BIG INTERVIEW
and see them, pick them up, get your bike serviced, et cetera.” The initial idea for the business is that cyclists would ride up (hence the original name) to their bike shop, trade in their old bike, and take out a subscription on a new bike. But owing to the added hassle of the trade-in option, Hammond and Downing decided to shift the emphasis to the bike subscription access, resulting in the rebrand to BikeFlex.
Retirement plans If there are areas Downing knows inside out, it’s coffee and performance cycling. Downing, along with his brother Dean, spent two decades as a professional rider on the road, competing with some iconic teams, including the British WorldTour outfit Sky ProCycling, and domestic squad JLT- Condor, before his retirement in 2019. While Downing had plenty planned for his retirement, the Covid-19 pandemic very quickly cleared his calendar: “I only retired in 2019, right on the edge of Covid, and I had so much
planned - events, training camps, just still being out there. That rug got pulled and it was back to the drawing board. “Myself and Tim felt that I’ve got a great following and
have built a community online, so we wanted to hopefully convert some of those into customers.
“Tim’s got some great ideas on the business side, and I’m coming for my cyclist contacts. We’re working well together and it’s getting exciting.” On Downing’s experience as a professional cyclist, Hammond added: “What they say in the start-up world is you need sector experience. Russ has deep sector knowledge, not just from riding bikes but from knowing so many people in the industry.
“There’s a lot of e-bikes start-ups right? A lot of people are doing bike subscriptions on e-bikes and fleets - none of them have any sector knowledge. “We’re doing it properly. We want to help those brands open up a new channel. We’ve got some already, but they’re not all going to jump on day one. They’re going to look and see. “So we’re the trailblazers.”
The service
Cycle Espresso, the first part of the venture launched by Downing and Hammond, was established in January 2022, and is a network of coffee-loving cycle retailers and cafes, supported by an online Cycle Espresso map to help riders find these locations.
The company also offers bolt-on dealership packages to cycle cafes so they can earn new revenue streams from sales of home Rocket Espresso machines and cycle product lines without them having to hold stock or handle fulfilment, with support from Pro Espresso, the official UK distributor of Rocket espresso machines (also owned by Hammond). Then last September, the pair launched BikeFlex, a bike subscription service that allows customers to pay a fixed-price on either six or 12 months contracts, for some very desirable bikes. BikeFlex utilises the network of Cycle Espresso locations, offering
Downing and Chris Ratcliff from specialist titanium bike brand Reilly
www.bikebiz.com March 2023 | 25
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