BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

In the first of a series of interviews with the global bike industry's most influential figures, the newest member of the BikeBiz editorial team drives across Taiwan in search of the president of Giant Inc. GLENN SMITH interviews Tony Lo. Some of the questions asked were set by contributors to the BikeBiz bulletin board.

Just a few days into the job and Alistair Darling is already miles ahead of previous Transport Secretary Steven Byers, who resigned last week. Darling recognises he isn't going to be loved by every member of the travelling public and has hinted he may be willing to risk restricting unbridled use of motorcars. "It's simply not possible to have more and more traffic on streets designed hundreds of years ago for horses and carts," he said.

Ed Benjamin of the CycleElectric International Consulting Group has emailed subscribers to his CycleElectic newsletter with the news that after poor sales in 2001, sales of electric bikes so far in 2002 have increased

In a survey said to have been conducted by Motor World, but which is far more likely to have come from the fertile imaginations of the bright young things at Motor World's new PR agency, the 200-store chain is supposed to have identified 12 customer-types, many of them less than complimentary to cyclists. Thanks, Motor World!

US-company Pacific Cycle - owner of the Mongoose and GT brands - held its annual international distributor meeting in Alacante Spain earlier this week. UK Mongoose and GT importer Hot Wheels of Bournemouth won the top distributor award for its work on increasing sales of Mongoose bikes