Issue 92 | September 2013
EDITORIAL
NEWS 4-6 CYCLE SHOW
Show season is now in full swing so we preview one of the biggest of the lot – this year’s NEC Birmingham-set Cycle Show
FOCUS ON… ROULEUR, POST MBO CSG UK PREVIEW 14
Featuring new bike product from the likes of Cannondale, GT, Mongoose and Charge
Sponsored by I-RIDE PREVIEW
E-BIKES From opinions to new products and rumours, it’s all in our regular electric bicycle round-up
OUTDOOR & FITNESS This month we dedicate the whole Outdoor section to this month’s Outdoor Trade Show 2013
WINTER CLOTHING 43 CHILDRENS’ BIKES 55 DEALER PROFILE TRAINERS
Our third sector guide of the month takes a timely look at the indoor trainer market
NEW PRODUCTS 69
Fresh offerings from Bell, SRAM, Endura and BBB, plus some energy boosting gum
SPOKESMAN
Better weather or better bike paths? Which would boost the bike business best? Discuss
EVENTS 76 OFF TRACK 88 NUMBER CRUNCHING 87 90 53 COMMUNITY
Online-only bike retailer Always Riding is thrust into the dealer spotlight this month
61 SPONSORED BY
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Will letting cars park willy-nilly save the High Street? Our readers discuss the issues...
£77m for cycling, Raleigh and Brompton partner with rail networks and Olympic cycle venues open for business
WITH THE nights drawing in on what has been one of the best summers we’ve had in years, show season is in full swing so this issue of BikeBiz (and next month’s) have a fair few pages dedicated to new product, fresh brands and assorted bike show goodness. We’ve got show reports from CSG UK and i-ride’s product previews, plus a look at the impending Cycle Show and
Outdoor Trade Show. But before we get into all that, did the summer set your
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Gruppo Media now runs the Rouleur and Privateer show. BikeBiz caught up with the team to find out how things will be changing for the titles...
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And as if that wasn’t enough, we headed to Sussex to bring you the lastest from i-ride
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‘tills a-ringing? The UK bike market has been best known for sports cycling, so there’s a fair chance you sold mostly road or mountain bike-related product, right? Maybe the burgeoning commuter market has been a winner for you during these summer months, with ever increasing numbers of the country’s workforce encouraged to ditch the car for two wheels, especially while the sun has been out. The commuter market spills into the utility cycling sector
which, famously, hasn’t been the UK’s strong point. Getting on a bike rather than into a car just to pop to the shops or pick up the kids is so outside of the norm that it’s positively eccentric. Maybe that’s not entirely true nowadays, but utility cycling is still very much a minority activity across broad swathes of Great Britain.
Getting on a bike rather than into a car to pop to the shops is still so outside the norm in today’s Great Britain that it’s positively eccentric.
I spent a weekend in Bruges last month where I was
confronted with an ordinary, yet very alien sight: A woman cycling home from the local market with a box of fruit strapped to the back of her bike. For a British tourist, the sight of someone returning from a
spot of shopping with their purchased goods brought home on two wheels is as foreign as the words on the restaurant menus. I mean, what was she thinking? Didn’t she know it might rain?
It might be different where you are, but I’ve never seen a
comparable sight in the UK. Somewhere down the line it seems like the nation swallowed the car manufacturers’ myth that you need to get in a car to make ‘utility’ trips and it’s not going to be easy to shake that perception off. Maybe the growth of the commuter market is where the revolution will begin? Watch this space. Back in Bruges – which was absolutely packed with bicycles, horse and carts, cars and buses – there were many examples of almost comically awful driving and riding, like the chap almost cycling into the back of a bus while texting. Despite all that, I didn’t see a single outburst of road rage. Maybe that’s something else they do better too...
Jonathon Harker, Editor
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