Check Your Insurance!

King St Cyclery has reopened with beautiful new natural timber floorboards and the walls stripped back to the century old brickwork, but owners Robyn and Adrian would have preferred less stressful circumstances in achieving this result.

Long established inner Sydney bike shop King Street Cyclery has a beautiful new interior and fit out. But owners Robyn and Adrian Lancaster would have been happier if it hadn’t happened under quite the same circumstances.

King Street is lined by century or more old buildings, mainly two stories high, and all built right to the footpath and touching their neighbours on either side. It’s actually the first few kilometres of the old ‘highway one’, main road from Sydney to Melbourne.

Last year, the neighbouring building adjoining their north wall caught on fire. Although King Street Cyclery itself never caught on fire, it was at extreme risk, due to the fire blazing within metres. In their efforts to contain the blaze, the fire brigade pumped so much water onto the property that the walls, flooring and a large amount of stock were severely damaged.

To make matters worse, it was then declared a health hazard with no entry permitted for months after the fire, right through the peak summer season.

Thanks to their persistence and hard work, Robyn and Adrian are back trading with their shop looking better than ever. For understandable confidentiality reasons, they’re not making any comment about the adequacy of their insurance or otherwise.

But the moral of the story for all bike shop owners reading this is, check your insurance! Make sure you’re covered for water damage, loss of income whilst not trading and the full cost of rebuilding and refitting.