Two Thirds Increase

Whether it’s down to Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Lizzie Armitstead or the long list of other British cycling successes over the last few years, the explosion in the popularity of the sport in the UK has delivered a windfall for bike retailers and manufacturers in the country.

Bike sales jumped by two thirds in the 12 months to 2014, the year when Yorkshire hosted the start of the Tour de France, official figures show.

According to the Office for National Statistics, UK manufacturers’ sales of cycles increased to £60.2m by value in 2014 from £35.6m the year before. Good work from the mamil army.

This obviously had a knock-on effect on the number of bikes being produced by manufacturers in this country, such as Brompton, which makes the famous fold-up bikes. The overall UK volume of bikes produced rose 69.8 per cent year-on-year in 2014 and more than doubled compared to 2011.

The statistics are contained in a report on popular summer products published on Monday by the ONS, which (surprise, surprise) also shows that sales of ice cream are particularly strong during the summer months. Ice cream sales have been rising year on year, however.

In 2014, sales of ice cream and frozen lollies were valued at £722.8m, up £88.6m since 2013 and £157.3m since 2011, the ONS said.

I was thinking about this yesterday. Evans are expanding and Halfords are stocking good stuff, so there are a lot more cool shiny bikes out there in front of the general public, but crucially those two companies are selling really nice looking bikes for very reasonable money – Pinnacle and Boardman. Loads of those two makes around being ridden by everyday folk rather than MAMILs.

All very encouraging stuff!

I think the real difference is when you see more people using the bikes for errands / commuting e.t.c rather than just leasure rides. I think there are fewer towns and cities accross the coutry where this is happening than an increase in leasure cycling.

It’s so they can paint them yellow (TdF) or blue (TdY) and chain them to things in Yorkshire.

Wokingham station got re-developed recently, which meant the 5 bent bike stands out front which were usually empty or had the same rusted and broken bikes on them 24/7 got replaced by a big double decker bike shed, which is always full.

Build it and they will come.

Tell me more about the lollies…..

I’ve seen a massive increase in leisure cycling in the last three years.

Until 2012 I rarely saw more than 1 or 2 other cyclists while out riding. Trails were quiet and back lanes were empty.

In the last 3 years trails have become full of new riders and the back lanes have large groups of cyclists most Saturday and Sunday mornings. It looks like a professional tour approaching some days – except they’re going much slower 😆

For me the biggest indicator of the adoption of cycling has been in TV adverts. Not TV adverts for bikes but adverts for everything else, they regularly have bikes in them. If you don’t immediately see the bike in an advert look in the background – there will usually be a bike. Leaning against the wall in a flat, being ridden along a road or simply hanging on the wall as art.

Bikes are everywhere 8)

A few months back I had a hotel in Basingstoke with 20 miles of pleasant country lanes to ride – on the warm evenings I’d see a couple of dozen sets of recreational cyclists having a drink or checking maps at junctions and so on. Given that the ones I actually saw were a very small percentage of riders out in the area, it was great to see. I think we outnumbered the cars too.

Bikes are everywhere

Awesome 🙂

It’s worth noting of course that the data in that story is for 2013 (12 months leading to 2014 an odd way of saying 2013)- when the Wiggins/Hoy factor was in full flow, plus on the Mountain Bike side of things Wales spent £11m a on new facilities to attract new riders and made a lot of existing ones upgrade or return to the sport.

Do we think that 2014 data would show a further increase, stay the same or fall?

Personally I’ve seen less MAMILs on the road this summer, true some could have slimmed down and just look like regular roadies now, but how many went back to Golf when interest dropped@ Mountain Bike centres are still bust, but I don’t fancy they’re as busy as they were last summer, or the one before.