Short report from the CORE bike show.

[Wisper Bikes]

Last weekend the E4 group were at the CORE Bike show at Whittleburry Hall in Northamptonshire. The E4 group consisting of Wisper, Hero Eco, Storck, and EBC were invited to participate in this very prestigious show for UK bike dealers earlier in 2012 as it was felt by the organisers that electrically assisted cycles were at last becoming mainstream enough for EBDs to want to know more, they were correct!

The show was amazing, only 1500 or so visitors over three days but everyone these was either a bicycle shop owner or employee from Halfords and Evans down to a single shop cycle specialist. Core manages to attract such a large percentage of the trade by offering all visitors breakfast, lunch, tea or coffee and nibbles all day long and a four corse dinner with booze and entertainment in the evening all completely free of charge. Of course this does make the show very expensive for exhibitors but it was worth every penny.

The reason I am writing about the show is to let you all know how the cycle trade has changed and now a good percentage of these guys are now ready to climb on board and start offering ebikes in their shops. Even the die hards when presented with the likes of the Grace Easy, MX and Storck Multitask were suitably impressed saying "at last electric bikes that look and ride like bicycles!" My big surprise was that they took the £2,600 to £3,000 price tags in their stride. These guys recognised the superb build quality and component choices in these bikes and understood where the money was going. That is not to say that the Wispers, Fast Forwards and EBC bikes were not enthusiastically greeted too! What the EBDs were afraid of was getting involved with the other end of the market knowing often from experience that after a few short months after the sale they could end up with nothing but grief. We explained that the market had moved on a lot in the last few years and that the rubbish of the past had all but been eliminated now.

We are now following up our enquiries. The show was very fruitful and enjoyable resulting in both orders and high quality enquiries. We believe CORE was most well organised and productive show we have attended. Rather refreshingly all E4 members decided to pool leads, it's great to be a part of such a selfless group of individuals!

The interest in the two Grace bikes was amazing, some preferring the understated lines and state of the art equipment of the Easy and others being bowled over by the power, rugged design and smooth ride of the MX.

It was great to see so many of our existing dealers and to experience the swing in the way bicycle retailers view electric bikes. A good percentage now considering our sector of the market to be important and certainly worth becoming involved with. We believe now that electric bike sales in the UK will start to take off in a big way. Maybe with this amount of interest we will soon catch up with the Dutch and Germans!

All the best

David

 

[flecc]

That's really good news on the trade show David. I'm not surprised by the trade's higher price acceptance since high end unpowered bikes have been well into the thousands of pounds for years now and sport cyclists are well used to that. Trouble is they are not the e-bike target market. The problem remains that of the mainstream public so used to seeing ads for apparently well specced bikes at £99 or less, so thinking electric should start around the £200 to £300 region. Finding that often doesn't even cover a battery they usually don't even consider further. We can only hope that the trade's increasing enthusiasm rubs off and gradually produces a market growth.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Last weekend the E4 group were at the CORE Bike show at Whittleburry Hall in Northamptonshire. The E4 group consisting of Wisper, Hero Eco, Storck, and EBC were invited to participate in this very prestigious show for UK bike dealers earlier in 2012 as it was felt by the organisers that electrically assisted cycles were at last becoming mainstream enough for EBDs to want to know more, they were correct!

The show was amazing, only 1500 or so visitors over three days but everyone these was either a bicycle shop owner or employee from Halfords and Evans down to a single shop cycle specialist. Core manages to attract such a large percentage of the trade by offering all visitors breakfast, lunch, tea or coffee and nibbles all day long and a four corse dinner with booze and entertainment in the evening all completely free of charge. Of course this does make the show very expensive for exhibitors but it was worth every penny.

