Dear British Cycling, Do Better…

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#cycling #bikes #bicycle

We have more bad news for the cycling industry last week it was Ribble Ribble no Ribble are fine last week it was wiggle have you just predicted something oh my goodness UK bike brand Isa bikes have announced their closing after 18 years that very sad they’re known primarily for children’s bikes like

Really well-made children’s bikes uh they blame it difficult and turbulent times meanwhile British cycling are cutting jobs according to documents seen by cycling weekly British cycling says it’s due to lower than forecasted sponsorship they’ve also seen a 7% drop in membership it comes after British cycling signed a controversial 8-year

Sponsorship deal with oil giant shell but they’re still missing a headline sponsor why is it that so many of us hate British cycl because they don’t do very much for the Grassroots racing that we see did they do anything for anyone even yeah track cycling cuz they fund the team GB

Development stuff or just team GB in general yeah well they used to have like the road Academy and stuff like that as well where it was Young Riders getting into road racing and that’s what I would see firsthand like oh you know British cycling there they’re supporting the

Riders that’s gone can we explain for people who are listening from outside the UK what function British cycling serves like as a regular cyclist how would you interact with them uh in insurance and if you’re racing racing license you have to be it’s a govern it’s the governing body so

Uh except for CTT events which are separate cycling time trials so like the TTS you would see on a road all over the country um British cycling does all the crits all the cyc across all of the road racing road racing all of that stuff track y but then what well also mountain

Biking yeah BMX racing and all of that kind ofu I just said all the cyc it’s not all the some of them are separate events even the track has separate events like the uh Thunder crit that’s not a BC event but yes but most of it is

They’re not like qualifying events so if you were really good at um Thunder crit you’re not going to get called up to team GB probably because they wouldn’t acknowledge you true yeah all of the main events throughout so for non rcing cyclists BC so British cycling have a um

Membership which gives you insurance if you had some kind of accident and some discounts that’s about it why do you think that their membership has dropped is it less people racing or is it that there’s more insurance companies around so that is that’s a definite strong

Point so a lot of there was a handful of cases in the last 10 15 years where cyclists have ended up being prosecuted and losing a lot of money because they didn’t have insurance to cover their public liability um I think a lot of bike insurance companies now offer that

So for example your is it lacer as it pronounced that and pedal cover and pedal this and bik that insurance people that a lot of them will have public liability as part of their policies now so you don’t need a British cycling British cycling membership I don’t have

A British cycling membership because I just hate British for some reason why do you hate them so much Jimmy um I I think the reason I started to hate them was when I started getting into racing and you pay x amount to enter a race and then you inevitably

Have to pay a little bit extra to join the the race series and then you then have to get a British cycling race membership which costs a certain amount of money and then you have to get this and you have to get I I hated the

Process I wanted it and bearing in mind I came from running which which basically meant if you wanted to enter pretty much any running race in the world you give someone money you’re in like that’s it you pay your entrance free or it’s even free um and then you

Turn up and you race whereas to enter a bike race at a completely amateur level you had to have a membership of a minimum standard uh with a photo and carry a license card with you and then you have to get your race entry your series entry have all the equipment and

I think the process of it upset me so much that I was just instantly had my backup you do all of that and then you turn up to the race turn up to a couple of races meet the organizers and then you realize that all of them are volunteers yep so what are

British cycling doing taking people’s money some insurance yeah the the whole race scene is propped up by people that love cycling 100% not by memberships the British cycling I I don’t know I I think they’re a rubbish organization we’ve we’ve made uh we worked with them on a video a long

Time ago and just the whole process was hideous and like they were trying to get it it was like a group ride Francis is there as well you fil it um it was a group ride in Kent and it ended up being a day where it was literally snowing and

It was icy and horrible and then the guy was like oh yeah jump in a river and it was just like literally fro yeah that’s no you you’re not exaggerating it was it was really weird it was odd it was really weird I would say Jimmy is notoriously pessimistic

However from people that I talked to in London I feel like that was the General consensus of British cycling they don’t have a great reputation and they’re missing missing Grassroots stuff I’ve always wanted to create a rival to British cycling and actually where you like a proper not for profit where you

Collect money from memberships they get actual value directly to themselves for that membership and all of that money goes towards hosting more races getting people uh getting people which perhaps can’t afford to get into racing a way of getting into racing to see if they like

It like I’d love to do it but you then start looking at it and you’re like right so this is going to cost a million pounds a year to start and then that’s just doesn’t work it does if you get sponsored by BP shell well there rival isn’t it Brit

Cycling can be shell I’ll be BP BP yeah it’s not all bad news though because bike insurance companies laca and bikmo have just secured huge Investments for European expansion can I can I cut in here for a moment yeah do you know what I don’t like about both of

Those words those brand names laca and bikmo is I feel like it should be ler and Bemo but they’re pronounced laa and bikmo aren’t they why ler ah ah laca laca has raised 6.6 million pounds of VC funding and it’s going to be focusing growth on people moving to more

