Bike repair shops Frankfurt

Hi all

I actually have two bike related questions - firstly, can anyone recommend a good place to have a road bike repaired? Me rear derailleur is a bit buggered, and I can't seem to get it quite right - but I'd also like somewhere regular to go if I need to. I know there are a few road cyclists/triathletes on this forum, so I'm hoping someone might be able to help! One one of the other threads, someone recommended Bikemax, but I'd be keen to get a second opinion…

Secondly, I've asked a couple of people about this but I'm still not 100% sure - is it legal to ride along the roads in Frankfurt even when there's a cycle path? I'm guessing it is, but Germany seems to have a couple of odd rules so I just wanted to check…

Thank you in advance!!!

Lucy

If you want it to be done real cheap, then i would suggest the flea market tht happens near roemer. There are couple of guys who wud fix it for u..!

I have always used these guys:

http://www.snow-bike-action.de/

They are a bit out of Franfurt but always found them very helpful

By german law you *have* to use a cycle path, if there is one on your side of the road. I think you can be fined 10 or 20 Euros for not complying with this - though I have never seen this enforced in Frankfurt.
That said, many people chose to ignore this law and there are many arguments gainst it. So you should use the cycle paths but you'll hardly stand out, if you chose not to.

I have wondered this myself. I can't see how there can be as quite frankly the speed you can cycle at on a road bike it would be dangerous to be on the cycle path! I can't see it being illegal.

Sven can you post a link to that law or tell me where in the BGB I could find it? I am very curious to read it as I cannot see how this is safe and also 'gesetzwidrig' to do it. A road cyclist can cycle much faster than those electronic push bike mini mofa things and they are allowed on the road.

I am going to endeavor to find this out, mainly so that I can bark back at all the people who bark at me when coming up to traffic!

As for repair shops I can only tell you NOT to go to Fahrrad Böttgen on Bergerstr they are not road bike specialists and you are probably likely to get it back in a worse condition! I have some friends who can no doubt recommend places in or around Darmstadt if you don't mind travelling - or maybe they can put me in touch with a good place in Frankfurt.

Yeah I agree - I've almost knocked over quite a few people, and it's pretty frustrating - although I've only averaged one bark/hoot per ride, which is pretty good compared to how it was in London… Besides which some of the cycle path surfaces are pretty rough, but that's beside the point…

Damn Purplemuffin, I was hoping you'd already know somewhere that you'd entrust your lovely road bike to! Well I'm going to spend a few hours with Zinn on Saturday and fix the problem myself - but some inside FFM recommendations would be good. Otherwise I'm willing to travel for good bike servicing as long as they're open at weekends...

Nobody said it makes sense! Studies even have shown, that spearate bike paths/lanes increase the chance of accidents with cars, as the car drivers do not pay attention to bikes on separate paths. As far as I know, in Berlin even the Police have officialy said, that they will not prosecute such an "offense". Sadly not in Frankfurt - Mr Sikorski, city official for traffic, wants to encourage people to ride bikes but rather wants to build more bike paths and so of coures wants people to use those.

Below I linked two pages in german about this. I actualy found out, that there no longer is a general rule to use cycle paths - according to Straßenverkehrsordnung, §2 Abs. 4., it is only obligatory if the paths are marked with one of the three signs at the top of the first linked page. But to me it seems, that this covers practicaly all cycle paths.

Radwegbenutzungspflicht at german Cyclists association
Radwege und Radwegbenutzungspflich at Verkehrslexikon.de

Edit: Concerning bicycle repair shops, there are two that should be all right in Ginnheim. I am not a bike enthusiast, so take my expertise with a grain of salt.
First there is the Fahrradstation Ginnheim, which is almost right next to the U-Bahn-/Straßenbahn-Haltestelle Ginnheim. They opened only a few months ago but I have had very positive experiencs with them. Also, there is Fahrrad Wagner in Alt-Ginnheim. They are a long standing bike shop - the only gripe I always had with them, is that they have their hands full practicaly all of the time. So if you want your bike repaired, this might take two or more weeks. Maybe this was just bad luck, don't know.

Thoet in Konstablerwache and Per Pedale in Bockenheim are very good but also very expensive. I used to take my bike to either one and have never paid under 45EUR for a visit. In summer you need to make an appointment weeks ahead with these guys.

Meanwhile I discovered the flea market in Sachsenhausen. There are many guys there who fix bikes. I find them quite good and they are very cheap. No need to make an appointment either.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!

I went to Thoet at the weekend and had my bike fixed - they did manage to do what I needed for a fair price, but overall I found them to be incredibly rude, both when I dropped my bike off and when I picked it up.

Seems like that is a theme with many bike shops around FFM, they appear to have had extra special rudeness training.

There are two other threads that touch on the subject.

Bike shops in Frankfurt
Tips on places to buy a bicycle

Buying a second-hand bike in Frankfurt
Tips on good places to buy a used bicycle

Usually every town of a certain size has an office of the bikers' association ADFC. Several ones offer a Selbsthilfewerkstaette, a kind of garage with a full set of tools, where bikers can fix their best friends after paying a small fee (in Munich it is 5 EUR). This is meant to enable the people to work themselves on their bikes, but usually some very knowledgeable hands are around to jump in when needed.

The Frankfurt branch is found near the center of the town:
http://www.adfc-frankfurt.de/infoshop/infoanfa.htm

The ADFC garages usually have a very good reputation (the Munich one certainly beats the skills of many bike shops, sorry for not knowing about the Frankfurt place). Here's more to it:
http://www.adfc-frankfurt.de/ffa/2008/1/200813.htm