'Bikes are just too technical these days': Is the traditional 'Saturday job in a bike shop' entry route into the cycle trade dead and gone?
Leading cycle trade association says rising employment costs have made offering youngsters a Saturday job too hard
Time passes and things change. Kids don’t do paper rounds anymore (many won’t touch a newspaper in their entire lives), and it seems that young Saturday staff in bike shops are experiencing a similar extinction event. And this will cut off an entry point into the cycling world that has existed for decades, a leading industry body has said this week. But why are many bike shops no longer employing weekend staff?
According to Jonathan Harrison, Director of the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT), it is mainly down to rising costs and onerous employment obligations. However, retailers we spoke to cited changing bike trends, such as electronic gears, hydraulic disc brakes and tubeless tyres as major factors.
In a press release this week, Harrison argued that the combination of minimum wage increases, holiday pay entitlements and new sick pay requirements introduced in April is deterring independent bike shops from taking on young part-time staff, which is choking off an entry point into the industry.
"The Saturday lad or lass has been how generations of people fell into the cycle trade," Harrison said. "They came in for the love of bikes, learned the ropes, and many of them went on to build careers in the industry. That pipeline is now under serious threat."
The release goes on to quote Paul Kenchington, director of The Bicycle Chain in Bridgwater, who said: "In the early days of our business the Saturday lad or lass worked for the experience and the staff discount, with a small wage as the bonus. Some of our best people started that way. But the product is now complex, the marketplace is cut-throat, and the cumulative cost of employing someone one day a week has reached the point where many of us are simply stepping back."
When Cycling Weekly spoke to some independent bike shops, it was actually the complexity of the modern bicycle that came up as the biggest barrier to employing weekend staff, over and above any concerns about improved employees’ rights.
“We haven’t been able to employ any Saturday staff for some time,” said Sid Soanes from Soanes Cycles, an independent bike shop that began life in Colyton, Devon, in 1902 as Liberty Cycles. Back then, bikes were handmade in the shop, and Sidney J Soanes (Sid’s grandfather) joined the business as a mechanic in 1910. Over a century, and four generations later, the bike shop is still owned and run by the same family, but a lot has changed.
“Saturday is our busiest day, and bikes are just too technical these days for an untrained young person to do anything meaningful with. Now we’re dealing with electronic gears, hydraulic brakes, tubeless tyres – you just don’t get the minor repairs and servicing that a Saturday lad might have been able to work on without supervision.”
“It’s the same with work experience,” continues Soames. “We used to take loads of kids on work experience, but it’s not doable now, because bikes are far too technical and complicated. It's a shame, but we can’t spend enough time with them to make it worthwhile for them or us.”
Sid Soanes, owner of Soanes Cycles in Devon, inside the bike shop that has been in his family for four generations
Tom Armstrong, an elite rider who races for Wheelbase CabTech Castelli and placed second in this year's Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic, works for JE James Cycles when he’s not riding, and he agrees.
“At one time, you could start as a Saturday lad in bike shop, sweeping the floor and so on, and when there was a spare minute learn how to true a wheel or something, but it's not like that anymore,” he told Cycling Weekly.
“Bike shops have to range e-bikes, of course, and then you’re dealing with motors and batteries, and you almost have to be an electrician. But even ‘standard’ bikes are incredibly technical. Now, when we do a handover and give a bike back to a customer, you need to be there with a laptop, asking them what phone they use, talking to them about apps and all sort of things.”
“Weekend jobs still exist in big bike shops, but they’re different. Now, unless you’re a fully trained mechanic, you’re likely to be out on the shop floor, showing customers what’s available – basically working as a sales assistant, but not getting your hands dirty.”
Harrison did also acknowledge this issue, recognising that the demise of Saturday jobs isn’t purely down to cost: "The job itself has changed,” he said. “Customers expect expert advice on e-bikes, on fit, on technology. That's a lot to ask of someone working one day a week, and when the financial risk of employing them has also risen, many shop owners are simply deciding it isn't worth it."
This is something Armstrong has seen firsthand, and he agrees that it’s having a big impact, not just on the industry, but also how kids get into the sport. “The bike shop that really helped me out when I was a young rider, Broadgate Cycles in Preston, has just closed,” he explains. “It was a family business and had been passed down from generation to generation, but the times are so tough and margins so tight, that they decided it wasn’t worth it. I got my first and second bikes from there – I’m very sad to see it go.”
The ACT, which is part of the Bira Group and represents cycle traders and retailers across Britain, championing independent bike shops, is appealing to the government to review the impact of recent employment legislation on small independent retailers, and to consider whether targeted exemptions or support for young and part-time workers could help preserve entry-level roles that are vital to the future of the trade.
