Rothar

I feel really lucky to have stumbled on the Phibsborough Road Rothar shop! I brought in my old bike for a fixup, lights, mudguards and a lock, left it with Mark and picked it up in no time in tip top condition and at an extremely good price! Mark is professional, helpful and super sweet! Highly recommended! They also have really affordable second hand bikes all looking super spiffy :)

I can’t sing their praises enough.
Last summer I found an old clunker behind my rental house and decided to bring it in to Rothar to donate it for parts, assuming it would never be road-​worthy. When I arrived at the Fade Street store, I explained the situation to them. Rather than take the bike as a free donation, they offered to fix it up for me for 80 quid — new tires, new wheels, new chains, new brakes — everything! It was amazing! My little clunker is ugly as hell but rides like a dream.
Since then, I’ve brought it back for tire punctures, a new seat, and when it was vandalized (grrr). They’ve always fixed the bike quickly and for a very reasonable price. Friendly staff, laid back environment… best bike repair in Dublin!

Amazing community project place where you can get your bike serviced properly and with genuine care for not much, leave your unwanted bikes for a 2^nd life (or buy their refurbished bikes) and even attend a workshop on how to fix your bike yourself. I’ve had a lot of work done on my bike there which they did in 24 hours only !! and since then, no bother
As a community project, they won an entrepreneur award (can’t remember which one that was) which means they really know what they re doing and are really committed to the project.
I ll try their bike workshop some day !

This is the best idea i have come across in 2009.
I visited Rothar during the summer in search of a bicycle, now Phibsboro is a long trek for me from Dundrum, its all the way across the other side of the city, I didnt buy a bike but it was worth it to see this operation.
You should look at their website to try and get the full flavour of rothar but i will try and describe it to you here. Basically it is a community project that gathers abandoned and donated bicycles from around the city, the people there then do up the bicycles and then sell them on at a really cheap price, about € 90 for your average bike. They also conduct classes on maintaining your bicycle and they provide workshop spaces where you can repair your own bike with their tools and get advice on how to fix whatever is wrong.
Since i was there they have changed premises and that can only be good. I spent ages walking around phibsboro with my boyfriend trying to find this «shop» in an area i have never been in before, we ended up down a tiny little lane where there were loads of kids playing. It was there we found what i can only describe as a tiny garage with a man in dreds surrounded by bicycles and bike parts. He confirmed that we had found Rothar but unortunately there were not any proper bikes ready to take away.
The workshop is bigger and better now but as far as i can see these guys are in real need of bicycles to keep this operation going so as well as giving Rothar a big thumbs up i am sending an encouraging message out to anyone who reads this, if you have an old bike lying around or if you know someone who is throwing one out, think of these guys before you donate your bike to a skip!
Oh and just incase you dont speak Irish, Rothar is the Irish for Bicycle and it’s pronounced «ruh-​har» if you can read my attempt at spelling phonetically!