Edinburgh’s Electric Cycle Company opens the largest specialist e-bike shop in the UK
The Electric Cycle Company (ECC), Edinburgh, has just opened its new 4000 square foot, state-of-the-art electric bike store and workshop on Crewe Road North, making it the largest specialist e-bike shop in the UK.
Over four times the size of their previous shop, ECC has created a completely safe and welcoming retail environment with enough space to display a much larger selection of both new and established electric bike brands, quality cycle clothing, and e-bike accessories, alongside a bespoke e-bike maintenance workshop.
Following an extensive but challenging renovation project during the Covid-19 pandemic, the new shop is a far cry from the more traditional ‘stack’em high’ model of bike retail. Customers can easily walk around the store while remaining physically distanced. The hugely knowledgeable and experienced sales team are able to safely deliver interactive and informative e-bike demonstrations and ‘talk throughs’, perfectly matching the best e-bike to a customer’s age, fitness and skill level, and general lifestyle.
With bookable sales appointments, vitally important to an unpressured e-bike purchase experience, there is a welcome reception and sales meeting desks, together with a dedicated, comfortable customer waiting area with a TV, coffee machine, and customer toilets.
Neill Hope, Managing Director of ECC, said: “I am so proud of what our small build team and the staff have achieved during the Covid-19 pandemic. The new shop is even more impressive than my original vision. The e-bike knowledge and the expertise in e-bike sales that we have accumulated over more than ten years has enabled us to create the most progressive bike shop in Scotland; a much more welcoming, comfortable, spacious, and safe environment for our customers and staff. It just so happened that our long-term future-proofing project dovetailed perfectly with the requirement for ‘pandemic proofing’.
“Having started the business in 2006, we quickly established ourselves as Scotland’s leading e-bike specialists, often being frowned upon by the purists within the bike industry who couldn’t see past 100% pedal power. We were just too leftfield. With our new shop, we are again disrupting the industry by going against the grain of bike retail.
“Sadly, we can’t have a launch party right now. However, the shop is open and we look forward to welcoming all of our customers, new and old who travel from all over Scotland and further afield to buy and service their e-bikes, when they can safely travel again”
A new 3D virtual walk through of the showroom has also been produced. It has been designed to give customers a fantastic first impression of the new store. It is also hoped that once they see the shop’s open and COVID safe environment they will be keen to visit in person when restrictions allow.
The Electric Cycle Company are now offering free extended warranties (+ one year) on all new Bosch and Shimano driven bikes. In order to help combat bike theft all new e-bikes will be fitted with complimentary security tags or trackers and Bikmo Insurance are giving ECC customers 14 days of free rideaway insurance.
Neill Hope added: “With the UK Government’s Cycle To Work Scheme and the Scottish Government backed Energy Saving Trust eBike Loan scheme to help with e-bike purchases, it is the perfect time to invest in an e-bike.”
Ben Macpherson, MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, said: “I warmly welcome the opening of the Electric Cycle Company showroom and workshop on Crewe Road North. It’s great that there’s so much local demand for sustainable transport and I commend the Electric Cycle Company for involving the community in the e-bike revolution, by offering free repairs during the pandemic, bike loans for Key Workers, and support for local community groups. I look forward to visiting when restrictions allow and it is safe to do so.”
There are plans for the ECC’s old shop on Granton Road. It is soon to become the base for a new Community Interest Company, Urban Initiatives, focusing on e-bike and e-Cargo bike hire, bike maintenance and training, together with local guided rides on eBikes.
Ends
Images and video:
Attached images – The Electric Cycle Company’s new 4000 sq ft e-bike shop, the largest e-bike shop in the UK. Please credit Iain Robinson
Neill Hope, MD and owner of the Electric Cycle Company. Please credit David Cheskin.
For more downloadable images of the new shop and images of Neill Hope. Please credit photographers where indicated on folder labels: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9kyao26w0ijj3ci/AAA4eMZtzHAU1ouxwhxppdSka?dl=0
Notes to Editors:
Electric Cycle Company
Address: Electric Cycle Company, 242A Crewe Road North, Edinburgh, EH5 1LW
Tel: 0131 552 0999
Website: https://www.electriccyclecompany.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/electriccyclecompany
Twitter: https://twitter.com/electriccycleco
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/electriccycleco/
Opening Times – 10:00 – 5.30pm – Monday – Saturday. Closed Sunday
Established in 2006 as Scotland’s only specialist e-bike dealer, Electric Cycle Company has grown and developed over the years as a family-owned business to become Scotland’s largest specialist e-bike retailer; and as of February 2021, the UK’s largest specialist e-bike retailer
With their extensive knowledge and no pressure sales and their no hassle e-bike demos they’ll help you find the right bike for you and your journey. Their range includes e-bikes from Bergamont, Cube, Emu, Giant, Scott, Riese & Muller, Ridgeback, Tern and Winther.
