THIS IS ANOTHER AMAZING THING THAT HAPPENED TO A MATE ALSO AT ( AMAZING STILL IN BUISNESS) F.W.R HE RIDES A 2003 R1 HAD A FULL SET OF BRIDGESTONES PUT ON AND BUY THE TIME WE GOT BACK TO THE ACE HIS FRONT LEFT CALIPER HAD CAME COMPLETLY LOOSE NOT JUST ONE BOLT HAD COME LOOSE BUT THE BOTH OF THEM HAD. AND ONE HAD COMPLETLY CAME OUT AND THE CALIPER WAS RATTLING AROUND SAT ON THE DISC THIS WAS JUST AMAZING. TO SAY THAT WE NEVER RETURNED 
Well i will never use FWR after reading this lot.
I live in Chatham and both myself and a few of my mates all ride pto Watling tyres in Catford. Top bunch of guys and they do a good job. Most of them are bikers and we think nothing of riding the 25 miles to use them. They have all the gear and the prices are good as well. From what i have read is it worth saving 5 or 10 quid coz FWR are the cheapest if you have to check everything yourself and you can’t trust their work.
I recommend Watling tyres everytime (catford branch) has anyone else ussed them?
Friend of mine used Watlings before and they never did up the pinch bolts on the bottom of the forks and i’ve never seen anyone use a torque wrench there in my life!
Personally i get my tyres from a friend and have them fitted to loose rims at Infinity (£5 per wheel) then fit them myself that way i know at least they are put back correctly!
A big CHEERS to Jay and Co for having this praise or shame column. Jeez, whatta big heads-up! I’ve only used FWR once, took loose wheels and tyres to them just for fitting to the rims and no probs. Would rather get someone else to take the wheels off the bike in a complete ride in/ride out service, but I am just really really kinda anal about ANYONE working on my bike. It dont stem from any bad experience (that I know of!), just peace of mind I s’pose.
Finally worked up the courage lately and convinced meself that at the next tyre replacement I would let them do it completely. Well bang goes my shattered confidence. Back to the spanners for me. No big deal really.
But a little list of genuinely very good tyre fitters would be most welcome.
BTW Jay, I think I would’ve had a heart attack seeing my bike covered in brake fluid! Covered my eyes reading that one! Unbelievable.
No worries fella, that’s the power of LB, being able to share experiences and not let bad practitioners hide behind the old fact that people wouldn’t talk to each other! Heart-attack, yeah, I nearly did have one.
bugger me you lot have had some bad luck!
touch wood I haven’t had a single complaint from any customers since I opened my shop in Brighton 3 years ago and we do close to 40 tyres a week!
maybe i should open a shop in London to sort all you lot out properly!
remember cheapest isn’t always best
Incubus, post details of yer shop. Always in brighton during the summer… purely for the weather and fish+chips by the sea…honest! 
Quote: remember cheapest isn’t always best
Exactly, always look for the best VALUE, there’s a difference. I get my tyres fitted by the guy in Hanwell (Berrington-Smith Motorcycles). Not the cheapest, but he does it properly.
FJR scratched the powder coating on my GSXR wheels and told me “it happens”. That was the last time they saw any of my money…
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Always, always, always check the work done anywhere before you ride off; not worth the risk for the sake of 30 seconds with a spanner. Whenever my bikes been worked on I always double check it for peace of mind.
Look for a garage that you can see good practice being used in - simple things like mechanics looking up, then using the correct torque for axle nuts etc 
did once fit a tyre the wrong way round…
it was on one of my own bikes an SV650 that I took to Brands in the pouring rain!!!
stayed up ok and only noticed a week later!
I have very little to say about them other than the price of tyres. But now I get them from the internet for the same or less and I know my money is not going to pay some #@#@!
I’m surprised at this - to be fair I’ve used them a few times for minor workshop jobs (they’re only a short walk from work), never had any problems and always been pleased with what they’ve done and what they charge. They did some work for me once, did a good job quickly and had cleaned out and bled the front brakes at the same time because they were taking the caliper off without charging me any more than what they originally quoted. There are some horror stories here though, so I’ll think twice before going there again and keep an eye on them if I do!
I still remember when i done my work experience with fwr and they done something so stupid they left a tyre leaver in some1s tyre and then they said they forgot about it and let the poor bloke ride out of there. one my dads mates has his bike fall of the ramp there a couple of times and dave (manager) tried to say that they didnt drop it off the ramp. ummmm i wonder why is he leaving to go live in spain lol
New chain and sprox fitted last week, went to check my tyre pressures and noticed that all the adjusting nuts were loose! Bloody went there with this post in mind too, if only they weren’t so cheap…
Once again… this is a case of someone had problems with FWR and some hadn’t… I have been a customer of theirs for yonks and never had a ill fitted tyre, or a badly balanced one! And certainly their shop is still open cause they’ve never dropped my bike off the stand, if they did their shop will be still smoking by now with all of the staff in it… but seriously we should realize that a company that serves clients day in day out 365 days a year its bound to have a few hicups we are all human after all. Imagine how many tyres they do in one day, lets say 60 tyres, multiply that by 6 days a week = 360 per week times 52 weeks in a year equals to 18720 tyers a year… surely we can’t expect all of those to be pukka, can we?
I work for a shipping line and we carry over 130’000 containers per year worldwide, it takes one tired overworked man to incorrectly secure a twist-lock under a 5 high pile of containers and when the ship is slamming and listing in a force 5 ocean swell, oops… off they fall in the juice. That is why we have insurance for. It happens. And of course I don’t expect the owners of the cargo stowed in the lost containers to be having good words to say about the company even thought its not directly the company’s fault. Thank god there isn’t a shipping forum yet 
I would seriously like to hear FWR side of the story to make my judgement on the various negative issues been addressed here.
Fair comment Cap - thats the way I thought of it - law of averages I suppose!
Mine was a minor, they were nice and helpful and gave me a great deal but if it was something a bit more serious than a coupla nuts…
when peoples lives are at risk the reply of "everyone makes mistakes " doesnt cut the mustard,these people are fitting tyres,chains etc etc everyday,so this sort of thing should not happen !!!,you would think that as this has happened more than once FWR would put some sort of quality control procedure in effect!! it doesn’t cost anything to get the workshop supervisor to double check These things before the bike is handed back to the customer .YOUR ONLY DEAD ONCE !!!
When it comes to a vehicle that only has 2 wheels and is so much more vulnerable anyway, these people who work on bikes really ought to be giving each and every job their 100% attention, just taking a little more care in what they’re doing. Thats all.
Yes, mistakes are expected from time to time, its human nature. But on this scale??
Just wondering, does the aircraft industry have the same level of quality control as FWR?
I don’t think so, how many would have died as a result?