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news
Local Bike Shop in London (copyright Simon MacMichael)UK bike sales fall even further after dropping to lowest level in 20 years
In yet another sign of the challenging times for the bike industry, the Bicycle Association's latest report on the state of the UK cycle industry suggests that bike sales have slumped once again, months on from the national trade association reporting they had fallen to a 20-year low in 2022.
The news comes courtesy of the Bicycle Association's mid-year report for the first half of 2023, first reported by bikebiz, suggesting that mechanical bike sales have fallen by eight per cent and e-bike sales by 12 per cent. Furthermore, the total market value of the cycle industry has dropped by eight per cent compared with the same period last year.
Concerningly, the numbers come from a low start point, last year seeing bike sales in the UK dropping to the lowest level in two decades, 27 per cent below pre-Covid levels as the cost of living crisis gripped.
> UK bike sales fall to lowest level in 20 years
At the time the Bicycle Association warned the UK's cycling industry would suffer more "turbulent" and "challenging" times in 2023 and would need "to weather a difficult storm".
That prediction appears to have come true, with mechanical bike sales in the first six months of 2023 down a third on the same period in 2019, while the UK cycling market's value is projected to fall to £1.57 billion for 2023, compared with £1.9 billion in 2019.
E-bike sales particularly were mentioned as being disappointingly low, associate director of the Bicycle Association David Middlemiss saying the UK "continues to lag behind much of Europe".
While it was expected the e-bike market was one that could continue to grow, despite the challenging context, e-bike sales have dropped by 12 per cent, with e-mountain bikes the only category in the e-bike market that has seen sales up on the same period in 2022.
The report notes that e-bike sales have fallen further behind European sales, with consumers on the continent embracing them faster than here in the UK.
> UK's cycling market and infrastructure "being left behind" by Europe, experts warn
"This report shows that the UK e-bike market offers significant growth prospects, but continues to lag behind much of Europe," said Middlemiss.
"A core objective of the Bicycle Association is to work with the industry and government to position e-bikes as a key part of the UK's electric transport future and the drive for net zero. E-bikes form the first of three key themes at the heart of the BA's new Cycle Industry Growth Plan, now approaching the end of a hugely successful consultation period."
John Worthington, who was also an author of the latest report, last year predicted challenging times for the industry until "overall supply and demand return to a better equilibrium, and the economic environment improves".
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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46 comments
I guess, on sheer braking power, it works the same way as car insurance in that a 1200cc is cheaper to insure than a 2000cc (the claims experience not supporting the standard driver "accelerate out of trouble" nonsense.)
Please hand in your driving license, the clutch is not a binary control no matter how many users treat it as one.
Both true and wrong. When well maintained, they can be good (I have hydraulic Ultegra and cable versions). But the big change that did everything needed, was Shimano 105 dual pivots on aluminium rims - and easier to maintain
To be fair, handlebars are hollow anyway, so it's just a case of drilling 3 or 4 holes in one. The same principle applies to frames too, but you need hydraulics and electronic gears for internal cabling to work.
After using rim brakes for many years, I decided to try disc brakes and I sincerely doubt that I'd ever buy another rim brake bike again. I've got my old Cannondale with rim brakes and thought that maybe it'd become my winter bike, but as my "summer" bike (newest bike) has hydraulic brakes, it's far better to use in winter too. At least the spiders enjoy my old Cannondale.
There are, as in many other topics - politics for example - zealots in either camp, either the rim brake is superior to all else and discs are heavy, relatively unaerodynamic and awkward to install and maintain, or that discs offer better stopping power in all conditions, far better modulation (feel and control) and hydraulic hoses function perfectly around tight bends as seen on modern bikes. Plus the huge potential variation introduced by having so many different rim / pad / caliper combinations is much less of an issue with discs. The truth is both views are correct, and a lot of it comes down to personal preference not just marketing hype.
Personally I love the look of a rim braked bike, and on a dry road with a decent rim and pad they're great. However I've had a rim delaminate when descending the Tre Cime in Italy in very wet conditions, and 2 tubes blowout on steep, technical descents due to overheating - admittedly not a problem with alloy rims. Having experienced discs on my gravel bike I was happy to buy a disc-equipped road bike 2 years ago, and I have to say I'm very impressed. They've not been completely problem free - I've had a couple of bent rotors from careless handling (easily straightened in a bike stand) and if I fly with the bike I usually have to bleed the front brake afterwards, torque settings etc are all as recommended. I wouldn't go back to rim brakes, I'm a convert. But yes, a rim-braked bike is definitely easier on the eye.
I'm not sure I understand how the type of brake and/or cabling on your bike and the price and make of another bike contributes to "satisfaction" while dropping someone on a club ride - can you explain please?
personally if I drop someone on a club ride, that's a failure, because we should be riding together.
Utterly irrelevant to the point at hand. The average price of a bike sold in the UK is just over £300. Apart from a couple of BSO MTB's with cable discs there is nothing about your jibber jabber that is relevant.
The average road.cc reader isnt even *close* to being the average bike consumer. Our purchases are mostly irrelevant to the state of the bike market, ever the most humble claris equipped bike is way above average.
The bike trade is mostly a high volume low margin business - however much the brand marketing might want you to believe otherwise.
This is re: new bikes, right? Sell a person the right bike, you probably won't see them again for 10 years, or even longer. At this time of year, I see a fair few old Mercians, even a Major Nichols out and about. The person might come in for consumables, or if they start a family, decide to go mountain biking or give up cycling altogether for triathlon.
A lively second-hand trade continues, and there must be thousands of unused bikes sitting in sheds and garages just waiting to be brought back to life. I don't see the decline in new bike sales as that much of an issue.
Finally, I reckon this is for me the perfect year round road bike - it won't show in any recent sales figures. It's as future-proof as it can be, light, fast and steady, runs Continental GP4s, and would take mudguards. It's 15 years since I bought a complete bike for myself.
Might be an indicator that the rise in people swapping car for bike is slowing?
From my very small sample size, I am seeing more people cycling now than when I started two years ago - albeit maybe three semi-regular* faces where I used to see no one.
As people have pointed out, new bikes are expensive and there are plenty of barely used secondhand bikes out there these days. Hopefully that is what is happening and the much publicised "cyclists are bad" is not having a negative impact.
*a reference to their frequency, not the shape of their face
100% this. Where are the new converts to cycling? There aren't any - why would there be? The roads are just as crap, or worse, as ever. Cycling infrastructure is if anything in decline after a minor blip during covid. Motorists' attitudes to cyclists certainly haven't mellowed. Cyclists lives are held cheap in the media. Who'd want to take up cycling unless they were fool enough already?
That looks like my 40 year old 531 - exactly what I meant about things not changing. Mine's a bit ruistier though
I keep thinking about getting a new bike, two of the main reasons I don't : it's not really safe on the roads - every ride and I do mean every ride has a close pass - and anything half decent costs a fortune. It's a smart trainer and indoors for me I'm afraid. I literally am afraid to go out on the bike these days.
"I literally am afraid to go out on the bike these days." Just imagine how would-be cyclists feel about the prospect! Go try selling them a bike - no wonder the industry here is in the doldrums.
can you provide data that shows it is less safe than it was in the past?
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