The reason I am writing about the show is to let you all know how the cycle trade has changed and now a good percentage of these guys are now ready to climb on board and start offering ebikes in their shops. Even the die hards when presented with the likes of the Grace Easy, MX and Storck Multitask were suitably impressed saying "at last electric bikes that look and ride like bicycles!" My big surprise was that they took the £2,600 to £3,000 price tags in their stride. These guys recognised the superb build quality and component choices in these bikes and understood where the money was going. That is not to say that the Wispers, Fast Forwards and EBC bikes were not enthusiastically greeted too! What the EBDs were afraid of was getting involved with the other end of the market knowing often from experience that after a few short months after the sale they could end up with nothing but grief. We explained that the market had moved on a lot in the last few years and that the rubbish of the past had all but been eliminated now.

We are now following up our enquiries. The show was very fruitful and enjoyable resulting in both orders and high quality enquiries. We believe CORE was most well organised and productive show we have attended. Rather refreshingly all E4 members decided to pool leads, it's great to be a part of such a selfless group of individuals!

The interest in the two Grace bikes was amazing, some preferring the understated lines and state of the art equipment of the Easy and others being bowled over by the power, rugged design and smooth ride of the MX.

It was great to see so many of our existing dealers and to experience the swing in the way bicycle retailers view electric bikes. A good percentage now considering our sector of the market to be important and certainly worth becoming involved with. We believe now that electric bike sales in the UK will start to take off in a big way. Maybe with this amount of interest we will soon catch up with the Dutch and Germans!

All the best

David

Hi David,good to hear from you again,you had been quiet of late for obvious reasons.
When you said they took the £2600-£3000 price tag in their stride-did you mean bike shops or did you mean actual customers? All the feedback I am getting is that ebike prices must come down not go up,otherwise these bikes will only be attactive to the elitist few and will never become mainstream.
The holy grail of the the ebike market is £1000. A crank drive bike with good equipment and readily available for £1000 is Kudos's target,we are getting close-it just needs volume now for that to be a reality.
Sorry,I dont want this ebike market to lose touch with reality otherwise we will be like the sports bike market with bikes £5000 upwards,that is madness.
Dave
Kudoscycles

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

For me the big difference between Netherlands/Germany and UK is both of the former countries are used to paying alot more for a standard bike so customer do not baulk at 2k for an electric bike. However in the UK we expect a normal bike to be a few hundred pounds tops. This means as Dave says people are suprised at electric bike prices.

However what we have found is people often experiment with electric bikes buying a second hand or cheaper model before realising there is a real benefit to some of the mid to higher end bikes. Although it depends how you use the bike. Commuters can often justify 2k for a bike which is being used regularly and even at the price could save them money if it means getting rid of one of their cars. However must leisure customer want to pay no more than around 1k and at the moment this is the largest market. I would love to see the commuter market expand and think there is a real opportunity in this area.

 

[Old_Dave]

Where's the market growth.. I see it as

Target price.. sub £1000
Target customer.. Baby boomer

I would love to see the commuter market expand and think there is a real opportunity in this area.

With the UK weather, I think thats going to be a tough area of the market to crack.. far easier to start with the old peeps

And before you ask.... No I'm not going to write the advertising campaign

 

[jackhandy]

And before you ask.... No I'm not going to write the advertising campaign

I had more in mind..... You modelling for the posters.

 

[flecc]

I would love to see the commuter market expand and think there is a real opportunity in this area.

As well as the weather, a really big problem with getting people out of their cars and achieving this is the safety aspect of any cycling, both real and perceived. Commuting is almost invariably into large urban centres and in the rush hours, both making for the greatest danger and the most fear. If we don't crack that problem the growth will always be severely limited.

Related to that is that over the last three decades parents have increasingly not allowed their children to cycle at all due to safety fears, around here in my city fringe area only a tiny minority of children ever learn to cycle, perhaps 10% at the most. That means about 90% will never ever be on an e-bike, since adults only take to cycling if they've learned and cycled when young. That is probably the greatest of all limitations for the future.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

That's really good news on the trade show David. I'm not surprised by the trade's higher price acceptance since high end unpowered bikes have been well into the thousands of pounds for years now and sport cyclists are well used to that. Trouble is they are not the e-bike target market. The problem remains that of the mainstream public so used to seeing ads for apparently well specced bikes at £99 or less, so thinking electric should start around the £200 to £300 region. Finding that often doesn't even cover a battery they usually don't even consider further. We can only hope that the trade's increasing enthusiasm rubs off and gradually produces a market growth.

