Opportunity knocks: Jack Lenox on opening E-Radicals

Cargo bike enthusiast Jack Lenox opened a new electric cargo bike shop in Lancaster called E-Radicals earlier this year. He chats to Rebecca Morley

This piece first appeared in the February edition of BikeBiz magazine – get your free subscription here

From saving money, reducing congestion, and staying active, the benefits of using an e-cargo bike over a car or a van for deliveries seem clear. 

Yet for many people, a lack of dealers nearby means they can not only struggle to purchase one locally, they may not even know what they’re actually missing out on. 

Cargo bike enthusiast Jack Lenox recently opened a new specialist e-bike shop, E-Radicals, in Lancaster, which stocks Riese & Müller’s range of electric bikes and cargo bikes. 

Delivery service 

Lenox first realised the vehicles’ benefits when he set up an e-cargo bike delivery service in the city during the pandemic, but unfortunately ran into some issues with his cargo bike – with some design issues leading to parts of the steering components failing, and the manufacturer being unable to provide spares. The bike shop that sold it to Lenox also couldn’t fit it into their workshop. “They told me they regretted selling it to me, and they didn’t want to sell any more,” he told BikeBiz. 

“It was quite disheartening because I got a little business going as a side project, and then the bike was basically off the road for about nine months. In the midst of all this, I was doing more research, and learning about Riese & Müller.” 

Lenox ended up getting a Riese & Müller bike himself from a dealer in Tynemouth. “The Northwest is for some reason just badly serviced by cargo bike dealers especially. In running the cargo bike business, I realised that in order to do that successfully, you either need your own little service centre or you need a partner bike shop that can support you, and that didn’t exist in Lancaster.”

E-Radicals opened on January 4, this year, and Lenox is now also a fully qualified bike mechanic, having completed all three levels of the Cytech training. 

“I’ve been told that January is probably the worst month for the whole bike industry,” he continued. “But having said all that, I think with my lack of experience it’s been quite good because it’s relatively quiet, and that’s given me time to refine how the shop is working.” 

“I’m kind of enjoying the slow start – but I’ve sold some bikes, so people are coming in and it’s working.”

On the customer reaction, Lenox says he sees many window shoppers and people who are not used to seeing cargo bikes in the area. 

“They’re not a big thing up here. In Manchester you see them quite a lot or you go to London and you see them absolutely everywhere now. 

“But people are just astonished to see them. But then on the flip side, I’ve now had quite a few people coming in and saying: ‘At last.’”

Test rides 

Having the e-cargo bike delivery service means Lenox has experienced the benefits of these vehicles first hand. “When I was running the cargo bike business, because I did end up having all the problems with the bike, sometimes I was having to do my rounds basically with a car or van instead of a cargo bike, and it took twice as long,” he said. “I was really stunned at how fast I could get around on my bike. 

“What’s really good about Riese & Müller is their whole model is about having everything test rideable. With the bikes I’ve got, if a local tradesperson or someone who wants to do the school run or something, if they want to take it for the day, do the school run, do their job or maybe even a bit longer than that, I’m totally up for that because I think there’s this seeing is believing thing, and actually experiencing is believing. 

“It’s quite a gamble – if you’re thinking that a cargo bike might work, and you’re not mad like me when I just went and bought one, then you might be thinking that it’s just too much of a risk to get one.” 

It’s about being able to offer that access and let people work out if it fits into their life – and hopefully they’ll find it does. “You have all your test bikes, and if someone likes the bike there’s lots of customisations available, lots of optional extras,” explained Lenox. 

“You can sit down with the customer, go through exactly what bike they want, put the order into the factory, and then there’s a three-to-six week turnaround from the factory. The bike gets back to me pretty quickly, and then I put it all together for the customer and then it’s ready to collect in a few weeks. 

“Rather than having a bike shop just packed with bikes – which I think for people who aren’t necessarily hardcore cyclists as well, it’s really overwhelming when you walk into these bike shops that just have loads and loads of bikes that are almost the same but slightly different.”

Trade ins 

Looking to the future, Lenox says that while Riese & Müller is a fantastic brand and its bikes are well worth the money, he is also looking at bike brands to stock that are a bit more economical. 

“I’ve had some people come in, especially some of the older customers who’ve been in who are looking for something quite simple, like a simple step through bike that they can ride around in and do their shopping, and they’d probably be quite happy with some of the other bikes on the market that are a bit lower [in price],” he said. 

The shop is also doing trade-ins, said Lenox, so it will be able to sell pre-owned bikes which would have a lower price point. “Down the line, I hope that once the Riese & Müllers in this area start turning over, there will be second hand ones so then that obviously would bring the price down, but that’s going to be quite a while. 

“Any brand you take on, you’ve obviously got the support and everything that you need to provide. What I like about Reise & Muller is they’re really well built. 

“I don’t want to sell anything in the shop that I wouldn’t buy myself. I think a lot of shops, because they are for the real hardcore enthusiasts, they’re not as supportive of people who don’t know as much about all the different things out there, and so that’s the thing I really want to do. By being just this really expensive bike shop, I’m not necessarily going to achieve that.”