Environmentally friendly modes of Transport this has come as sales of ebikes in Europe are expected to outstrip annual car sales by 2025 isn’t that fantastic that’s Bonkers I’m assuming that’s not really representative of the UK sadly not yet ever probably but ebikes big big things in Italy Spain like people there’s a lot

More ebike Riders out there uh whereas it’s catching on here slowly slowly and hopefully in five years time it’s going to be even even better uh UK based insurers bikmo have just raised 3.4 million pounds to expand into Europe they say 40% of their new policy holders ensure

Ebikes so it’s interesting that both of them have raised a very significant amount of money at a point where the industry is crumbling however in both cases they are for European EXP expansions of British businesses with a uh Target essentially on ebikes so I think laca have as part

Of their VC round have also bought a european-based ebike insurance company to as part of their their growth so they are both clearly very specifically targeting the ebike insurance base which I imagine is super Niche cuz I imagine a lot of insurance companies don’t want to get into the

Space of ebikes especially when there’s been all the historic bad press around bikes setting houses on fire and things like that which I imagine is unbelievably rare in the grand scheme of things it’s it’s all down to um I was watching a YouTube video about it it’s

People using the wrong charges on the batteries right which is an easy mistake to make I assume if you’re building your own ebike and a lot of people do that for deliveroo and Uber Eats and that kind of thing it’s also some people’s um agenda to make ebikes look bad

Definitely do you ensure your bikes yes we use is it pedal cover and they actually are our house insurance and bike Insurance yes so they’re actually based in South Wales not that I have any connection to them although that would be nice um they are a home insurance

Company that also have very good bike add-ons so we’ve used them for a number of years so your bikes are covered from your house insurance as well yes yeah okay but they’re covered for as you would cover a bike so anywhere it’s not just covered like in a

Shed if you know what I mean yes yeah because that tends to be the problem with regular house insurance isn’t it if it’s not if it’s not targeted specifically Awards your bike then sometime like our friend Ben he got his bike nicked from his shed and it was

Really difficult to explain to them that like the bike was worth £5,000 but it had this specific group set that had been changed and the specific handlebar that had been changed because all they know is you buy a bike from the shop and they have a receipt and that’s how much

It costs you know what I mean um explaining to them that stuff changes on a bike whereas the point of our insurance is that they they understand how bike people work I guess MH this is not an ad for them but that’s we do we’ve never had to use it before it

Might be crap yeah this is the thing we’ve never had to make a claim and as a result of never having to make a claim I don’t know if they’re good or not you made a claim not with them with someone else when your bik got damaged when we

Went on holiday um that was many years ago and it was very good it was very good and I can’t remember who that was I can’t either pedal Sher they’re all called pedal something that’s the problem pedal something bike something V whatever I had pedal Shore and they I

Was in uh I was riding the white roads of Strada Bianca and I was there to film a video with Vila all these years ago four or five years ago and I hit a pothole and my action camera bounced out of my pocket and smashed on the floor and they even covered

That a 400 pound camera done so they were really good but I’ve never claimed oh so it’s was my wheel yeah wheel and action camera in one Fell Swoop carbon Rim the crack on it was that a sponsorship insurance policy or did you actually just pay for it uh I had to pay

For I was sponsored by them previously but even while I was sponsored by them I had to pay for insurance separately right does that make sense well it does make sense they can’t just like give it to someone seems a bit weird but it is weird yeah but I kept it afterwards and

Then you that was luckily I had it still then I’m excited to see more ebikes on the road and clearly this indicates it is happening faster it happens the better I want to cover more bikes on the channel ebikes I think this is actually probably suggesting that Europe is where

It’s happening and not here because they’re having to invest significant amounts of money to move into the European market so that they can they can hit that which is and I think the problem as we’ve said in other videos I can’t I don’t think we’ve touched on it

In the podcast we haven’t really talked about ebikes but the UK legislation around ebikes is just not up just not where it needs to be mhm I would like to have an ebike as a legitimate mode of Transport but you can’t get the appropriate Motors and batteries legally

On a bike in this country it needs to be a little bit faster a little bit more powerful I don’t think it needs to be faster because they are quite fast I think it needs to be a lot faster so it can maintain the legal speed so for

Example what’s the legal limit 17 km an hour on an ebike no it’s uh 16 M an hour 24K an hour like that’s that’s fast that is fast enough for around town yeah yeah but the motors aren’t powerful enough to be able to do that speed on any kind of

Climb for an extended period of time oh yeah yeah it’s pretty much on the flat only so if you if if I was riding home on a legal ebike it would still take 40 minutes rather than 20 minutes if it was actually able

To do that speed yeah I I I want to be able to do 20 mph uphill with a big big load and of stuff so you would need probably a th000 watt motor maybe yeah which is a long way from the 250 or whatever it is that’s currently legal in this country M

Fingers crossed it will change hopefully