Of course you are right Flecc, I don't expect instant massive sales, however the acceptance amongst IBDs is much stronger than I have experienced over the last eight years with a real jump from last year. It was also pleasant to hear from bike professionals that the spec on the top end bikes was certainly sound value.

I too believe that the mass market for the short term will be in the under £1,200 range and as we can all see the market is already overcrowded. I am sure though that in the not too distant future we like the Europeans will start to take electric biking seriously and as the buyer becomes more and more knowledgable highly specified bikes at higher prices will become more and more desirable.

As a matter of interest, in the recent BEBA survey gathered from a sample of 355 electric bike owners showed last year the amount of money people spent on the range of bikes from £650 to £1,100 was £134,500 and between £1,500 and £2,000 was £113,600 so we may not be so far behind the Germans and Dutch as we may all fear!

All the best

David

 

[flecc]

As a matter of interest, in the recent BEBA survey gathered from a sample of 355 electric bike owners showed last year the amount of money people spent on the range of bikes from £650 to £1,100 was £134,500 and between £1,500 and £2,000 was £113,600 so we may not be so far behind the Germans and Dutch as we may all fear!

I'm quite sure that applies across the board David, but what worries me is that it also shows how poor the wider-public cycling market is. In a country where cycling is such a small minority interest, the lower value group should be far greater since it should reflect a large entry group if cycling is growing as it needs to be.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi David,good to hear from you again,you had been quiet of late for obvious reasons.
When you said they took the £2600-£3000 price tag in their stride-did you mean bike shops or did you mean actual customers? All the feedback I am getting is that ebike prices must come down not go up,otherwise these bikes will only be attactive to the elitist few and will never become mainstream.
The holy grail of the the ebike market is £1000. A crank drive bike with good equipment and readily available for £1000 is Kudos's target,we are getting close-it just needs volume now for that to be a reality.
Sorry,I dont want this ebike market to lose touch with reality otherwise we will be like the sports bike market with bikes £5000 upwards,that is madness.
Dave
Kudoscycles

Thanks Dave, yes I have been rushed off my feet with the move out of China to Germany, but it has started to settle down now that all the components are being delivered. I have a few weeks to sit back a bit now before the bikes are ready. Although as we have pre-sold 50% of German Wispers from the first production run, I will be involved in the next batch very soon. We have also been planning the new bikes for the 2013 Autumn shows so no rest for the wicked!

I am sure your wonderful bikes will continue to do very well!

To answer your question, at the show only dealers because there were only dealers there! But during penning this post we have just sold 2 more MX's and an Easy to one of our dealers, one of the MX's is straight off to an end user, happy days!

All the best

David

 

[Wisper Bikes]

I'm quite sure that applies across the board David, but what worries me is that it also shows how poor the wider-public cycling market is. In a country where cycling is such a small minority interest, the lower value group should be far greater since it should reflect a large entry group if cycling is growing as it needs to be.

Yes that is certainly a worry Flecc, of course the one thing that those figures do not show is the quantity of bikes sold. £134K represented 139 sales where as the £114k represented only 56 bikes.

I agree there should and hopefully will be a massive increase in the sales of entry level bikes which will result in more and more high end bike sales.

All the best

David

 

[GORDONAL]

Of course you are right Flecc, I don't expect instant massive sales, however the acceptance amongst IBDs is much stronger than I have experienced over the last eight years with a real jump from last year. It was also pleasant to hear from bike professionals that the spec on the top end bikes was certainly sound value.

I too believe that the mass market for the short term will be in the under £1,200 range and as we can all see the market is already overcrowded. I am sure though that in the not too distant future we like the Europeans will start to take electric biking seriously and as the buyer becomes more and more knowledgable highly specified bikes at higher prices will become more and more desirable.

