Funny you should point that out Duggan, a fair few that haven’t kept up with the riding have turned to running. Time?
We’ve also had a few weeks of colder wetter weather, doesn’t take long I’d imagine for the sales to be hit.

If your return policy is perfectly good why whinge about people using it, make your mind up. And if they buy a bike “because it looks good on top of their Q8” then they are buying a bike that suits their needs. You can’t help yourself making sneery derisive comments about your clientele can you? Ever thought of a career change where you can be less bitter or envious, and less hypocritical as you keep taking these crap riding golfers money?

The attitudes displayed by some of the bike shop folk on here make it obvious why mail order has succeeded.

Just from my narrow field of experience and cross section of mates, both real and facebook, I know loads of blokes who haven’t got their bikes out of the garage since the end of last Summer.

Mostly new to cycling with the odd Sunday mtber thrown in. And mostly half decent bikes. There seemed to be a huge boom, fuelled by the Olympics, followed by a rapid shrinking of interest.

As I say, all purely IME.

You can’t help yourself making sneery derisive comments about your clientele can you? Ever thought of a career change where you can be less bitter or envious, and less hypocritical as you keep taking these crap riding golfers money?

It’s not our clientele so much. The ‘Pro Road Shop’ a couple of blocks away thankfully gets most of that sort of business.
I think our return policy is great.
I have a titanium singlespeed road bike, carbon road bike, decent 29er ‘trail’ bike, locally made rare Rocky Mountain retro-mountain bike and a pimped out cruiser so I can’t say that I’m envious either to be honest!
Funnily enough I seem to be the exact opposite to who you think I am. Hey ho….

Ooh did I touch a nerve?

No, I’m sorry to say I don’t have a £6k Cervelo.

Just enjoying a bit of internet repartee.

I got into road riding last year pre Wiggo success and due to the fact I broke my collar bone on my mtb. My mates I go road riding with all ride under 1k bikes and we have all done around 2,500 miles on them this year. I only know one mate who has spent what I term to be big money on a road bike at around 2k and hasn’t done a lot of miles on It.
As has been said the summer has been great and a crap winter will see who is still riding in the wind and rain . My work has just done It’s bi annualy c2w scheme and a lot have bought road bikes instead of the usual mtb’s this time. So time will tell If they are actually used or hang in the garages till next spring.
As has been said a million times on here ‘It’s all riding bikes , Innit’.

Does the fact that a lot of employers do a cycle to work scheme add to the number of cyclists?

I guess a lot of people used to cycle when younger and see the scheme and decide to go for it. Some keep going and some realize it is harder work than when they were 13 and the bike sits gathering dust in the shed.

Problem is it looks fun watching the tour. a lot think it’ll be like that. They’ll get bored.

Reality is its **** boring yet youre risking youre life worse than MTB and a lot of things more fun.

The whole danger vs fun is way skewed towards danger.

I despair when I see most things encouraging cycling are road bike related.

I’m thinking that it won’t be too long before the bicycle market resembles the motorbike market where low mileage, lightly used, quality bikes are quite plentiful having been bought with good intentions but then rarely left the garage.

*waves* £6k Cervelo owner here!

Been riding bikes all my life, keen BMXer, started riding roadbikes as a means of transport in my early teens (lived in the middle of nowhere), started club riding/timetrialling at 15/16 years old, been riding road, mountain, commuting ever since.

Last year I finally drew a line under a 3year divorce battle and decided to buy a once-in-a-lifetime bike.

It gets raced, ridden like it’s stolen, has been to Majorca this year, is going to Majorca and Morzine next year… And I’m 40 in December.

Not every £6k roadbike is bought as an ornament for the Audi roof, and even if it is, so what? People have different motivations for buying bikes, I know my bike is capable of far greater things than the Cat3 bloke that rides it, but I’m attracted to the technical aspect of bikes and cycling, so I wanted the absolute best.

For every 10 bikes that are bought and never used, there might be 1 or 2 new cyclists that find a passion for the sport and stick with it. So long may it continue.

Wow there princess! It’s only as boring or as dangerous as you choose to make it.

If you’re bored, choose a more interesting route and try harder.
If you feel scared for your life, ride quieter roads with good visibility at the quietest time of day. If all the above is too difficult to cope with, stay indoors at all times.

Nah, just ride my MTB!
roads are designed for things that go faster than push bikes. So they will be boring to ride at 20mph.

roads were built for things that go exactly the same speed as push bikes

Mountain biking grew fast because comfortable bikes with triple chainsets and good brakes made cycling easier for amateurs.

Road cycling is now growing fast because comfortable bikes with compact chainsets are making cycling easier for amateurs.

It’s peaked for me. I got into riding again by commuting and sportives and the like but I’ve kind of had enough now. There’s a lot of aggro with drivers these days and much more of an us v them mentality than there was 5 years ago.

I’ve ridden my mtb much more this year than my road bike. And I’ve got no real desire to buy anything new for my roadie, all my spending plans are for getting dirty. Especially now the boss has approved of me taking my bike on family holidays. Yay!

There’s a lot of aggro with drivers these days and much more of an us v them mentality than there was 5 years ago.

A fair bit of it fuelled by (presumably new) cyclists. I’ve seen innumerable fist waving / confrontational episodes from people steaming along on the drops, in a peaked helmet then suddenly noticing a hazard ahead. Some people seem determined to be difficult regardless of what they are doing.

There’s a lot of aggro with drivers these days and much more of an us v them mentality than there was 5 years ago.

give it time. The aggro is mainly because when a lot of people get into a car, they start acting like spoilt children.

It’s also just a symptom of people struggling to cope with change. As cycling continues to grow and become normalised, people’ll get used to it and chill out. I hope…

Anecdotally, there’s less aggro in Central London than there is out in the country lanes I ride at weekends – I think London drivers are more used to people riding

Muddydwarf, I haven’t picked it up yet. The potenza looked very nice, slighly better frame than the Poggio, but the Poggio has better geometry for me. But yesterday my 2 min test ride before parting with my cash was great.

give it time. The aggro is mainly because when a lot of people get into a car, they start acting like spoilt children.

Motorists have had this attitude to cyclists for as long as I’ve been riding, it’s nothing new. And drivers’ attitudes haven’t got worse.

It’s just that more and more people are riding bikes, so more and more people are talking about driver attitudes. Until there’s some sort of public information campaign to spell out what cyclist know, and motorists seem oblivious to, things won’t change…

Things like:
• The fact that a cyclist’s head is foot higher than a motorist in an ordinary car, so he can see further ahead.

• Riding in a primary position isn’t being awkward, it’s done to prevent motorists overtaking in a place that would endanger the cyclist.

• Cyclist regularly die in incidents that would usually result in insurance details being exchanged had it 2 cars that were involved.

• If a cyclist is doing 28-30mph in a 30 zone, there’s no need to overtake him.

Brassneck and brooess, I think you’re both right. I’m not jacking in road riding completely, but it’s taking a back seat for a while. I think the key is to rotate your vices.