FEATURE


BEST OF BRITISH by Mark Sutton


ost-Brexit Britain should have had some advantages for British manufacturers, but as demonstrated by America’s recent tariff lottery and the removal of some anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese goods, if only things were so simple. Mark Sutton gives a progress update on how British bike manufacturers are doing in 2025.


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Pashley Cycles Pashley has stayed true to its roots in Stratford-upon-Avon for 99 years. That’s right, it will soon be triple digits for the wheelers of Warwickshire, and that marker shows the longevity of both brand and business. It would have been simple for Pashley to sit back and rely on its heritage to sell bikes, but visit the manufacturing base in 2025 and you’ll find all sorts of side quests underway. Diversity has underpinned the veteran business, and this


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eggs in several baskets approach saw Pashley pin down the non e-bike supply of London’s bike share scheme back in 2016. Yet, as visitors to the capital will have noticed, the fleet is quickly becoming electrified, and those e-bikes do come from a separate supplier. Yet instead of losing interest in the sharing sector, Pashley has simply shot for overseas tenders, as well as more supply of homegrown share schemes. As such, if you walked through the factory today, you’ll no doubt see various branded bikes destined for mainland Europe. Better still, Pashley has innovated around one of the main issues currently surrounding bike share, creating a semi-mobile dock that requires no planning permission to install, only that of the landowner. This means that share schemes, or even private businesses, can install their own fleets of share bikes and keep fleets mobile based on sharing patterns, all the while guaranteeing they’ll be docked at either end. Needless to say, free-floating schemes have


June 2025 | 49


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