As a matter of interest, in the recent BEBA survey gathered from a sample of 355 electric bike owners showed last year the amount of money people spent on the range of bikes from £650 to £1,100 was £134,500 and between £1,500 and £2,000 was £113,600 so we may not be so far behind the Germans and Dutch as we may all fear!

All the best

David

Hi David if at all possible could you give the full range of survey results eg £1100-£1500 and over £2ooo , makes for interesting analysis . Also where was the 355 sample electric bike owners taken from . The reason why i ask this is that as a motorhomer a vast number of folks buy at the shows and one firm AS regularly sell many ebikes and i think on my forum (Motorhome Fun) that bike would probably be the most popular (approx £6-700)

I don't know if any dealers/manufacturers on this forum attend caravan/motorhome shows if not they are missing a source of potential custom.

Alan

 

[Old_Dave]

355 is far to small a number


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[flecc]

I think one expansion area for e-biking will be in windfall gains, the effect of other unconnected actions.

The largest increase in cycling in one area was undoubtedly the introduction of the £8 London Congestion Charge which doubled the numbers cycling within eight years and has increased them again after the daily charge was raised to £10.

That is about to give us a possible windfall since the previously exempt hybrids and some alternative fuel cars will now have to pay the charge in future, only pure e-cars to be exempt now. Those many hybrid users suddenly facing that big rise in commuting costs may well consider an e-bike, especially if we are luckier with the weather this year.

A further windfall may come from other restrictions on car use in urban areas as Britain is forced to face up to it's serious street air pollution problem. In our major conurbations we are breaking EU limits by growing margins and facing an ever increasing risk of huge fines. The recent restrictions on trucks and now vans have helped but not sufficiently, so cars may be roped in at some time. In some parts of the world there are alternative day use restrictions already in force for affected zones.

And of course there's the continuing windfall for cycling that results from increasing motoring costs. I can see real possibilities of major political disruptions becoming more widespread in the Middle East, and that could result in today's fuel cost looking a bargain.
.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

355 is far to small a number

I agree, it would have been better with 10 times that Dave but it gives an impression of the market and is about all there is to go on at the moment.

All the best

David

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi David if at all possible could you give the full range of survey results eg £1100-£1500 and over £2ooo , makes for interesting analysis . Also where was the 355 sample electric bike owners taken from . The reason why i ask this is that as a motorhomer a vast number of folks buy at the shows and one firm AS regularly sell many ebikes and i think on my forum (Motorhome Fun) that bike would probably be the most popular (approx £6-700)

I don't know if any dealers/manufacturers on this forum attend caravan/motorhome shows if not they are missing a source of potential custom.

Alan

Hi Alan, I am sure that the figures are not absolutely accurate, due as Dave says to the relatively small number of people who responded, although I should say that I was pleased with the response as were the DfT.

Mark Loveridge who instigated the survey published the results here http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/13148-beba-uk-survey-results-executive-summary.html

I have crunched the figures to reveal the following....

The figures show the top of the price band on the left and the valur of that band on the right.

i.e. £0 to £500 market value £15,620. £500 to £650 market value £19,844. £1,700 to £2,000 market value £81,650 etc. etc.


£500.00 £15,620.00
£650.00 £19,844.50
£800.00 £24,424.00
£950.00 £54,634.50
£1,100.00 £55,451.00
£1,300.00 £48,919.00
£1,500.00 £42,600.00
£1,700.00 £31,985.50
£2,000.00 £81,650.00
£2,200.00 £22,649.00
£2,500.00 £23,962.50

Total value £421,740.00

Average bike value £1,188.00

All the best

David

PS. Sorry Allan I missed a bit. The sample was taken from the survey on pedlecs, we also sent out the survey to all BEBA's members' customers and dealers.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Following up on Fleccs comments, I thought this may be interesting. BEBA is a member of the APPCG so we get any announcements hot of the press....

