Frequently Asked Questions

UPDATE: The last date for allocating your voucher to a Registered Repairer was 9th Jun 2021 - any vouchers not allocated by that date are considered expired.

Velo Square is a registered repairer under the UK Department for Transport's 'Fix Your Bike Scheme', as administered by the Energy Saving Trust.

Vouchers are issued by the Energy Saving Trust and full terms & conditions for the Scheme and the online voucher application portal can be found at: Fix Your Bike Scheme application portal

Some important information about the Scheme:

• Vouchers cover up to £50 worth of work and parts but there may be additional costs involved for making your bike usable and road-safe. Any costs beyond the £50 value of the voucher must be paid directly to us upon completion of the work. You must also provide us with your voucher details and we will take a photograph of your bike that will be submitted to the Scheme's online Repairer Portal when we redeem your voucher. We will give a clear indication of costs when quoting for the work.

• You must specify the bike you wish to have worked on when applying for your voucher. Vouchers are issued against that specific bike and may not be redeemed against work on any other bike.

IMPORTANT: We can only undertake work on the specific bike that your voucher was issued against. Under the terms of the scheme, when we apply to redeem your voucher and be paid for our work we must provide photographic evidence that the bike we worked on matches that registered when your voucher was issued. Failure to do this will result in us not being pad for our work so please do not ask us to accept a voucher as payment for work on a different bike.

Velo Square is a mobile service and completes 95% of work at your home or work address.

We may occasionally need to take your bike away for certain types of work but we will advise you of this in advance. Please note that we do not accept drop-offs or collections by customers other than in exceptional circumstances and by prior agreement.

A clean bike is a happy bike...

... and cleaning your bike is really pretty simple. You don't need lots of specialist products either, though we are admittedly big fans of Green Oil and Fenwick's products. And, while some specialist products definitely make things easier, you can clean your bike effectively in just a few minutes with just a few common household items.

1. Give your entire bike from below the saddle and handlebars (keep those dry if you can) a gentle spray with a hose on low pressure, or even a watering can. Don't use a pressure washer and definitely don't direct high pressure water into major bearings like headset or bottom bracket. They don't like it!

2. Then, with a bucket of warm soapy water and a a soft washing up brush or sponge - and avoiding disc brakes and the oily bits (chain, sprockets and chainrings) - give it a gentle scrub and make sure you agitate any dried-on dirt and debris

3. Then, using the same brush or sponge, with more soapy water give the front and rear derailleurs a scrub and try to dislodge any dirt from them, particularly around the jockey wheels (two small cogs) on your rear derailleur. run the chain backwards to help get as much dirt as possible off each side of those little wheels

4. Next, using your watering can or hosepipe, rinse it all off thoroughly with LOTS AND LOTS of clean cold water (again avoiding the saddle and handlebars)

5. Leave it to drip-dry for five minutes and then wipe it dry with a rag; old t-shirts are great but make sure you don't use anything you'll miss as from this point it's in for a life of grime!

6. Fold another dry rag a few times into a pad and with your left hand, use the wadded rag to grip the chain between the rear-derailleur and the chainset. Then, use your right hand to rotate the pedals slowly backwards, dragging the chain backwards through the wadded rag in your left hand. Be sure not to let the rag get dragged into the derailleur jockey wheels. Keep rotating the pedals backwards until the rag has a thick black oily stripe across it. Then refold the rag to offer another cleanish area and repeat. Keep repeating until you've removed as much oil from the chain as possible.

7. If doing this the day before or the same day as your service then that's it, you're done. Congrats!

8. If there's more than a day yet before your appointment then you'll need to apply some chain oil to your chain in order to prevent any corrosion. Apply a single drop (just the one!) of Green Oil chain lube to each and every roller of your chain (rollers are the shiny polo-shaped bits between the outer plates) and then backpedal the chain for 40-50 rotations to work the oil into each roller. If your chain has a 'quicklink' or 'master link' use this to spot when the chain has completed a rotation and every link has been oiled. Then - and this is important - remove any excess oil by taking another cleanish part of your wadded rag, gripping the chain in the rag in your left while back-pedalling with your right hand for 20-30 turns. This will still leave a dirty stripe but it shouldn't be quite as bad as before you started.

And that's it: a nice clean bike that's easier for us to work on and that we don't have to clean before we can get started.

We'd recommend spending just a few pounds on some good quality bike cleaning products (such as those from Green Oil or Fenwick's) so that when we've serviced your bike you can keep it in good running order for longer. Ask about this at your service appointment and we'll recommend some suitable products.

We will, by prior negotiation, fit new parts supplied by you but we can accept no responsibility for incompatibility or other related issues, nor can we accept responsibility for any defects or subsequent related problems caused by those defects. If you wish to source parts yourself we are always happy to advise on suitable choices.

We will never supply used parts for use on your bike. However, we can, by prior agreement, fit used parts that you supply, subject to you signing a waiver that indemnifies us against any failure of those parts and consequential injury or losses resulting. We have to go 'belt & braces' on this matter as there are very few insurers who will cover a business that supplies and fits used parts!