A Bicycle Association report has predicted – finally – a slow return to growth for the British cycling industry in 2025.
However, it comes in a wake of a 2024 that saw the UK's worst mechanical bike sales so far this century with 1.45 million units sold, and a continued decline in ebike sales despite big discounts.
Sales of kids' bikes also continued to decline, to the point where they are now a third down on pre-Covid figures. The number of children riding bikes stabilised though, the report pointed out, referencing Sport England figures showing 21% of 5-16 year-olds riding bikes.
There were a number of areas that offered reason for optimism, with high-end road and mountain bikes showing year-on-year growth, as well as servicing, which was up in volume and value to the tune of 7% and 5% respectively.
The BA report said that it expects the market to remain challenging this year but says: "It predicts the long downturn will gradually bottom out over the coming months with forecasted volume growth in bike and PAC [parts & accessories] of 2% and 3% in services in 2025."
However, the view on the ground is still far from rosy, Oliver Milnes, owner of Paul Milnes Cycles in Bradford, northern England, explained.
"It's still quite quiet, I would say," he said. "I would hope it will get going a bit better. A lot of it is weather-based – when you step outside and there's frost on the windscreen, you don't want to go on your bike. And then last weekend, when it was really nice, you saw a little uptake, and then sort of knocked off again.
"If you ask this question in another month," he added, "I think it'll be a different answer."
Milnes's own experience in selling parts and accessories tallies with the findings of the BA report, he said – they are selling strongly.
The reason for this, he theorised, is that people are keen to keep their older bikes going longer rather than buying new ones, which could also go some way to explaining the strength of the servicing sector.
"I think people are probably keeping stuff going more than ever before we see that we're certainly selling more bits than we're selling bigger stuff," Milnes said.
In terms of how the rest of the year might look, Milnes remained optimistic about a slow recovery, although he urges caution over where exactly the industry is headed.
"I would like to think it's got to be better – it's got to get better than this. What is meant by 'normal', though I don't really know, because what, what is normal trading? I think the bike trade's changed over the years. You can't look at the bike trade from 15 years ago and say that's what normal is going to be. That's normal 15 years ago, and it'll never be that. It's different now."
"So it might not get to where it was years ago, but it should go to a decent level this year I think," he concluded.