Press release from All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group

Cycling must be designed into all road infrastructure

Posted on February 6, 2013 by allpartycycling

Provision for cycling must be considered and designed into all road infrastructure as it is being planned, rather than being an afterthought, a parliamentary inquiry heard today.

The third session of the Get Britain Cycling inquiry focused on road planning and design and heard from cycling organisations as well as transportation and planning experts. MPs were also told that a key way of ensuring that provision for cycling is designed into all new roads and junctions is to ensure that highway engineers are properly trained to think about how pedestrians and cyclists will use roads to make journeys, rather than simply designing roads for motorised vehicles.

Summing up the third session, co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, Julian Huppert MP, said:

“It came as no surprise that experts at today’s inquiry recognised that we need to make huge improvements to our country’s infrastructure if we are to make cycling safer and encourage more people to cycle. For years, we have seen little investment on our roads.
We need real improvements to junctions, signage, traffic calming and speed limits among other areas along with proper infrastructure for cyclists such as dedicated cycle lanes if we are to make a real difference. We have to show we are serious about making it safer for cyclists and that means looking at our infrastructure from their perspective and making the changes that benefit them. We need to change the mind-set about towns and cities so that motor vehicles no longer dominate design.”

Speaking at the inquiry, ibikelondon blogger Mark Ames said: “Cycling must be objectively safe rather than just statistically. We need designs that will bring about maximum feelings of comfort.” Sustrans’ Tony Russell said: “cycling infrastructure must be build to suit the least confident cyclist. A 12 year old should be able to safely navigate it.” CTC’s Roger Geffen agreed: “There are examples of where the Highways Agency has effectively out-designed cycling. According to some of their audits, they assume there is no demand for cycling. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Mark Wilson from the Highways Agency admitted that engineers need more cycle-specific training.

The subject of how roads should be redesigned for cyclists sparked much debate. Charity Living Streets said: “simply painting white lines on the road is not generally helpful. It can sometimes put cyclists and pedestrian in conflict.” Urban Movement’s John Dales said: “communities must start designing roads for people who aren’t already cycling. We must be very ambitious.” Transport Planning Consultant Phil Jones said: “The approach must be dependent on local circumstances. Segregated lanes are not always necessary. If we’re going to segregate, we should only do it when we can do it properly.”

The reduction of speed limits was also raised. Rod King of the charity 20s Plenty said: “Lower speeds aren’t the panacea for getting more people walking and cycling. Good infrastructure and legal protection are equally important.”

Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, Lord Berkeley, said:

“Any cyclist using many of today’s roads will know that cycling is often seen as an afterthought, rather than being considered when roads are planned. In order to get Britain on bikes, we need to first change the environment to make it more appealing. This demands a concerted effort from government, local authorities and planners to ensure our roads are fit for purpose for all road users.”

Representatives from the CTC, Sustrans, the London Cycling Campaign and cycling blog ibikelondon gave evidence at today’s inquiry alongside the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK, the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation, and South Bank University. Evidence about urban design was covered by Urban Movement, Phil Jones Associates as well as charities 20s Plenty and Living Streets.

The next session of the Get Britain Cycling inquiry, focusing on translating cycling’s sporting success into legacy and participation, will take place on 13 February. Chris Boardman MBE is due to give evidence.

For more information about the inquiry, visit: Inquiry |

 

[flecc]

Thanks David, good to see that the "Get Britain Cycling" inquiry is being so active and reaching positive conclusions.

 

[GORDONAL]

Thanks David i used your figures and got 62% purchases less than the £1500 figure , I am a little surprised that 38% of purchases are in excess of £1500 , that must auger well for the higher and retailer admittedly on a very poor sample size.

Alan

 

[Wisper Bikes]

I should say that we are having a particularly exciting day with respect to forward orders on top of a very good day for Wisper bikes we have so far sold seven Grace bikes 4 MX and 3 Easy, valued at £20,693 at retail prices, an average of £2,956 per bike. I truly believe there is a good market for top end bikes.

All the best

David