Bike shops: All change, please... I’ve always had a soft spot for Bike Zone. It sells and services an astonishing number of bikes for a shop that’s little larger than a garden shed.

The manager, Neil, has worked there all the 15 years I’ve lived in Oxford. He sold me my first bicycle-love: my trusty old Kona mountain bike, as lean and lovely today as the day I bought it.

Through Bike Zone’s window, weekly I stop to covet the Brooks courier bags and the single-speed Treks. All that’s about to change. Bike Zone’s owner Stuart Meanwell is toiling on the finishing touches to what will be the finest bike shop – in the world.

Next month, Bike Zone is moving from Market Street to St Michael’s Street, where the listed building has cost an arm and a leg to refurbish.

I’ve had a look around and it was worth every penny. The shop is on two levels, with sales and repairs on the wide ground floor.

Huge windows look out on to the street, so passers-by will be able to scrutinise the fine-tuning of a Sturmey Archer hub gear as if the mechanics were chefs in a trendy restaurant.

Upstairs, there’s one huge room: half-showroom, half-bicycle cafe. A while-you-wait service will allow customers to enjoy a machiatto while gazing at the Cannondale and Genesis displays upstairs, while their bike is being overhauled in the workshop below.

The venture is bound to make a big difference to Bike Zone’s prospects and will set the mark for all the city’s bike shops. I can’t wait for it to open.

Plenty has changed elsewhere during the year. Kevin Moreland and On Yer Bike’s own Honour Tomkinson started Bainton Bikes a year ago. Already their fleet of recycled hire bikes in smart black livery exceeds 80 and they’re set to expand to 150 in 2011.

Bainton now has competition from Oxford Cycles, who hire a dozen Konas out of their shop in Headington.

Following the sad death of John Wilson in June, a community effort kept Walton Street Cycles going. Since July, Kevin and Honour have run this Jericho shop as well. Watch out for their range of recycled bikes for sale.

Almost next door, Cycle Centre opened last February. At first, loyal WSC customers wondered why so close, but it now looks as if there’s room in the market for both shops to thrive.

Run by former WSC staff, Cycle Centre sells interesting Kansi folding bikes and Raleighs from its brightly-lit showroom, while WSC still specialises in tourers and British brands Pashley and Brompton.

Sadly, Oxford Cycle Workshop’s premises in Magdalen Road is closing on 27 November. That’s the end of the drop-in repair and sales service that thousands have grown to love, but this is NOT the end of OCW.

Far from it: the shop closure means OCW can expand its mobile repair service for colleges and businesses, as well as promote cycling on the city’s estates, where the cycling bug has never bitten as hard. Watch their reassuring video at weremakingchanges.co.uk.

Based in Glanville Road, mechanics and apprentices will continue to do up recycled bikes for monthly sales.

OCW’s successful Cycle Training Centre is also here, offering anything from the full BikeAbility training course to a one-hour on-road skills refresher. OCW runs a busy members’ night every Tuesday, where you can do up your own bike using their tools.