Bike boom as driving costs go up

Cycle shops in the Black Country are reporting a rise in the sale of bikes as fuel prices prompt people to swap four wheels for two.

The number of cycle repairs is also up by half at one shop as more workers ditch their cars and jump in the saddle to get to work instead.

Sales of new bikes has gone up by 15 per cent at Brotherton Cycles Ltd in Halesowen Road, Old Hill.

Boss Paul Wright, aged 38, who cycles the 11 miles to work from his home in Willenhall each day, said: "We are normally busy during the summer but there has been an increase in sales because of rising fuel costs. I think more people are choosing to cycle to work to save money particularly as most people only work within a radius of a few miles.

"Not only is it saving them money but people are realising it is better than sitting in your car in a traffic jam and is a great form of exercise."

Jamie Price, a mechanic at Fred Williams Cycles, Snow Hill, Wolverhampton, said: "It is partly due to the rising fuel costs but also because of the cycle to work schemes that are taking place. We have been selling more bikes and the current wait to have a bike serviced is around two-and-a-half weeks.

"That's also down to the fact that we are coming into the summer so people are wanting their racing bikes serviced at the moment.

"But we certainly have seen a rise in the number of commuter bikes being sold rather than race bikes at the moment."

Chris Hayes of Hayes Cycles, Enville Road, Kingswinford, said: "The number of people bringing in old bikes for repair has increased by 50 per cent.

"It's obvious they have been sitting in the shed for 10 years because of the state they are in and people have rooted them out to avoid using their cars."

Bike repairer Vincent Morgan, who works at Great Bridge Bikes, High Street, Great Bridge, said: "There has been a big difference, in the last month especially. It's got much busier – before that it was dead.

"We'd get three or four customers a day but now we're getting loads. People seem to be bringing in these old bikes that they've had in the attic or the shed, some of them are really old and covered in cobwebs and I have to do what I can with them. It's all started with the credit crunch and petrol getting expensive."