[OldRidgeback]

 

A good piece in the Grauniad….

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/aug/08/cycling-growth-uk-risk-left-behind-europe-experts?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1659958084

Topic

[Shades]

I think we’ve reached ‘peak
I think we’ve reached ‘peak roadie’ which is being replaced by ‘gravel’/’all-road’ (or the industry need the roadies to buy more bikes!). Media (eg magazines, GCN) are all into it and some of clothing brands are coming out with ranges somewhere between MTB and road. Cycling UK are developing these national trails. Pure road riding will still be prominent but I think the shift may well be good for portraying cycling as a means to get around and not just a sport. If you’re a non-cyclist thinking of getting into it, better to see a more relaxed image than the hard-core ripped full carbon roadie look. Quiet lanes, bike paths and a bit of light gravel; sounds more appealing than battling with bullying motorists.

[EddyBerckx]

Gimpl wrote:

‘A good piece in the Grauniad….’

Just like saying – ‘A good piece in the Heil….’

For it’s faults…no it bloody isn’t.

[chrisonabike]

The Notional Cycle Network

The Notional Cycle Network you say?  Think mattw will need more than a gravel bike for some of that…

[wycombewheeler]

mattw wrote:

I’d regard a gravel bike as a hybrid for general use with bigger tyres better suited to potholes, dodgy pavements and trails / towpaths

the national cycle network and below average UK roads

[Gimpl]

Jetmans Dad wrote:

Gimpl wrote:

‘A good piece in the Grauniad….’

Just like saying – ‘A good piece in the Heil….’

Not when it comes to cycling it isn’t. 

Of course it is! They may be more ‘pro cycling’ v the Heil ‘anti cycling’ but they are still putting their political leaning on it.

[Jetmans Dad]

Gimpl wrote:

‘A good piece in the Grauniad….’

Just like saying – ‘A good piece in the Heil….’

Not when it comes to cycling it isn’t. 

[Gimpl]

‘A good piece in the Grauniad

‘A good piece in the Grauniad….’

Just like saying – ‘A good piece in the Heil….’

[mattw]

I’m not convinced by the

I’m not convinced by the Graun assertion that “gravel bikes” are an “enthusiast” category.

I’d regard a gravel bike as a hybrid for general use with bigger tyres better suited to potholes, dodgy pavements and trails / towpaths – which many people have to use to avoid traffic.

Around here a lot of people use MTBs for normal cycling around (I use a hybrid with 35mm tyres, a touring triple and a Gruber Assist, which is 13kg lighter and much nippier). I would see these going to gravel bikes.

Plus some gloriously irrelevant stats:

<i>About 190,000 electric cars were registered in the UK in 2021, just 15,000 more than e-cycles, but there are more than 30,000 e-car charging points and only 16 e-cycle charging points.</i>

[Owd Big 'Ead]

Left behind?

Left behind?

We’re on a different planet altogether regardless of what the government, various cycling organisations and the wider bike industry say.

I’ve recently come back from Nijmegen in the Netherlands, a city similar in size to my own home city here in the UK. Over there everyone appeared to be cycling from pre-school kids through to the elderly on well designed, maintained infrastructure that put cyclists first in almost every situation.

Back home I’ve either got to use “leisure” routes that meander nowhere near to where I’m going, or dress up as RoboCop just to get to the local shops and back. This, in a city that is relatively pro-cycling too!

White paint doesn’t equate to infrastructure. Until the bods in the local councils understand this, the UK will fall ever further behind the rest of Europe and uptake will continue to be no-more than 2% of all travellers.

As ever, utterly useless even while supposedly throwing a not insignificant £2BN at it.

 

[chrisonabike]

2nd hand is great for

2nd hand is great for environmental reasons and low cost access to bikes.  It’s also good for local jobs e.g. bike maintenance.  However cycle companies need to stay in business which means new bike sales.

In the UK we’re still mostly not selling the more “practical” types of bikes you’d expect if everyone was going to cycle.  (Of course anybody – if they think about it – will consider the bike they buy as practical for whatever use they had in mind).

David Hembrow raises an interesting point about how e-bikes may affect things.  In the UK we’re about half a century away (and counting) from their situation but I suspect the percentage of bike sales which are e-bikes may be more similar to the NL.

http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2022/03/the-challenge-of-declining-bicycle.html

[brooksby]

Are sales of ‘normal’ bikes

Are sales of ‘normal’ bikes so low because you just can’t buy them? (reading all the angry Ribble articles, for example).

[Rendel Harris]

Interesting, my one quibble

Interesting, my one quibble with it would be that it doesn’t seem to take into account the secondhand market, which is going to be influential at any time but especially during a cost of living crisis. Since 2019 I have bought five secondhand bikes for either me or the better half and sold four, none of those will show up on official statistics. Additionally, many people have old bikes knocking around their garage or shed, again, during a cost of living crisis, people who want to start commuting or leisure cycling are more likely, I assume, to use what they’ve got rather than splash out on new machines. Although the sales of new bikes are one metric for measuring cycling’s popularity they’re certainly not the only one, as the article says, “cycling levels have significantly risen since the pandemic – up 33% in the year to 30 July, according to Department for Transport (DfT) figures – sales of new bikes are not keeping pace.” A 33% increase in a year is actually quite amazing!

[Author]

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