BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

It's not a bike product - too rigid to fit in cages - but cyclists are familiar suckers of the CamelBak bite valve so the US company's latest product could still sell well in bike shops. The CamelBak bottle will be launched at the Outdoor Show in Friedrichshafen, July 23-26th.

A forum poster on BikeBiz.com said being mauled by Nigel Havers is like being "savaged by a damp poodle" but the actor has been given editorial space in cyclist-hating newspaper The Daily Mail to once again give the "gods of the road" (Havers' own words) a kicking. His invective even extends to The Independent: "one newspaper yesterday devoted no less than 24 pages to [cycling] in a week-long celebration of life on two wheels." Havers splutters that there's an "emptiness" about cycling's "green credentials."

The Hopper Building in Barton-on-Humber is being converted into luxury apartments. In the late 19th Century, the Hopper Building was the admin centre running one of the biggest bike factories in the world, home to the Hopper bicycle. In 1910 F. Hopper & Co. bought the patents, trademarks and goodwill of the bankrupt Elswick Cycle Company of Elswick in Newcastle, and the world-famous Elswick-Hopper was born. This brand was later subsumed by the Falcon brand.

And the British Cycling National MTB Championships - title sponsor, Fat Face - will "bring together four mountain bike disciplines to one weekend for the first time," said event organiser David Morgan. The event will be held in Powys from 14th to 16th July.

CSC, Phonak and T-Mobile currently occupy the top three team positions in this year’s Pro Cycling Tour and all three have committed to taking part at the Tour of Britain, starting in Glasgow on Tuesday 29 August.