The bar is packed, the beer flowing and all eyes are on the big screen as the 22 teams in the 198-rider Tour de France peloton have the fans transfixed on the first day of the 100th Tour. As the sport’s popularity continues rising, cycling cafes are opening all over Britain as important hubs for repairing bikes, refuelling lycra-clad amateurs of all ages and providing a base to watch the professionals.
For Angela Sherwood, there was only one place to watch the Tour’s grand depart from Corsica: “I come here a lot. I get my bike fixed and it has good food. It caters for all my cycling needs, from meeting friends to watching the Tour.”
Sherwood is in Look Mum No Hands on Old Street, between the fashionable London districts of Clerkenwell and Shoreditch. On a weekday, Old Street is one of Britain’s busiest cycle thoroughfares as Wiggo-wannabees buzz past dawdlers on bikes that range in value from tens to thousands of pounds. At the weekend, the activity switches from the road to the cafe, particularly on the first day of cycling’s blue riband event, which was won by Bradley Wiggins last year.
On the 100th Tour, his teammate and fellow Briton Chris Froome, last year’s runner-up, is the odds-on favourite, and a large caricature of the Kenyan-born Team Sky leader looks down on the bar where the workshop has equal prominence with the food-and-drink counter.
Cycling cafes come in all shapes and sizes. Some, like the High Beach Kiosk in Epping Forest or the Tor Cafe near Matlock in Derbyshire, are tiny but, regardless of size, all are very popular with generations of cyclists. There are twee tearooms, delis and greasy spoons serving hot drinks and bacon butties.
Now, however, there is a new challenger in the shape of the “bike bistro”, where you can get an espresso and have your bike fixed while you wait, enjoy a craft beer, eat a proper lunch and watch a grand tour on a big screen.
Since 2000, cycling on the road has increased by 12% in Britain and by 117% in London. Around 15% of Britain’s adult population cycle at least once a month, and British Cycling’s membership has surpassed 75,000, soaring more than 50% since Wiggins won the Tour de France last year, the sports governing body announced last month.
Bristol’s Mud Dock, opened in 1994, was one of the first bike cafes, while Hackney’s Lock 7, was one of the first of the new generation in London. Cadence in Crystal Palace includes physiotherapy, fittings and even a turbo trainer. In Manchester, where Popup Bikes offers coffee, repairs and film evenings, there are rumours Wiggins is planning one in the city. A chain of 10 cafes called Velo, the first in Brighton, is reportedly planned by the owners of a brewery.
Not all are city based. The Dales Bike Centre in Fremington, north Yorkshire, not only offers bunkhouse accommodation but runs guided mountain bike trips around the region, which will host next year’s grand depart.
“Cafes have always been part of the nature of the sport,” said Sam Humpheson, a co-founder of three-year-old Look Mum No Hands. “You need to eat, and as a sport it involves travelling rather than being associated with a distinct geographic location.”
He also attributes the emergence of the cafes to changes in the retail market, which has seen traditional bike shops squeezed by the internet and by chain stores: “I think independent bike stores realised they needed to do more to build a community. Bike workshops have always been a social centre in cycling; what is happening is that people are realising you need to offer more.”
Housed in an arch where cyclists can park their bikes, borrow tools to fix them, drink coffee or attend cycling themed film showings, Popup Bikes was founded as a social enterprise. Dipak Patel described how the idea came to him: “I’d cycled into Manchester one evening intending to go to a pub and realised there was nowhere safe to leave my bike. I ended up leaving it with the bouncer at a club.
“We wanted to make a social hub. Now it’s not just cyclists who come, but people who like our coffee. We offer the space so people can come in and fix up their own bikes and borrow our tools – within reason. We also try to help people on lower wages and have a monthly jumble sale where people can sell their spare equipment.”
Back at Look Mum No Hands, Hjalte Doessing, a 26-year-old teacher from Copenhagen, said he commutes by bike and cycles at the weekend: “Some of my friends are into the mechanics of the bikes, but I prefer the tactics and the build-up of racing.
“I have seen the rise in popularity of professional cycling in Britain over the past 10 years. David Millar’s successes started the culture here and then Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins have made it much bigger.”
John Aboshiha, 34, is studying a maintenance handbook and drinking coffee. He has been cycling a racing bike for 15 years and it needs regular work.
“There’s a great atmosphere when the Tour is on,” he said. “Sporting success has certainly contributed to the growing popularity of cycling in Britain but environmental and financial concerns play a large part. I can go out for a meal every week on the amount I save by cycling rather than taking public transport.”
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