BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

Suppliers who fail to adhere to Halfords' latest "conditions of trading" risk being dropped from the 402-store chain. In a five-page letter obtained by BikeBiz.com, the Halfords director of trading wants deeper discounts and other concessions "to reduce the risk of late, and or emotional decisions that can leave both our companies exposed."

"Bicycling...is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own." This was written in 1947 by cyclist and birdwatching author Louis Halle, then a member of the policy planning staff at the US Department of State. It's a well-known quote from an out-of-print book. Thanks to the modern wonder that is Google Books (pity about the copyright 'borrowing'), more of the bike quotes from the book have been found.

Barbara Rattue has managed W. D. Rattue's cycle and toy shop in Clowne, Worksop, since her husband's death in 1981. The shop has remained largely unchanged since the 1920s. "After I am gone I would like to see the interior of the shop go into a museum, and not just thrown on a bonfire," said Mrs Rattue.

You wait ages for a ring-binder MTB guidebook with detachable OS mapping and then two come along at once. Independent, rider-publishers – one from southern England, t'other from the north - have produced high-end MTB guidebooks with loose-leaf pages. And both route guides come with optional extras...

In a weak retail market, Halfords bucked the trend and has today released figures that show the 402-store bikes and car accessory retailer saw pretax profit rise to £40.4m in the 26 weeks to the end of September, an improvement over the £33.5m reported at the same time last year.