At the height of the pandemic, when gyms were closed and the fear of contracting Covid made public transportation less attractive, Boris Johnson vowed to come ” the golden age of cycling.”
The then Prime Minister made a statement announcing a £2bn package to encourage cycling, including more bike lanes.
>The number of bikes sold skyrocketed during the pandemic, rising 22% to 3.3 million in the year to January 2021, according to Mintel.
Three years later, as with online retailers, all hope is that the 2022 boom in mechanical bike sales has fallen by almost a quarter from last year, according to the Cyclists Association, as rising costs of living take a toll on consumers and the thefts are skyrocketing.
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At the same time, bicycle retailers, who had hopes for further growth, had to struggle to clear the mountains of excess stock or face bankruptcy.< /p>
“In the absence of public transport, cycling was the obvious [choice],” says Roger Geffen, policy director for the charity Cycling UK.
“The weather at the time was phenomenal, which was one of the silver linings of all the horrors pandemics are opening up birdsong, nature and the ability for families to get out onto quiet streets with much less traffic.”In the absence of public transport, cycling has become the obvious choice for getting around during the pandemic. There are about 11 per cent more bikes on the roads in the UK than before the pandemic and almost 24 per cent more than in December 2013, according to official figures. But defenders are disappointed that the “golden age” promised by the former prime minister has not arrived.
“We seem to have overlooked that silver lining,” says Geffen. “Some people continued – so be it – but we missed the opportunity.”
For many in the bicycle industry, however, the precipitous drop in demand following the pandemic was not just a disappointment, but a disaster.
Inspired by the boom in sales during the pandemic, bicycle retailers ordered large quantities of merchandise, expecting the boom to continue.
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However, it soon became clear that this was not the case as life returned to normal. Mechanical bike sales are down 22% in 2022, down nearly a third from pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bicycle Association.
Demand for bikes is falling
Jonathan Harrison, director of the Association of Bicycle Traders (ACT ), said earlier this year that many bike retailers were facing “excess inventory and commitment.”
In December, Giant, one of the world's largest bike brands, asked their suppliers to defer payments, citing a drop in demand. and rising inventory levels.
A few months later, Moore Large, a Derby bicycle distributor founded in 1947, went into administration. Its director Adam Biggs told Derbyshire Live: “Bikes arriving in the UK for the year were at the same time, which meant a huge oversupply.”
This has forced retailers to rely heavily on discounts. move stocks, which prevents sellers from covering their costs.
At the same time, the rising cost of living is forcing households to cut contingencies. For a large part of the population, buying a new bike has become much less of a priority.
“It all boils down to consumers not having a lot of spare cash, which leads to discretionary shopping. ”, says Lee Kidger, Managing Director of Raleigh UK.
Graham Stapleton, Chief Executive of Halfords, agrees that buyers are putting off buying bikes unless it is essential to their daily lives. .
Transportation Secretary Mark Harper has slashed the state's travel budget, which covers cycling infrastructure. Photo: CHRIS J RATCLIFFE/Shutterstock. when enthusiasm was high.
In March, Transportation Secretary Mark Harper slashed the government's active travel budget, which covers cycling and walking infrastructure.
Pledged capital investment in infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists and cyclists were reduced from £308m to £100m over the next two years.
In an open letter to ministers in March, the Cyclists' Association called it “a move backwards.” for the economy, climate and health.”
These problems are exacerbated by growing frustration with high bike theft rates and a lack of trust in authorities to apprehend criminals.
About 74,000 bikes have been stolen across throughout the UK from the beginning of the year until June 2022. However, 90% of police cases were closed without identifying a suspect, and only 1.7% ended with someone being charged.
“What we do is 'I know that when you suffer from a bike theft there is a risk that you won't continue,'” says Geffen. .
Police trust in dealing with theft is low: More than three-quarters of people who took part in a YouGov survey last year said they did not expect the police to properly investigate bike theft.
Some cyclists have even taken the law into their own hands, trying to recover stolen bikes and hunt down thieves themselves. The Cambridge-based Facebook group, where users share reports and images of lost bikes and information about thieves, now has over 11,500 members.
1,706 bike thefts
Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman of the National Council of Chiefs of Police insists that bicycle theft is “taken seriously” and police have invested “substantially” in investigating and preventing it.
She adds: “In some cases, the police have there may not be enough information to take action or file a criminal case… I understand the frustrations felt by victims who are not getting the quality police services or the results they would like from the criminal justice system.”
Despite these challenges, executives believe there is cause for optimism.
Interest in electric bikes is on the rise, Raleigh's Kidger says, and the company now sells more electric bikes than non-electric ones.
The cost-of-living crisis hasn't affected luxury bike sales in general. “At around £5,000 and up, they are still in high demand,” he says.
Halfords’ Stapleton adds: “It’s interesting that kids bikes… are part of their lives.
< p>“These are actually recreational bikes that people might use once every few months, and people have decided to put off buying for now.”
All of which suggest the British love of cycling isn't over yet , even if the honeymoon is over.
“You know, we're facing a climate crisis, an obesity crisis, an air pollution crisis, a congestion crisis, all these crises for which cycling is such an obvious answer.” , says Geffen.
“Sooner or later we will find politicians who understand this and really put their weight on it. .”
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