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What's Keeping Bike Shops Alive? (It's Not Bikes...)
— 3 mins read
As UK sales fall, the survivors are turning to coffee, canoes, and repair work
Britain's bike shops sold just 1.45 million bicycles in 2024, the lowest annual figure since the 1970s, according to Bicycle Association data reported by Forbes. Shop owners say selling bikes alone no longer pays the bills, and those who cannot find other income are closing.
Boom, bust, and a market back where it started
The pandemic lockdowns triggered a short boom in cycling. Distributors and shops ordered heavily to meet demand, but then demand collapsed.
Dominic Langan, chief executive of parts distributor Madison, said his firm at one point had back and forward orders of more than £110 million on its system, against a typical £4.5 million to £6 million. 'We expected a glide path down to a typical trading year, and it was a precipice instead', he said.
The oversupply forced heavy discounting across the industry. Dave Farmer, whose Leatherhead bike shop closed in 2024, said gross profit on a bike is about 25%, but rent, rates, staff, and bills leave net margins of 1% to 2% at best. A pop-up coffee shop now trades from his former premises.
The market recovered slightly in 2025. The Bicycle Association's annual report put the total market at about £1.9 billion, up 5% and the first growth since 2020. That only returns it to 2022 levels, when the market was already shrinking. The association is a member-funded trade body, independent of government, which compiles its figures from a retail panel covering about 70% of the market.
If we were just a bike shop, we would be absolutely finished.
Canoes in Exeter, coffee in Putney
Saddles & Paddles, trading on Exeter's quayside since 1992, survives partly on boat hire. 'In the past five years, boat hire has represented anything between 20 and 35% of our revenue', said owner Heather Baker. 'No one aspect of those income streams would survive without the other.'
In Putney, The Clubhouse is now 70% coffee and food, selling its own Raptor bike brand alongside. 'If we were just a bike shop, we would be absolutely finished', said owner Tristram Kelly.
Repair work is the industry's strongest growth area, up 8% in 2025 according to the Bicycle Association. London firm Pedal Back has opened a second workshop-focused site in Wandsworth's New Acres development. Co-owner Nicky Redford-Moore warned the work is low-margin. 'You might be busy because you've got ten punctures to repair. That doesn't necessarily mean that's going to pay the bills', she said.
The tax scheme propping up a quarter of all sales
The government's Cycle to Work scheme now accounts for about one in four adult bike purchases, putting £219 million a year through the industry, according to the Cycle to Work Alliance. Workers buy bikes through salary sacrifice, cutting the price by up to 47%.
That discount is not free money. It is tax the Treasury does not collect, and everyone else makes up the difference. Much of the benefit never reaches the shops either. Baker said she is registered with about eight scheme providers, each taking commission on different terms. Farmer stopped dealing with one provider because it took 15% of every sale and a month to pay. A scheme sold as help for cyclists pays its middlemen first, funded by taxpayers who never see a bike.
Distributors are falling too
Premium-brand distributor Saddleback entered administration in May 2026, ceasing trading immediately with 42 jobs lost. It came after the collapse of distributors Moore Large in 2023 and i-ride in 2024.
Langan said Madison had more account closures than applications in 2023 and 2024, but more applications than closures this year. 'We're not seeing shops dropping like flies', he said.
After 37 years in the industry, Langan said passion is what keeps the small shops going. 'These smaller shops do really well because they're in it not just for money. It's their life. It's their passion.'
