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Pashley bikes coming to London's cycle hire scheme

Stratford-upon-Avon firm to supply bikes from 2018 as Serco confirmed as operator for five more years

Pashley Cycles, which has been making bikes in Stratford-upon-Avon for 90 years, has won the contract to make the next generation of London’s Santander Cycles hire bikes.

The news is accompanied by confirmation that Serco, which has operated the scheme since it went live in July 2010, will continue to do so up until at least the end of 2022 under a new £79.7 million contract.

It is hoped that the new bikes, which are slightly smaller and 10 per cent lighter than the existing ones, and also have smaller wheels and a new gear hub, will encourage more people to hire them due to their increased manoeuvrability.

Currently, there are around 11,500 bikes in the Santander Cycles fleet, each covering an average of 5,694 kilometres in the year to February 2016. In another tie-up with a British firm, some are equipped with the award-winning Blaze Laserlight.

The new bikes, which will be assembled at Pashley’s factory in Stratford-upon-Avon, will be introduced gradually to the scheme from 2018, with around 500 replacing the existing models each year.

The company’s general manager, Steven Bell, said: “We are delighted to be working on such a prestigious and important scheme.

“Although we are still in the product development stage, our Research and Development team’s design has been selected by TfL as one that meets its requirements.

“We will now work hard to turn that design into a production ready bike to bring to London’s streets.”

Pashley, of course, is no stranger to mass-producing bikes that need to be able to withstand the rigours of heavy use, having supplied the bikes used by Royal Mail delivery workers from the 1970s until the use of bicycles was discontinued a few years ago.

The final bike produced for the Royal Mail, the Mailstar, was based on the Pashley Pronto, which is widely used by a number of companies and other organisations – couriers at Oxford and Cambridge universities use them, as does the recently-announced grocery delivery service pilot from Sainsbury’s.

> Sainsbury's trials home delivery by bike

Serco’s contract, which runs for five years three months from next August, will have an option to be extended for up to a further five years, with the company continuing to maintain and service bikes from workshops in Islington and Camden – they have a combined capacity to service 220 bikes a day – as well as managing the stock of bikes at the capital’s 785 docking stations.

Serco Group chief executive Rupert Soames commented: “As a regular user of Santander Cycles I am really pleased that we are going to continue to provide this iconic service for London’s residents, commuters and visitors for at least another five years.

“Since the Scheme started in 2010, Serco has worked hard with TfL to improve and grow the service.

Recently we have started to bring in Laserlights to improve rider visibility and in 2018 we will start introducing new lighter bikes and we are delighted to be working with Blaze and Pashley Cycles, two great British companies, to bring in these exciting innovations.

We aim to build on the past six successful years and deliver an even better service for TfL and everyone in London.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan commented: “I’m delighted to be able to announce the next generation of bikes for our popular cycle hire scheme.

“It’s already known across the world as a convenient way to get around our city, so it’s great news that these lighter British-made bikes will make it even easier for everyone.

“Cycling is good for our health, air quality and congestion, and that’s exactly why I’m working so hard to make it safer and easier for all Londoners,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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6 comments

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iDavid | 7 years ago
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Made in Britain - excellent.

With a cheap pound perhaps we'll be able to export them back to Canada, where the originals came from.

@atlaz - if we can make enough.

 

Avatar
only1redders | 7 years ago
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Would be good if they could have a bit more integration with the app - something based on this perhaps https://beeline.co/, so that your bike could direct you using simple arrows to the nearest docking station, when you invariably are frustrated by one that's full

I'm afraid I still dont really 'get' the Lazerlights. The reality seems somewhat different from the marketing on their website

Lighter = good

Bigger basket would be better

Brakes would be awesome

Avatar
atlaz | 7 years ago
1 like

Hang on. 11500 bikes, Pashley replacing them at 500 per year. So 23 years later, they will all be replaced? I'm all for "buy British" but seems a little stupid when they're only assembled in the UK and can't be delivered in volume. Just highlights deficiencies really.

Avatar
pipthepilot replied to atlaz | 7 years ago
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atlaz wrote:

Hang on. 11500 bikes, Pashley replacing them at 500 per year. So 23 years later, they will all be replaced? I'm all for "buy British" but seems a little stupid when they're only assembled in the UK and can't be delivered in volume. Just highlights deficiencies really.

I suspect the delivery schedule has more to do with TFL's budget rather than manufacturing volume.

Avatar
DaveE128 | 7 years ago
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It's good that they'll be lighter. I hope the gear shifter operates in a more intuitive direction than the current ones - still can't get used to it be opposite to all other twist shifters I've used.

I wonder whether a different wheel size will cause docking station compatibility issues?

Anyone else found the brakes to be getting worse and worse on the existing bikes?

Avatar
jollygoodvelo replied to DaveE128 | 7 years ago
0 likes

DaveE128 wrote:

Anyone else found the brakes to be getting worse and worse on the existing bikes?

They have brakes?  I hadn't noticed...

 

It's great news that the new bikes will be built in Britain - hopefully that means "actually in Britain" and not any sneaky CKD component-assembly tricks.  Lighter is good, better gears are good (what exactly is the '1' gear for - can we have five this time please?)... smaller wheels is an interesting choice.  They're 26" now, I assume they're going to 24" as that's what size Marathon Plus come in...

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