A NEW electric bike shop has opened in Bramley.

Customers were welcomed through the doors of Surge Bikes, in Cufaude Lane, on May 1, when the retail unit was launched by Cooke Components, which trades, imports and exports bicycles, components and accessories to business customers across the world.

Matt Cooke, director of the company, said he wanted to venture into the direct consumer market by opening the electric bike shop.

“We have got a long-standing history in the bike industry in terms of business to business but we have never done business to consumer before,” he said. 

“The industry is changing quite rapidly and electric bikes are booming. If you look at the European market such bikes account for 40 per cent of all sales and that’s in a short space of time. It’s changing much faster than cars because people keep cars for a long time and they are expensive, but with bikes you don’t have those issues.”

The shop focuses solely on electric bikes, and has plenty of surrounding space for customers to try them out.

Matt said they expect their main customer base to be older people, explaining: “It’s people who probably don’t ride a bike and it’s a new way for them to get fit. In this country electric bikes are used more for leisure than commuting. Of course, people are buying them for commuting, because you don’t pay tax or insurance, you don’t need a license.”

He said their popularity had increased in the last two years, with people seeing them as a new way to increase their activity levels.

“People come in and say 'I haven’t ridden a bike for 20 years.' This removes the barriers to getting on a bike, because unless you are pretty fit riding a bike is not always that fun.

"Depending on where you live, if there’s a huge hill up to your house that can be a barrier. Riding an electric bike is still keeping active and fit, they don’t do all the work for you, you still have to pedal but it opens up a healthy leisure market that wasn’t there before.”

The bikes range in price from £1,300 to £6,500.

For more information visit surgebikes.co.uk