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@andystow The whole initiative is aimed at online retailers though, isn't it, so no harder to police those selling illegal conversion kits than those selling complete bikes, one would have thought.

@Smoggysteve It needn't be the case at all that all arms of the company will fold if there's no overall buyer, and I'm sure it won't be. The creditors will most likely split the company assets up to maximize returns; some, like sadly Raleigh, might well die but a standalone popular brand with three factories making 90,000 bikes a year and a WT supply contract is unlikely not to attract a buyer.

Someone I met at a walking, wheeling and cycling conference said the way to sell active travel to Tory and Reform types is to talk about dog walking. Then they suddenly get its importance.

@mitsky most of those are probably bought online, so that will be tough to do anything about.

Not sure being a marquis brand is a good strategy - even though most of them probably have a fair bit of disposable cash to chuck away on a bike, there can't be that many of them around, and the subset of them that are interested in cycling must be vanishingly small.

Not sure if I'm missing something but presumably this extends to those selling modification kits too, not just vehicles that are already illegal out of the box?

@Rendel Harris As a subsidiary company, unless there is a buyer then they all die. I would hope there is a buyer but the bike industry is difficult to predict. Lapierre are neither a budget brand or a full on marquis brand either. That makes it a lot more dangerous for them as a brand. The shift towards people buying Chinese bikes is contributing and these are the brands which are hit hardest. Cheaper chinese bikes are not going to effect Colnago or Pinarello, the attract a different market. Lapierre could easily go and if no one sees them as a viable worthwhile brand to rescue.

@tomlew I was only going on the number of Babboes I see around, so maybe they are losing money, I don't know. They certainly don't seem to have lost popularity. As for Lapierre being a "non brand", as SS says, they are popular on the continent and are used by a major World Tour team, so they're not that invisible.

Anyone who has a traffic misdemeanor should have to drive around without any windows in the car imo, that way they can't not be lullee into a sense of security by realising that they are actually travelling as the majority feel they're invincible in a motor vehicle

@Rendel Harris Let's not forget Babboe have recently faced major trouble with customer-rights regulators around their quality issues. Not only did they fail to meet quality standards, but were also caught red-handed blatantly lying to both customers and - AFAIK, can't confirm personally - the regulators. They were recently desperately selling out stocks of Babboe accesories, which indicates struggles with overstocking and/or poor production line and/or warranty service management. And considering how long these items have been available, they must have mountains of non-cashable stock there. Also, despite Accell's attempts, Lapierre remains a non-brand in road cycling. It's effectively a money pit.