BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

With a 120 000 print run, Procycling's Tour de France magazine is one of British cycling's biggest magazines. And IBDs doing Tour de France promotions in the centennial year of the Tour can get their slice of the action...

On Monday, staff at M&S HQ on Baker Street in London will be shown how and why to cycle in to work. The retailer is keen to stress its green credentials and getting more staffers on bikes makes a lot of congestion-charging sense for a central London business. The training and advice package has been arranged through BikeWorks, part of Jim McGurn's Company of Cyclists.

The event takes place in Bike Week each year and usually gets a brief mention in the mainstream press. This year, however, it's not just about 'aren't-bikes-great?', members of the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group are encouraging everyone to reduce their weight, and their cancer risk, through cycling.

A four-metre high, lumps-and-bumps map of the UK made from a jigsaw of ceramic tiles showing the entire National Cycle Network has been unveiled in Bristol, home town of Sustrans

On December 17th, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Orville Wright completed the world's first successful powered, heavier-than-air flight. The 120-foot journey was an history changing event, blazing a trail for military aircraft, commercial airliners and space travel. How was it funded? By a bicycle business. The Wright's built and sold top-end bicycles and, in this, the Centennial Year of Flight, a bike shop in the same town that the Wright brothers had their store is introducing a range of black, top-end bicycles inspired by the Van Cleve and St Clair marques created by two of America's biggest heroes.