Life Aboard a Floating Bike Shop | Bicycling

All aboard Floating Bike Repairs, the most whimsical bike shop in the world. Mechanic and sailor Sam Skinner is bringing beauty and life back to London’s canals, one vintage bicycle at a time.

Light rain falls from the London sky, tinkling onto the corrugated fiberglass roof above like mini chocolate chips. Sam Skinner sits on a stool beside the vintage Dawes bike propped up in his stand. Wheels and frames, parts and tools hang around the ceiling of this tiny canal boat, surrounding his head like birds after a cartoon character gets a good knock to the head. And this suits Skinner, a good-natured bike mechanic living and working full-time on his three-boat flotilla called Floating Bike Repairs.

Since he’s floating, Skinner changes location every couple weeks around the canal system in the U.K. On sunnier days, he sets up his workstand out on the deck or on the boardwalk beside his moored boats. Many of his customers stumble upon him while he is working, by happenstance. The rest of them simply ask—his regulars know to send him a text, give him a call, or check his Instagram for his most recent location.

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Life Aboard a Floating Bike Shop | Bike Shop | Bicycling