BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

A press release from Raleigh's PR agency says orders are being taken for the last few remaining numbered Choppers. 2004 special edition Choppers were produced, numbered from 0001 to, er, 2004. The press release contains the numbers chosen by the celebs given free promo bikes.

Ernie Witcomb, one of the last bespoke bike framebuilders in London, retired earlier this year. He's featured on BBC TV news at 6.30pm.

Cycling is not football. There are no paparazzi lenses trained on Rob Hayles' hotel-window boxer-short reshuffling. But nor is cycling akin to syncronised ludo, so where was the TV coverage of the British track team's dominance of the World Track Championships in Los Angeles?

Bike Week organiser Nick Harvey knows that June is peak season for IBDs and that could be one of the key reasons for low IBD involvement. So, he wants to start the promotional run up to the annual event now. Dr Bike events - free mechanical check ups for bikes - have now been called Bike MOTs and there's a PDF checklist for IBDs to download from the new Bike Week website.

In fact, there's been no such call, not even from helmet zealots. Why not? Official Department of Health figures contained in the just released Hospital Episode Statistics, 2003-04, show that falls from "same level from slipping or tumbling" led to 74 145 hospital admissions. There were also 4533 recorded falls "involving ice-skates, skis, roller skates or skateboards." Why does BHIT remain the Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust when the Helmet Initiative Trust could do so much more good by clamouring for helmet wearing for all indoor and outdoor activities?