Can 50% of Brits really not afford to buy a bike? Cycling and affordability discussed, plus how to make a new bike computer with Hammerhead

For episode 83 of the road.cc Podcast, we decided to don our analytical hats and delve into a recent survey which claimed that 49 per cent of British people do not believe they can afford to buy a bike, and that around a quarter reckon it would take around six months to save up for one.

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That particular survey, based on the responses of 2,000 people employed across a range of sectors and carried out by Cycle to Work provider Cyclescheme, may have been rubbished by some of our readers, who pointed out that the 49 per cent in question are probably more than happy to pay for and maintain a car – but it does raise a number of important questions, which Jack, George, and Ryan discuss in the episode.

> Almost half of British people can’t afford to buy a bike – and a quarter say it would take at least six months to save for one, new research for Cycle to Work Day finds

Are bikes, and the accessories commonly associated with cycling, perceived by the general public to be expensive, even as prices fall across an industry laden with sales at the moment? And is that belief a barrier to encouraging more people to ditch the car and adopt active travel for the commute?

If so, how do we – the bike industry and media – go about changing the perception among non-cyclists that cycling is all about high-end, pro-level bikes and shiny new equipment?

Also, why is a bike still considered by many to be a luxury, a ‘toy’ used for leisure purposes, and something that competes for our disposable income – rather than a mode of transport in its own right and possible replacement for the evidently much more expensive car?

> “A second-hand bike costs the same as two tanks of fuel”: Cyclists react to “joke” survey which found that almost half of Brits believe they can’t afford to buy a bike

Meanwhile, in part two, George has a chat with Grayson Pollock, a product manager at Hammerhead, to discuss what it takes to make a new cycling computer from scratch (and as George points out in the intro, while Hammerhead do happen to sponsor the podcast – cheers for that – this isn’t a sponsored ad for the brand. It’s just something George, as a product manager himself, really wanted to talk about).

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