We’re a multi-award-winning, honest and proper bike shop based in Bishop Auckland. We offer service with a smile, expert advice, full workshop services and loads of knowledge & enthusiasm about all aspects of cycling.
At Inspiral Cycles we’re all keen cyclists and bike-geeks, but we’re also real people who can understand your needs and give the best advice and the best service.
Between us we have decades of experience. We race, we ride socially, we commute to work by bike, but most of all we just ride for the fun of it.
Whether you’re just out for a gentle ride with the family, or something more energetic, we’re able to supply the perfect bike and everything you need to keep you rolling.
We can service or repair your bike in our fully stocked workshop. See our Facebook and Google reviews.
Inspiral Cycles takes our sustainability and green values seriously. We have been a recycling hub for your old bike tyres and inner tubes since 2020 – partnering with Velorim and Schwalbe – and recycle nearly everything else from our shop and workshop, supporting St Teresa’s Hospice in the process – and some local artists! We have worked hard to reduce our energy use and have invested in LED lights and solar panels for our shop.
In 2022, Inspiral Cycles gained our three badges from Marin’s Green Bear Programme to recognise our sustainability commitments extend to our local town and trials. We have partnered with local charity Hamsterley Trailblazers, with trail building in Hamsterley Forest, tidy trails and supporting their kids’ coaching with annual prizes. We have raised money through community and race events for Butterwick Hospice and the Great North Air Ambulance.
Being a high street shop, Inspiral Cycles are passionate about our town’s regeneration, taking part in the Green Fair (promoting cycling as a sustainable travel option), partnering with The Auckland Project and local police to run cycle marking events, plus linking into our local social cycling groups to encourage adults to get back on their bikes with confidence.
Shop online, send us an email, or give us a call on 01388 606616.
GARY
Shop owner Gary loves to go racing – Mountain bike Enduro races are what he does most, sometimes he’s racing his Transition Patrol, other times he’s racing a Lapierre Overvolt ebike. He’s been on the podium a few times too! Gary has also been known to do the odd CX race too, and keeps on promising to do more!
Ebikes are Gary’s current favourite thing – giving everyone the ability to go further and do more – they even make the climbs enjoyable, rather than just a necessary evil. When you’re next in shop ask Gary what he’s got planned for his next all-day double-battery ebike epic adventure!
When not riding a bike, Gary is easily found in shop stoking the fire, making coffee, eating flapjack, or sharing his enthusiasm for cycling with anyone and everyone.
FIONA
Fiona doesn’t describe herself as ‘a cyclist’, she’s a person who just happens to enjoy riding a bike. After discovering e-bikes in 2015, she’s enjoying cycling more than ever before – from the Black Isle to the Isle of Wight. It means she can ride faster (overtaking Gary on the uphills) and ride further – over 50 miles in a day, which she never dreamt possible before. Find her more regularly on the disused railway lines around Bishop Auckland and up beautiful Weardale and Teesdale to the edge of County Durham.
Fiona keeps Inspiral Cycles running from behind the scenes and is our lead on community engagement projects for Bishop Auckland town regeneration.
FRANCIS
Riding road, gravel, mountain bike and commuting to work daily, Francis loves spending time pedaling about on two wheels!
Francis also has almost two decades of experience working in the bike trade, having been drawn in by the prospect of working a job that allows you to talk bike-stuff every day. Francis manages our ordering and online shop, and is especially good at sourcing the hardest-to-find spare parts.
MIKE
Mike joined Inspiral Cycles in 2020 to coincide with the extension of the store. He loves to ride bikes, with a preference towards the fat tyre variety but is no stranger to skinny tyres either. Racing used to be his thing but more recently he rides for fun and fitness.
Mike manages our busy workshop, using his training and skills as a qualified mechanic and making sure that no jobs get left behind!
ROB
Rob was originally with Inspiral Cycles for several years from the start of the business but had a break, and the team were delighted to see him return in 2021.
Rob is a keen commuter, cyclocross racer, road rider, mountain biker and an active member of the local mountain bike club the Hamsterley Trailblazers. He is happy whether on dirt or tarmac. He is a qualified and experienced bicycle mechanic and is putting his knowledge to use in the service dept.
DAVE
AARON
Meet Aaron, one of our shop’s bike mechanics who rolled in with the breeze of April 2024, ready to pedal through life without ever feeling like he’s working! With a love affair for all things on two wheels, Aaron dreams of shredding Downhill but thrives in Enduro, All Mountain, and Trail riding on his trusty Whyte S150 & E150. He’s even contemplating swapping his motorbike for a more commuter-friendly cycle, talk about upgrading wheels!
When Aaron isn’t zipping through trails or tinkering with your prized bikes, you’ll find him coaching Gymnasts, Warriors, Freestylers, and Martial Artists at Athena Sports Academy and Woodham Chi Taekwondo Dojang, killing time in the most badass way possible!
A true service Veteran, Aaron dedicated 23+ years to his Queen, King, and Country as a Mechanical Engineer and Army Diver in the Royal Engineers, British Army. His military career took him on bike adventures worldwide, from the adrenaline rush of the Mega Avalanche in France to the breathtaking Kora 100 in Nepal. Talk about rides to remember!
BEN
Ben does just about anything on his bike. Anything from road cycling to trials to enduro to downhill. And then occasionally attempts to fix his bikes. Ben has been working at the shop since early 2023 and is very much enjoying it.
You’ll often see Ben out and about on his bike at the weekends, normally at hamsterley forest, but other spots do just fine. Or you may even see him at a race or two even if he isn’t racing.
