{"id":473018,"date":"2026-03-13T07:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T07:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/473018\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T07:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T07:47:11","slug":"is-the-cycling-industry-back-on-track-uk-bike-market-returns-to-growth-for-first-time-in-four-years-new-report-finds-cycling-news-bike-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/473018\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the cycling industry back on track? UK bike market returns to growth for first time in four years, new report finds – Cycling News | Bike Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The UK cycling market finally appears to be returning to growth and stabilising after years of post-Covid turbulence, the latest annual report by the Bicycle Association has found.<\/p>\n

The report, published on Thursday by the national trade association for the UK cycle industry, collected retail sales data covering around 70 per cent of the cycling market in the UK, exploring performance across a range of sectors, including e-bikes, parts and accessories, and services, as well as wider participation trends and economic factors shaping the industry.<\/p>\n

And after a few doom-laded reports in recent years, the BA\u2019s 2025 analysis is rather more positive, the trade association finding that the UK cycling market returned to growth last year, with the total market value increasing by five per cent compared to 2024.<\/p>\n

That marks the first annual growth recorded by the cycling industry in the UK since the lockdown-related boom of 2020.<\/p>\n

> UK bike sales plummet to early 1970s levels and were lower than any other year this century in 2024, reveals Bicycle Association report<\/a><\/p>\n

Sales volumes also increased across what the BA deems the sector\u2019s four \u201ccore categories\u201d, with sales of mechanical bikes rising by six per cent, e-bikes up by two per cent, parts, accessories, and components seeing a small rise of one per cent, and services surging by eight per cent.<\/p>\n

According to the report, growth was driven in part by a \u201crevival in mainstream recreational and family cycling\u201d, ushered in by the favourable spring and summer weather we experienced in 2025.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, despite the modest growth in sale volume of e-bikes, the category\u2019s value grew by 10 per cent in 2025, driven by higher-value models such as e-mountain bikes.<\/p>\n

Overall, the total UK cycling market is estimated to have reached just under \u00a31.9 billion in 2025, returning close to levels last seen in 2022.<\/p>\n

The BA also noted that while overall sales remain below the peak levels seen at the start of the 2020s, areas of the market are showing \u201csigns of resilience\u201d with green shoots emerging.<\/p>\n

\"BikeBike shop (Image Credit: manny-becerra-unsplash)<\/p>\n

This positive outlook is a far cry from last year\u2019s report, which found that bicycle sales had fallen in the UK to 1.45 million<\/a>, the lowest figure for 50 years, as the industry struggled to stabilise in the wake of the post-Covid downturn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past few years have been a period of significant adjustment for the cycling industry following the extraordinary demand seen during the pandemic,\u201d Bronwyn Benstead, the Bicycle Association\u2019s commercial and insights manager, said in a statement following the publication of the BA\u2019s 2025 report this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the market remains challenging, the BA\u2019s data, and future forecasts, suggest that the sector may be approaching a turning point, with early signs of stabilisation and opportunities for growth as businesses adapt to changing consumer demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cEncouragingly, we\u2019re also seeing a recovery in children\u2019s cycling, which is a positive signal for the long-term health of the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

> \u201cThe cycling industry needed a good shake-up\u201d: Can bike brands finally breathe again in 2026? Why the industry is back on track and \u201cwiser\u201d after years of turmoil<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to the road.cc Podcast in January<\/a>, industry stalwart Rory Hitchens was also confident that the UK\u2019s cycling market had finally turned the corner after years of bad news reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I would say that the health check on the situation at the moment is good. It can always get better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut everyone seems to genuinely be going like, we\u2019re okay now. We can breathe. And actually, we\u2019ve made some plans and we\u2019ve put those plans in action and it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if all that is good, we as consumers benefit, don\u2019t we? Because we start to see new products, exciting things. We get the support and the backup we want from a brand. If you\u2019ve bought a bike and the brand no longer exists, where are you with support, backup, warranty? All those question marks go out of the way if you know things are stable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe playing field has levelled off a bit. There are fewer people on that playing field now, but the ones that are, they know what they\u2019re doing \u2013 in my opinion!\u201d<\/p>\n

> Redundancies at Frog Bikes after popular children\u2019s bike brand files to appoint administrators<\/a><\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cIf we\u2019ve got \u201925 behind us and we\u2019re alive in \u201926, then we\u2019ve gone through it,\u201d Rory says. \u201cAnd I feel like there\u2019s an optimism now that people are like, \u2018phew, I either dodged a few bullets or actually I know what I\u2019m doing\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you know what, it was time to learn a few lessons. Maybe the industry is actually getting to a place where it always needed to be. It needed a good shake-up, it really did. And it still does, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still doesn\u2019t have good systems in place, a brand still doesn\u2019t know where a dealer sold their bike and who they sold it to, they can\u2019t support the customer and the dealer. With simple stuff like that, our industry is still a bit backward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we are definitely moving forward into a better space. We\u2019re back on track, but we\u2019re wiser.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK cycling market finally appears to be returning to growth and stabilising after years of post-Covid turbulence,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-473018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}