswick to work at Hope Technology - the famous ‘made in UK’ component company. At the time, they were looking for a race mechanic for the summer race season to look after the race team and also work at selected events as mechanical support.

These would be some of the best years of my life, travelling all over the world, looking after the racers and being a part of the race scene. I looked after to super talented riders like Adam Brayton and Craig Evans and we had a great time in pits. The work was hard, with long days on your feet, stripping the bikes, rebuilding wheels and bleeding brakes ready for the next days runs. I was able to see all the famous race tracks in Europe including Schladming, Leogang, Les Gets, Val de Sol as well as the ‘local’ Fort William. We had some good results, with Craig hitting his goals of qualifying for race day and Adam getting getting a podium with a 4th place - a proper highlight.

I would also have the pleasure of looking after the enduro racers too and travelling around europe on the EWS circuit. The team was made up of Sam and Joe Flanagan, Woody and Sam from Hope and Mark Scott joined us too. We had some great results and it was great fun touring Europe in the big race van..

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To the office

After spending 3 years travelling the world on the circus, i moved to a different department to run the HB sales and service side of things for Hope. The HB.160 was our first full bike made in the factory i took on the role of sales, marketing, service, warranty and everything in between. Basically everything post production was handled by me! It was a steep learning curve and it was nice to be back dealing with customers directly like in the bike shop days.

The HB was a special bike and holds a special place in my heart as I put a lot of time and effort into getting it out there to the public. I created a dealer network in the UK and Europe, I took the demo bikes on a tour of the UK to get bums on saddles and we had a great time again at the races. It was a proud feeling to ride a bike that you know everything about, who laid the carbon down, who painted it and who assembled it.

The HB continues

In 2018 Hope launched the new HB.130, a 29er do everything bike. We took another step forward with production and i continued to run everything in office and in the field. The bike went down really well and we had great sales - in the region of 300 units per year which is great for what is essentially a boutique bike. My day to day work would become more office based, handling sales from dealers and selling direct to the consumer. Again we took the bikes on the road doing demos all round the country and meeting riders from all walks of life.

cHANGE IS A GOOD THING

I worked at Hope for nearly 7 years and it was an amazing career. I count myself very lucky to have been able to do all the different jobs i did there and learnt so much from it. I travelled the world, rode my bike in some amazing places and met so many like minded people. Hope makes fantastic components but it lacks the framework for progression and not one sit on my laurels, i figured if i want to progress in life, I’m going to have to do it on my own terms.

So in October 2021, i took the bold move and left Hope to pursue my own venture.

Humble bikes is born!

So, Humble bikes is my take on a proper bicycle workshop. With good, old fashioned customer service, the best tools and components to fix peoples bikes and get them back out there on the road or trail, doing what they love…riding bikes!

Now, 2 years on and Humble Bikes continues to grow as a business. We’ve been fixing bikes in Burley for over 2 years and we’ve had the pleasure so looking after loads of like minded, lovely people.

And we’ll continue to so! cHEERS!