Events

Local Bike Shop Day 2022 sees record-breaking 524 shops take part

This year’s Local Bike Shop Day saw a record-breaking 524 shops taking part, a 42% increase versus last year.

The shops that signed up were more active in supporting the day than ever before, said organisers the ACT, celebrating in a variety of ways ranging from free gifts such as inner tubes, helmets and water bottles, discounts on bikes and accessories, free safety checks, organised bike rides, free tea, cake and ice cream and more.

Managed by the ACT, Local Bike Shop Day 2022 took place on Saturday 30th April.

Across Twitter and Instagram #SupportYourLocalBikeShop had a reach of 2.2 million on the week of Local Bike Shop Day, with one million of that being from the day itself. The hashtag had 4.3k interactions, 424 mentions, 183 shares and 3.9k likes. Facebook post reach hit over 80,000 on the Local Bike Shop Day channels alone.

Get Cycling shop manager Jordan Hargreaves said: “Local Bike Shop Day was great for us as it meant we could showcase our extensive products and services, and the skills and experience of our mechanics. To celebrate being a local bike shop, we offered free bike checks, discounted hire, and we also had a spring sale – all of which were very popular. It was a great success all round!”

Get Cycling CEO Joanne Mahon added: “The day itself was a huge success, we decorated the shop with flags and set up a marquee in the yard where the free bike checks took place. In addition to our loyal customers we had people who were just passing by but came to join in with the celebrations and have a chat with the mechanics, many of them hadn’t even known we were there previously.

“We were definitely busier than the average Saturday, which was reflected in our sales, so it’s great to know that all of our hard work promoting the day paid off!”

The voting function, a new feature for 2022, was also a success, with over 3,000 votes recorded. Patrick Healy, director of Peak Ascent Cycles, said he was “amazed by the response and support we had. With over 100 votes it’s truly humbling to know how important we are to our local community and we were honoured by the kind words and reviews we received.

“On the day we offered special promotions on a number of items including clothing and stock bikes with emphasis on reward deals for our regular customers. One customer brought in cakes to give out on the day and a local balloon shop made us some special LBSD and PAC balloons to dress out the shop. We had a great day with lots of fun, cycling tales and advice on how to enjoy your bike.”

Website users for the month of April were also up by 598% in comparison to August 2021 (last year’s Local Bike Shop Day took place on 28th August). A large part of this year’s success was thanks to the involvement of Bike Is Best, said the ACT, the consumer-facing organisation that went ‘above and beyond’ to promote the event across its channels.

Cycling organisations who got on board to help promote the day included The All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW), BetterPoints, BikeBiz, Bikebook, BikeIsBest, Butterworth Spengler Cyclesure, British Cycling, Brompton, Citrus-Lime, Cycle Sprog, Cycle To Work Day, Cyclescheme, Cycling UK, Cycling Talk Podcast, Cytech, Department for Transport, Frog Bikes, Freewheel, Insync, London E-bike Festival, Love to Ride, PaceUp Media, Raleigh UK, Ride UK BMX, Silverfish, Sustrans, The Cycle Show, Total MTB, Transport for London, V12 Retail Finance, Wheels for Wellbeing and ZyroFisher.

A few well-known faces also got on board, such as Jeremy Vine, Gail Porter and Sharron Davies.

The ACT said it would also like to say a huge thank you to this year’s prize providers, Cyclescheme and Freewheel, as well as the brands that offered some discounts and freebies, including Butterworth Spenglar, Cytech and Maybe.

Local Bike Shop Day is an industry-wide initiative managed by the ACT. If you would like to get in touch about next year’s Local Bike Shop Day, email info@theact.org.uk.

Rebecca Morley