BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
The incredibly entertaining real-life soap opera starring Freddie Bourne, Heidi Withers and Carolyn Bourne – and a cast of other family characters – went viral last week with the mass media around the world unable to get enough of this particularly English culture clash. Let’s face it: Carolyn Bourne’s email to her putative daughter-in-law was so painfully crass it transcended anything a sitcom writer could have imagined.
But did you know there’s a bike trade angle? Bridegroom-to-be Freddie Bourne runs Capital Cycles of Fulham, an online retailer of Dutch bikes. Well, Dutch-style bikes: his business is the UK retailer of Kross Cycles from Poland, a deal he secured by being one of the winners of a British Airways business flights contest.
Capital Cycles also did well in a business competition organised by The Observer newspaper. At the time Bourne said:
"Capital Cycles is unique and we know that. We genuinely are the first bicycle brand that has focused purely on simplicity, reliability and above all else – affordability."
Bourne created his business in 2008. It has sold 2400 bikes to date. It’s still a one man business. Back in 2009 the Capital Cycles website said "We love our bicycles. The founder’s wife cycles 14 miles a day to and from work on a Modern Dutch Ladies bike and I also use one wherever I go around London."
Founder’s wife? Freddie is already married? This seems like a whole new angle for the globe’s tabloid media.
UPDATE: And, clearly, Freddie is rattled about that comment because within minutes of this story going online he removed the reference to his "wife" from the website. Of course, it’s still there in a Google cache…
