Can I buy a new bike… now?

As we head towards the two-year anniversary of the first lockdown and all the supply-chain problems it caused, is availability improving for British bike brands and their customers?

- Stefan Abram

A mid the woes of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, Covid-19’s dark clouds offered a sliver of silver lining. More people started to ride bikes. But surging sales constricted the flow of supply needed to satisfy that demand.

As we near the two-year anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown, we’ve taken a snapshot of two British bike brands, each with quite different business models and approaches to their supply chains. We asked them how things have been, how things are, and what the future holds.

Economies of small scale

Nestled deep in the South Downs near Steyning, Mason’s relatively short history is belied by the rustic barn comprising its headquarters.

The brand is actually younger than the Transcontinental bike-packing race – but more than just an arbitrary yardstick, there is a connection in that Mason’s Definition endurance road bike won the third edition in 2015, under the stewardship of Josh Ibbett.

Founder Dom Mason proudly explained: “Our business model from the start has been to work with small makers within Italy, UK, and Europe. I simply didn’t want to ship stuff across the world and I wanted a very close working relationship [with our suppliers].

“Naturally, at the start, we couldn’t have foreseen the benefits of this type of relationship when running a business through the pandemic and Brexit, but I like to think that doing things the ‘right way’ will pay off eventually.”