BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

Bicycles are still the best 'short-range personal transportation devices' you can buy yet the mainstream media still seems to think Segways are more sexy. Could electric bikes and ultralight electric motorbikes plug the gap? BikeBiz.co.uk talks to one of the first Segway owners in the world. Phillip Torrone is your archetypal early adopter (he had 'come and feel' parties when the first i-macs and PC phones came out) and loves his Segway, but he says it's ease of transportation he's after so could he be converted to an electric bike? Or how about the world's first 'intelligent' bike, equipped with Shimano's Smover computer controlled gears and suspension?

IFMA Koln will expand into an extra hall this year, and exhibitors have until 28th February to qualify for 10 stand discounts.

The brand is now owned by Sunrace of Taiwan but the British company that went down in 2000 still has a few bones to rattle. There's a creditor's meeting to be held tomorrow in Nottingham...

The Nottingham Evening Post reports that a college lecturer spent six months capturing candid portraits of production line workers at Raleigh's Lenton factory, closed before the start of the Christmas break. The black-and-white photographs of the "dwindling band of employees" of a "once great company" are said to "reflect the sad atmosphere that preceded closure." Raleigh management supported the photography project and paid for prints to be given to those workers photographed.

Whatever your religion, creed, colour, bike-type preference, go have yourselves a good few days of feasting and merry-making.