Ilkley Cycles Closing Down
- Thread starter Gubbins
- Start date
Normal bike sales have suffered a sudden dip in the last year and the increase in pedelec sales is nowhere sufficient to compensate. Independent bike dealers rarely have sufficient financial cushioning to survive these events.
We might have hit a ceiling now. Our Olympics and Tour de France successes stimulated interest in cycling and produced a big boost in sales for two or three years. However once those who might be willing to try cycling have been recruited, it's likely sales would drop sharply since bikes last longer than a year or two, especially when little used.
The rest of the population are largely hard core car drivers, many of whom have never ridden a bike and unlikely to even consider trying.
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We might have hit a ceiling now. Our Olympics and Tour de France successes stimulated interest in cycling and produced a big boost in sales for two or three years. However once those who might be willing to try cycling have been recruited, it's likely sales would drop sharply since bikes last longer than a year or two, especially when little used.
The rest of the population are largely hard core car drivers, many of whom have never ridden a bike and unlikely to even consider trying.
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One of the problems they face is people coming in to ask for advice, or even try one and then going away to buy one on the internet, only to return with it asking for help when something goes wrong because its oh so hard to return an on line e-bike purchase..
I find it sad that independent retail outlets are disappearing, and when they are gone, they are gone, which is why I try to buy local whenever I can.
How many times have we heard the advice.. "Just take it to your local bike shop"
Air Valley Cycles went some time ago, and now Ilkley Cycles.. Still have Halfords tho!
I find it sad that independent retail outlets are disappearing, and when they are gone, they are gone, which is why I try to buy local whenever I can.
How many times have we heard the advice.. "Just take it to your local bike shop"
Air Valley Cycles went some time ago, and now Ilkley Cycles.. Still have Halfords tho!
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Deleted member 4366
Guest
Like all businesses, you have to adapt and compete, which means taking a few risks. Maybe they were offered a good price for their premises, so decided to retire. Maybe the owner fell in love with a Chinese girl/bloke and decided to move to China to be with her/him. There could be any reason for closure, not just that it wasn't a viable business.
They are cushioned in two ways, one by being big, the other due to their car business being so much bigger than the bike side that it can easily carry it through rough spots.
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I know the owner quite well and none of the above apply in this case. I suspect they took risks by pushing e-bikes, but I rarely see one on or off the road so cant be selling many..
I don't quite get the problem here, a bike shop goes out of business because it doesn't have the turnover, big deal! That is what business (capitalism) is all about, you are successful or you fail.
My LBS is humming and yet there is plenty of competition: it is situated about half distance between two Decathlons and within a stones throw of an Intersport. The owner told me he loves the sub 200€ bikes sold by the competition because he makes more money repairing them than he would from the margin on a bike sold that price. Like many bike shops in France they sell scooters - a heritage from the day of the moped and that means more workshop hours. In the workshop there is the retired father (keeps him out of the house and harms way...), the son and two or three apprentices.
My LBS is humming and yet there is plenty of competition: it is situated about half distance between two Decathlons and within a stones throw of an Intersport. The owner told me he loves the sub 200€ bikes sold by the competition because he makes more money repairing them than he would from the margin on a bike sold that price. Like many bike shops in France they sell scooters - a heritage from the day of the moped and that means more workshop hours. In the workshop there is the retired father (keeps him out of the house and harms way...), the son and two or three apprentices.
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
My local ebike shop started 12 months ago. They sell a range of bikes. Sales are steadily increasing. What you say doesn't make sense unless they chose daft stock, like Kalkhoff Impulse.
This year I have seen about 5 ebikes when out and about. I say about 5.. it's a rarety to see one.
Not sure what the complete range is but I have bought 2 scots and a giant from them. Looking round the shop most seem to be scott bikes but I tend to take notice of what I am interested in..
Just like Britain after WW2. The shop I joined in 1950 covered bikes, add-on motors for bikes and motorbikes, adding scooters when they arrived. There were just two of us in the shop, the boss and me. (More correctly the boss and I, though strangely that grammatic rule never sounds right).
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I have always argued that the 'Me' is actually a vernacular contraction of 'Myself'
Nowadays, English in the UK is fairly standard thanks to TV, but not so long ago it varied throughout the country.
viz:
Are you not going to?
Ban't you going?
B'aint you going.
And then the Norfolk language has its own rules.
Bike shops in Ireland at the time, I am told, would also have had a healthy business in radio repair and battery charging. Prior to rural electrification, the valve radio required batteries, of course, one being a lead acid 6 v unit to power the heaters and another being the 96v HT . The same companies that supplied bike lamps also supplied these batteries. In a real sense in a rural community, the school teacher provided legal advice, the blacksmith provided heavy engineering, and the bike shop light engineering ..
I know where you are coming from I was once married to a French clock-maker's daughter...
Years ago in a Devon village, I was pushing my daughter in her push chair when a wheel fell off.
There was a motor garage there and feeling a bit foolish I took the chair in there.
No problem. 'Come back in an hour.' they said.
Sure enough, on our return, there was the chair with its wheel neatly fixed and in fact better because they had drilled the axle and used a split pin.
Try doing that at a city main dealers!
Same here, as a kid I remember taking the accumulator weekly to a shop for charging to ensure the wireless set (not radio in those days!) was working for another week. My very first portable radio was a valve and transistor hybrid using a 67 volt HT battery.
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They were having problems, long before they started eBikes. Moving to that bigger store was a vanity project and the new owners took what was a great LBS (JD Cycles) and unfortunately killed itts a sad story all round really, but one that was preventable and indeed sadly predictable.
More news on the slump in bicycle sales I mentioned on this link.
HMRC report sales are down a third this year to date and that 2017 looks likely to be the worst year for 17 years.
That means one million less ordinary bikes will be sold this year, clearly the rise in e-bike sales which is a small fraction of that number will not get near to compensating. It could mean more independent bike shops closing this winter, especially as most are not strong on e-bikes anyway.
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HMRC report sales are down a third this year to date and that 2017 looks likely to be the worst year for 17 years.
That means one million less ordinary bikes will be sold this year, clearly the rise in e-bike sales which is a small fraction of that number will not get near to compensating. It could mean more independent bike shops closing this winter, especially as most are not strong on e-bikes anyway.
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One door closes, and another opens..
New LBS has been open a while but not yet paid a visit..
https://www.pacelinecycles.com/
Its tucked away and easy to miss..
New LBS has been open a while but not yet paid a visit..
https://www.pacelinecycles.com/
Its tucked away and easy to miss..
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