BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

Formerly distributed by Madison, Selle Royal's top-end saddle brand will now be distributed by Extra.

Mark Alker and Chipps of Singletrack will be wandering the expo aisles booking tenner-a-throw trade teams for the table tournament. Winners get ads in the mag. All donations will go to Cancer Research UK.

A few hours before the Islington trade-and-consumer cycle show gets plugged on Blue Peter, the exhibition director will be on the Terry and Gaby show, the BBC1 lunchtime programme.

Last week, Saturn ended its 12-year association with US road race team sponsorship and now another major backer of American cycling has decided to call it a day. The Schroeder Iron team will cease to exist from the end of the 2003 race season. Cyclingnews.com calls the recent spate of sponsor losses a 'crisis'. Frank Schroeder blames workload and a "sluggish economy."

US retail sales were up in July, but the sporting goods sector, including bicycles, was down, reports Jay Townley in his economic tracking report for the National Bicycle Dealers Association of America. US IBDs "appear to be struggling with pricing power, and their problems also appear to be self inflicted and unnecessarily weakening profits," concludes Townley in July's fact-packed but hard-hitting report, available as a PDF download within...