MTB trail threat, UK/EU relationship + more in new Cycling Industry News
This issue of Cycling Industry News (issue #2 2025) is available now online and is in the post to trade subscribers.
This latest edition gets to grips with some of the big questions and topics: The ongoing MTB trail threat, what the future UK/EU relationship might have in store for the bike trade, how investor-positive is the bike industry right now, and how have bike shops shifted in their priorities in recent years?
A few more details on those articles include:
- Infrastructure: Will the trade successfully unite to tackle the threat to MTB trails in Wales?
- USE and Exposure Lights on high end tech and real rider benefits
- Investor special: Is the UK investable or avoidable? Bike stock market analysis + more
- The shift in bike shop spending priorities
- UK and EU: Too soon? Or is it time to examine what the future relationship of the EU and UK might have in store for the trade?
- CORE at 20: The bike trade show approaches its 20th edition
- MET on its wind tunnel for cycling helmets
- …and more
Don’t subscribe but want a copy? Sign up online here. Any questions? Email the team at [email protected]
FROM THE EDITOR…
Strength in numbers… and hard questions
Arguing that there is good reason to stick together can be tricky. We all like to forge our own path and that has been a successful recipe for many businesses. But there are times when it helps. The traditional/cynical view is that we’ve not, as an industry, necessarily been the best at sticking together in our common interest. Unfair? Characteristic of an uber critical industry to say that about itself? Either way, we’ve seen some winning examples of the industry sticking together lately. No, really.
The industry may not have universally been against that potential shake up to eBikes proposed last year (amending the maximum continuous power output of eBike electric motors from 250 watts to 500 watt), though certainly there were a lack of voices in favour of it, with the majority fearful of its implications (registration plates, compulsory helmets, insurance, etc). But industry voices combined, the Government listened and closed down its proposal and reiterated you don’t need taxation, insurance, etc to ride an eBike. A victory!
Then there’s the current plight of Welsh mountain bike trails, which are facing an uncertain future thanks to central government cost-cutting. Here the industry appears to be coming together with, we hope, similarly positive results, though that remains to be seen (page 10).
As this magazine goes to press, the news has hit that the UK will be ditching antidumping on (non-folding) eBikes from China. With huge potential implications for the UK trade, that’s further indication that market disruption is the new norm.
This issue of CIN mentions some of the above and also includes some unflinching examination of the UK market. Is Britain an attractive proposition for some overseas brands right now? What is the future for the UK/EU relationship and what are the implications for the bike trade? Inevitably, there’s controversy here, but not for the sake of it. Like those bike and P&A brands that want to make riders’ lives better, we’re trying to do the same for the industry (albeit in a more woolly, indirect way).
By all means shake your fist (from a distance) and send us a strongly worded email, but before you do that, let us thank you for reading and encourage some more focused ‘working together as an industry’ projects as we face various collective challenges.
