BIG INTERVIEW
“I think the biggest change I’ve seen over that time is cycling’s place and recognition in society,” Mallinder told me. “Cycling was very much the preserve of the white middle class male. Over that time, organisations like Cycling UK and others have really pushed for better equality in cycling, looking at those who weren’t cycling or had a barrier to cycling. “We launched things like the 100 Women in Cycling, the Women’s Festival of Cycling, to put a spotlight on the variety of cycling that women were doing, saying look, there’s lots of different cycling and you can be inspired by your peers.” Mallinder said the Government is also waking up to the fact that cycling, whilst it may previously have been viewed as a bit of an annoyance or something that men did on the weekend, is now being seen as a solution to a lot of society’s problems. “We saw it through the pandemic,” he continued, “lots of people getting bikes back out of the sheds. Again, that’s something Cycling UK has done through things like the Big Bike Revival for years, and thinking about how it works for wellbeing, how it works for the environment, how it’s a viable transport solution for towns now, especially with more congestion and air pollution. “For a long time, the cycle advocacy space just championed cycling for cycling’s sake and now we can actually have a different dialogue that starts hitting people’s other agendas. I really welcome things like the Active Travel England that’s just about to start, and the Government’s Gear Change document from a couple of years ago, where they really set out some high aspirations for cycling. I think it’s in a good place from where it was, and more importantly, we’re seeing that replicated across all the nations.” There’s also been quite a lot of tech over that time - both in the bikes themselves getting better and better, but also the innovative use of tech. “The whole ability for tech to be used to inspire people, but also being able to share GPX routes,” said Mallinder. “If you wanted to go on a long distance trip before you had to be an expert on Ordnance Survey maps, and now you can download a GPX file.” Routes like King Alfred’s Way, an off-road adventure
route which connects four of England’s National Trails – North Downs Way, South Downs Way, Ridgeway and Thames Path – are also ways to catalyse news audiences and new enthusiasm, and people like that curated way of cycling, added Mallinder. “The community of cyclists is probably a lot broader
now, both in the types of people but obviously the accessibility to it as well. When I first started cycling, I remember being the only person in my village that cycled
www.bikebiz.com
Mallinder with former Cycling UK trustee Welna Bowden at a Big Bike Revival event
and I had to cycle five miles to the cycling club every Sunday morning.”
Embracing change? But looking at it from an industry point of view - how much have bike shops been embracing these changes seen within the cycling sector? “They probably had their eyes opened financially during lockdown,” Mallinder said. “I don’t think they valued the everyday cyclists as much as they did the more enthusiasts, and I think the pandemics probably helped them there. “The real beneficiary for more people cycling is actually
the trade as they’re going to sell more bikes. Generally, I think they’ve been a bit slow to pick up. E-bikes are a really interesting area, I think we were probably a bit snippy as a society at the beginning. “In Belgium, I think more e-bikes are sold now than
regular bikes. Not just old people, which was how it was viewed before, very much people seeing it as a viable alternative transport, commuter type model, or to extend their journeys. “I think that’s a really exciting shift, it equalises cycling.
Obviously, it’s a good boom for the trade.” Cycling UK also earlier this year launched ‘Making cycling e-asier’, which provides free loans of electric cycles and is funded by Department for Transport. “We’ve got a pilot in Manchester and we’ll be launching
more locations as and when,” said Mallinder. “But again, that’s perhaps normalising e-bikes even further because it’s actually giving bikes to those who potentially are in the groups that wouldn’t necessarily afford them. “The price of e-bikes to date has perhaps been a little bit prohibitive for certain people.
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