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Live blog: Evans Cycles owner Mike Ashley calls for 20 per cent tax on online sales to save the High Street, Deloitte RAB entries open, e Yorkshire fly thru + more
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Fri, Dec 07, 2018 15:36
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road.cc’s founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony’s journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website – the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc – finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ – which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he’d like to own a carbon bike one day.
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wtjs 8 hours ago
@FionaJJ These officers deployed next-level stupidity, and it must be difficult for the police to find people this dim. It doesn't even need rolling-roads or whatever, just a reputable bike computer on a quickly changed mount for the difficult cases where a proper EAPC has been modded, although you would need to look hard in Lancashire to find a police officer who knows how to make a pedal cycle go. Most illegal electric motorbikes are immediately obvious, not least because the crim is wearing a face mask. I saw an obvious one tonight coming out of Garstang Sainsbury's, not pedalling but without a face mask because everybody knows that the police only come into the town to hide away in the police station 200 yards away.
bikeman01 9 hours ago
Gustav Gullholm.. that's not a good look mate
mdavidford 11 hours ago
@Chris RideFar I think what you meant to say was "REMOVE this and put it on PODCAST CC".
jaymack 13 hours ago
As Mary Whitehouse never said - one doesn't have to read the article if one doesn't want to read about an off-road bicycle.
Rendel Harris 13 hours ago
@FionaJJ In London they're allowed to stop on single and double yellows to deliver packages or empty pillar boxes; in practice they take this as carte blanche to park wherever and whenever they want, such as this chap on the Brixton Road who pulled into the bus/cycle/motorcycle lane without indicating, as I approached at 20mph, to park on a red route, response to a remonstrance, "I suppose you never get post delivered do ya?"
FionaJJ 14 hours ago
@Rendel Harris We have a pavement parking ban, but around here at least, royal mail vans are already exempt, subject to certain caveats, such as allowing at least 1.5m, and only being stopped to do their work.
FionaJJ 14 hours ago
It was already embarrassing for the police that they made such a mess of their attempt to determine whether a bike was legal or not, but I had assumed it was a group of well intentioned, but under-trained officers acting on their own initiative, having spotted something they thought looked not quite right. I'm now discovering this was a planned activity, something sufficiently organised to have been given a name - Operation FRISLEN, designed specifically to identify and remove illegal e-bikes and scooters. It's apparent that the officers were sent out without adequate training, never mind the kind of equipment that should be used for this sort of work. I'm not saying they always need specialist equipment to spot all illegal bikes, but at least if they'd been given a demonstration with that equipment, they'd have realised why their approach was not going to end well.
Geoff Ingram 16 hours ago
Have put drop bars on a 2001 B1 mtb, a 2007 stumpy hardtail and a 2010 stumpy full suss. In all cases fairly basic conversións leaving gearing and wheels broadly the same and concentrating on correct positioning of bars and fit. Oddly, with all 3 I was happy with the result when recently done, but after a few months found that the extra speed on easy trails was more than offset by the lack of ability (probably mine) on tougher routes and finally preferred flat bar with slammed and inverted stem as best overall compromise. Good fun playing around, though.
mark1a 16 hours ago
The photos in this review look they are for a different bag?
mattw 18 hours ago
This is a strange reactionary knee jerk overall. But what is this "are essentially motorbikes in disguise" waffle? "One letter claimed that high-powered electric ‘e-bikes’ were “essentially motorbikes” in disguise, with many being used without lights, helmets, or any hi-vis clothing." Surely, they simply ARE motorbikes?
8 thoughts on “Live blog: Evans Cycles owner Mike Ashley calls for 20 per cent tax on online sales to save the High Street, Deloitte RAB entries open, e Yorkshire fly thru + more”
20% tax on online sales, that
20% tax on online sales, that seems REALLY steep.
I’d happily buy all my cycling gear from a local bike shop, but that would require my LBS to actually stock the brands I want to buy (they don’t) and actually have the item I want, in the size I want, in stock (which is a rarity).
It’s particularly difficult when I have to drive for 30 minutes just to get to a bike shop…
I bet Ashley’s got some great
I bet Ashley’s got some great avoidance schemes for what comes into his own pocket.
Also, good luck with this 20% thing seeing as most of the ‘big’ companies seem to be avoiding paying their fair shair in the first place.
Failing business model in
Failing business model in desperate calls for government meddling.
I lived In seattle in 2010
I lived In seattle in 2010 and most of the bike shops had innertube recycling back then. A local company made bags and things out of them. I still have a messenger bag with a seatbelt for a strap. Great idea but it had stained quite a few cycling tops
20% on shopping, plus 2.5%
20% on shopping, plus 2.5% tax on income just for being alive and over 40. Because 40 year olds are ‘old’ and rich of course. When is the next referendum; they all need lining up against a wall….
So Evans want’s government
So Evans wants government help to stay competitive? Why should high street shops have special treatment. How about a 20% tax credit for online shops – they are better after all. As Canyon48 rightly says – you don’t get a sale if you havn’t got the product stocked in the store. The most basic logic of retailing. And if people prefer to shop on-line? Move your business to where the customers are. That is the second logic of retailing!
risoto wrote:
Don’t you need customers to have money too?
Not sure which logic that is, I hadn’t realised that logic was countable either. Full of learning this thread is.
Canyon might not be the best example either as they struggle to get another important factor whch is availablity. No good having a good price if people can’t get hold of the goods. Good job people are stupid, eh?
I haven’t bought a bike or
I haven’t bought a bike or bike accessory except emergency repair stuff for years. They all stock goods with a massive markup that I don’t need. Chain reaction and planet X have supplied what I want at a third of the cost of a brick and mortar operation, why would I want to shell out on a markup?