Will Local Bike Shop Day 2024 help kick-start the sector in May?

The date has been set for Local Bike Shop Day 2024 as Saturday 4 May, the weekend of the early May Bank Holiday, the ACT (the Association of Cycle Traders) has announced.

The ACT is encouraging the industry and the wider cycling community to support the campaign as part of a wider effort to ‘kickstart’ the sector after a difficult post-Covid period.

Jonathan Harrison from the ACT said: “Local Bike Shop Day is a celebration of the character, quality, and passion of the UK’s bike businesses, we hope that this year’s campaign can play a role in kickstarting the industry’s recovery. While Local Bike Shop Day is just one day a year, its main objective is raising awareness of the invaluable service that our IBDs offer year-round.

“There are plenty of ways for bike businesses to get involved in the day, in the past, shops have led rides in their community, hosted repair workshops with some even putting on gigs in store. It really is up to you how you use the campaign to promote what your business and what you have to offer.”

Local Bike Shop Day 2024 will be the first since the ACT was acquired by BIRA, potentially bringing it more muscle power.

According to the ACT, over 500 bike businesses engaged with the campaign in-store and online in 2023, with the Department for Transport, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling & Walking and We Are Cycling promoting the initiative.

Discussing their Local Bike Shop Day experience, Gemma Thompson, a co-founder at RedSky Bikes in Thirsk said: “Local Bike Shop Day 2023 was the most successful event at our shop to date. We were busier than the average Saturday and there was generally a very positive vibe surrounding the weekend.

“We offered customers free entry to a prize draw upon completion of a questionnaire asking for feedback on our shop. Lots of free cycling goodies and RedSky Bikes merchandise were up for grabs, as prizes. Our head mechanic ran a Q&A session in our workshop, where we welcomed familiar faces, and lots of new ones too.

“We also partnered with our friends at fellow Thirsk business Fred & Bert’s Coffee, offering customers free bacon butties, which went down a treat!

“The RedSky team is really looking forward to this year’s Local Bike Shop Day and we would encourage other bike businesses to use the momentum the campaign generates to their advantage.”

The campaign will be sponsored by Cytech, which provides technical skills training for the cycle trade. In 2023, Cytech laid claim to the title of largest internationally recognised cycle technical training and accreditation scheme with over 25,000 Cytech technical training courses being delivered to candidates from all over the world.

Bike businesses can access a free retailer promotion pack which includes a number of digital assets such as graphics and shop posters at https://localbikeshopday.co.uk/, while on social media the ACT is encouraging the industry to use the hashtag #LocalBikeShopDay and follow the campaign’s accounts.

Local Bike Shop Day on X/Twitter – https://twitter.com/LBSDayUK

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lbsdayuk/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LBSDayUK/

PICTURED: Exeter’s Saddles & Paddles’ first Local Bike Shop Day 2023 customer, Samuel, with a brand new bike and free starter kit.