Cielos! UK prepares for warmer temperatures than Madrid

While much of the cycling industry has spent considerable time recently packed inside hotels, event venues and distributor HQs for a busy UK trade show season, the weather outside said venues has been positively mild, lending some extra weight to a mood of “cautious optimism” among many in the industry.

That (wary) positivity contrasts directly with the start of last year, where a rather more bleak outlook (“survive till 2025“) pervaded the general mood.

Meanwhile, Q1 2025 will see the UK continue to enjoy the mild weather this weekend, seen during show season. According to the Met Office, Suffolk saw temperatures hit 19°C earlier this week: “Similar high temperatures are expected again this afternoon as the UK is dominated by high pressure.”

The trade will be hoping that the beginning of 2025’s selling season will enjoy rather more mild weather than last year – reportedly the UK’s wettest spring since 1986, which Halfords blamed for heaping further pain on cycle retail in H1 ’24. Current UK temperatures are warmer than in the likes of Madrid, and as one industry pundit once pointed out: “Bicycles are like ice creams… when the weather picks up, cycling picks up.”

Full disclosure: CIN will be taking positive signs for the market wherever we can find them in 2025. At this point, we’ll re-emphasise the long-term positive trend that the UK is seeing more cycling journeys take place – up a whopping 10% in the last decade – and doubtless a drier spring/summer will help boost that trend further. While we’re here, we’ll also bring up the fact that CONEBI has foreseen that 2025 will likely be the year bicycle industry overstocks could resolve. And, whisper it, CIN has even had a few conversations during show season where we were told about potential understocks over the coming months.