BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

An anonymous emailer - said to be based in Hong Kong but much more likely to be American - has sent an email to bike media types in the US, decrying the news-story this site recently carried on Gary Silva's 3G bike brand. Bizarrely, the emailer also claimed that BikeBiz.co.uk has lied about receiving a major journalism award.

The ad on page 17 of the Christmas edition of BicycleBusiness is cryptic and the advertiser won't go public in the print edition until January, but BikeBiz.co.uk can reveal that the advert is for Padded Cell Supplies Ltd, an offshoot of Hi-Gear Ltd. Padded has been formed to distribute Odyssey BMX components in the UK.

Following criticism on the BikeBiz bulletin board about an Xpedia mail-order advert for Sidi shoes in Cycling Weekly, the Sidi importer has launched a broadside against grey importation, the discount nature of the UK bike trade, and advertisers who claim to have good stocks of product but don't, instead using the headline goods as enticements to generate mailing lists.

The funeral of British cycling champion Arthur Metcalfe will take place in Leeds on Friday 20th December at 10.45am, at St. Chads Church on Otley Road in Far Headingley.

In a landmark ruling, a former amateur rugby player has won the right to a big bucks compensation payout from the Welsh Rugby Union following an accident on a rugby pitch.