About Us
About Cyclesense
Born in 1991, Cyclesense is an independent family run business with two stores both in the brewery town of Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.
Our High Street store is where you can find all of our adult's bikes and accessories along with our professional workshop for all of your servicing needs; and around the corner you'll find our kids' bike showroom on Westgate - one of the only locations in the country devoted entirely to the sale of lightweight kids' bikes. Both stores are situated around Tadcaster's main town car park - which is both free and spacious!
For more information on how you can get in touch with either store, please see our contact page.
Our values are built on the desire to provide a high level of personal and efficient service that leaves you happy with your experience - and that's the same whether you're over the counter from us or if you're shopping with us online from the other side of the world. Rest assured that our devoted team are there for you to help with any qualms or queries you might have along the way.
How it began.
Cyclesense was established in 1991, fulfilling the childhood dream of David Stainthorpe. Dave had worked in retail before, but he'd always wanted his own bike shop - even taking bikes apart, swapping parts around and selling them to his friends as a child.
His garage at home in Thorner serving as his warehouse, Dave traded at markets and car boots around the region including Rufforth, Skirlington, Huddersfield, Hornsea, York and Dewsbury. Dave started with just £600 worth of stock in 1991, and was determined to grow his fledgling business into something more.
Bricks & mortar.
By 1995 Cyclesense had become well established; building its reputation on providing value and service to its customers. Such was the success of Dave's hard work, Cyclesense was able to move to some proper retail premises; and so came the move to Tadcaster - home to the breweries of John Smith's, Sam Smith's and Coors. The original shop in Tadcaster was 500 square feet - more than enough for Dave at the time.
Cyclesense continued to develop its reputation, and soon Dave's oldest son Paul joined him at the shop. Soon after they hired the first full-time mechanic to the business, helping to expand the scope of Cyclesense's services further.
A local bike shop.
Dave's wife Sue (right) also joined the business part-time in 1999 alongside her other role as an agency nurse - helping to further instill a real family business feel to Cyclesense.
Cyclesense has always maintained a relationship with local children's hospice Martin House - a charity which provides amazing care for children with life-limiting conditions. More recently our annual sportive has raised thousands for the charity, and we're really grateful to the participants of the sportive for helping us achieve this over the years.
Dave, now retired
, even volunteers weekly at Martin House's charity shop in Boston Spa, helping them sell items online to generate additional funds for the charity!
New digs.
In 2001, Cyclesense moved to its current more spacious premises on Tadcaster's High Street.
To date, Cyclesense is Tadcaster's largest independent retailer, with 3 floors, 3000 square feet of sales area, 2 workshop areas and a large free car park round the back of the store with customer parking bays specifically for its customers.
Trophy cabinet.
In 2004 Dave and Paul's hard work was rewarded in the form of a trophy. Cyclesense entered the Selby Business Awards and won the Best Established Business Award.
Cyclesense became known for its specialism in touring bikes, with Dave also taking on the role of UK sales agent for Koga - the premier Dutch touring & lifestyle brand. To this day, despite the difficulties of Brexit, Cyclesense is the only UK retailer you can purchase a Koga bike from - something we're very proud of.
Kids' Bike Specialists
In the mid 00's Dave's youngest son John also joined the business, with a desire to create an additional specialism in quality children's bikes and accessories.
At just 22 years of age John opened up a second premises at Thorp Arch - a showroom devoted entirely to lightweight kids' bikes. It was from this base that Cyclesense operated as the UK's sole distributor for the German LIKEaBIKE brand - the original balance bike brand whose innovative bikes took the UK by storm.
We're really proud of the fact that Cyclesense helped to introduce balance bikes to the UK market - the best solution to help kids learn to ride which has now become the norm for UK families.
Still the best.
LIKEaBIKE has been relentlessly copied and done cheaper, but one thing that still stands out about the LIKEaBIKE balance bikes is the quality of the materials used. The use of marine ply means we're still replacing parts on LIKEaBIKE balance bikes which have literally been through generations over the past 20 years!
Take off.
Yes, that's legendary racer Eddy Merckx buying a LIKEaBIKE balance bike from Dave - probably the only bike Eddy has ever had to pay for!
John took the LIKEaBIKE brand throughout the country, also supplying major retailers and other specialists in the family cycling scene.
Family cycling.
John's wife Natasha also joined Cyclesense in 2010, helping to develop our website and assisting with sales across both our Tadcaster and Thorp Arch stores.
After helping thousands of other families teach their kids how to ride, John eventually got to teach his own son Sebastian!
Two shops, one town.
In 2015, we moved our kids' bike showroom to its current location on Westgate in Tadcaster.
With both stores now in one town, Cyclesense has been able to make Tadcaster a destination for all things cycling - catering for all kinds of customers, budgets and bikes.
From our kids' store on Westgate we are still the sole UK distributor for LIKEaBIKE balance bikes, and also for FollowMe Tandem - the #1 tag-a-long system for towing a child and their bike.
Everything Good Goes.
The move back to Tadcaster allowed John and Natasha to fulfill their dream of opening a bar, which is exactly what they did in 2018.
Known by its regulars as EGG, Everything Good Goes is a restaurant & bar serving amazing pizza and a collection of drinks that makes it stand out from Tadcaster's usual haunts.
The bar is situated right next-door to our kids' store on Westgate and you can find out more or even reserve a table at EGG on their website here.
Tour de Yorkshire.
In 2017, stage 2 of the Tour de Yorkshire started in our very own Tadcaster.
In the build-up to the event we were delighted to receive Gary Verity and the director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme.
Dave couldn't sell Christian a bike on this occasion, but did manage to present him with a Cyclesense branded buff nonetheless.
Generational.
In 2020 Dave & Sue retired from the business, handing it down to their sons Paul and John.
Paul and John now front our High Street store together, and Cyclesense continues to go from strength to strength - able to thrive by quickly adapting to the conditions of the market, but primarily through our drive to provide customers with a retail experience they'll remember.