They don’t have any £500 “best e-bike ever” deals that you can find online, but what you will find is great customer service, a knowledge of pedelecs that is second to none and a company that will be here for any issues, upgrades and maintenance.
Cycling and national and local transport strategies
The UK Government’s Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, told a UK transport committee panel recently that there is now an ambition to see ‘half of all journeys in towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030’.
Transport Scotland’s second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) report, published on Wednesday 03 February 2021, outlined four priorities: reducing inequalities, tackling climate change, helping to deliver inclusive economic growth and improving health and wellbeing.
An overarching statement within the report sets out the government’s aim to create what are called Active Freeways [according to Pedal on Parliament these might be based on London’s cycle superhighways focusing on the suburban edges of the four biggest cities in Scotland]: ‘A desire to improve active travel infrastructure was the clear highest priority of the respondents to the public survey undertaken for STPR2. It accords with the strong policy framework for supporting investment in active travel that has been set both by Transport Scotland (including through the NTS2) and by local and regional transport authorities. The Active Freeways package would complement and go beyond those prior commitments. It would involve collaboration across various partners in some or all of Scotland’s towns and cities to develop and implement coherent, town/city-wide networks of high quality, efficient and safe active travel routes, connecting communities with key trip attractors. It would improve facilities for people walking, wheeling and cycling. This intervention has been supported by funding in the Government’s Capital Spending Review and within the Update of the Climate Change Plan published in December 2020.’
Cycling in Edinburgh and The City of Edinburgh Council
As the City of Edinburgh Council progresses plans to make big changes in the way people move around the city, ECC’s expansion comes at the perfect time. One of the goals is to create ‘a city where you don’t need to own a car to move around’, a clear shift towards active travel – cycling and walking. The proposals to shape the Scottish capital for the next decade, City Plan 2030, include expanding the network of cycle paths and linking the park and ride terminals to bike-friendly routes. They have also set out potential new areas for park and ride terminals and ‘active travel routes.
The City of Edinburgh Council’s latest Spaces for People report from June says: ‘Since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown period, there has been a significant increase in the number of people cycling in the city (with an increase of 16% being recorded across the city’s automatic counters)’
They have also just closed their Commonplace web platform inviting suggestions for improving conditions for pedestrians and cyclists during the Covid-19 lockdown. Since it opened at the end of May they’ve had more than 4000 comments via the online tool and by email. You can find out more about the Commonplace web platform and read comments here: https://edinburghspacesforpeople.commonplace.is/
The Council is also putting in temporary measures to make it easier and safer to cycle around Edinburgh for work or leisure as we emerge from lockdown. Examples include closing Silverknowes Road to traffic and putting in temporary segregated cycle lanes on Old Dalkeith Road and Crewe Road South. As restrictions continue to be eased, they will focus on shopping and leisure areas, with cycle lanes planned for George IV Bridge, the Mound and shopping streets across the city. They will continue to develop their programme in line with the Scottish Government’s phased lifting of lockdown.
Long-term the City of Edinburgh Council remains committed to promoting cycling as a healthy, sustainable mode of transport through policy and investment, with strategies such as Edinburgh City Centre Transformation and the City Mobility Plan placing cycling at their heart.
More info on Spaces for People improvements: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/spaces-people-1
More quotes from Neill Hope:
Neill Hope added: “My Dad started the Electric Cycle Company in 2006. I took over ten years ago and moved it into proper retail premises on Granton Road. Since then, we have seen our turnover increase year on year, by as much as 500% over this period. We have also benefitted from the recent revolution in cycling, and the requirement for bike maintenance, that resulted from the Covid-19 Lockdown and extended travel restrictions. With a sales to square foot ratio of more than £600 per square foot [Tesco is just over £900] in 2020, ECC, may also have been the busiest bike retailer in Scotland over the summer.
“Our staff numbers have increased from two to ten and we now have the widest range of electric bikes in Scotland in the most fantastic new shop. This is something I could never have imagined when my family started the business from the back of my Dad’s office, as an offshoot from his plastering company. We also have the added benefit of being backed by the North Edinburgh Community.
“Our new customers are not only getting to grips with the many health and financial benefits of cycling for both commuting and exercise but also quickly realising that e-bikes make the whole physical process even easier and more joyful than traditional cycling, despite the larger initial investment. Edinburgh, with its many hills, substantial cycle path network, and ongoing council backing is the perfect city for an electric bike. With the UK Government’s Cycle To Work Scheme and the Scottish Government backed Energy Saving Trust e-Bike Loan scheme to help with e-bike purchases, it is also the perfect time to invest in an e-bike.”
