[Misc] £50 cycle repair voucher thing goes live at 23:45 tonight

[zeemeeuw]

Don't feel guilty, the offer is aimed at injecting money into cycle repair workshops who will be struggling, as much as helping out cyclists.

Many people will be topping up the £50 voucher. Personally I'll be looking to spend well over the voucher value. Without the offer I probably wouldn't have bothered.

Sorry but that is nonsense, cycle repair shops have been allowed to stay open during the lockdowns and there has been an absolute boom in cycling during the last 12 months. Many businesses are struggling but the cycle industry is not one of them.

From the Gov website, these are the reasons for the scheme:

Background

The Fix your Bike Voucher Scheme has been set up to encourage more people to embrace cycling as a means of travel during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and beyond. Cycling is an excellent way to travel while maintaining social distancing.

The scheme aims to help increase the number of short journeys made by bike rather than private cars. This shift will have huge benefits for:

the climate
public health and wellbeing
road congestion
air quality

If you are a regular cyclist already, none of those aims will be achieved.

 

[SAC]

Thanks for the heads-up. Been waiting for my son to repair my bike for months now, will give up and book in for the repair.

 

[schmunk]

I've been struggling for months to find the time / skill to repair my gears - now I can justify (to myself) getting someone competent to do it...

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Sorry but that is nonsense, cycle repair shops have been allowed to stay open during the lockdowns and there has been an absolute boom in cycling during the last 12 months. Many businesses are struggling but the cycle industry is not one of them.

From the Gov website, these are the reasons for the scheme:

Background

The Fix your Bike Voucher Scheme has been set up to encourage more people to embrace cycling as a means of travel during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and beyond. Cycling is an excellent way to travel while maintaining social distancing.

The scheme aims to help increase the number of short journeys made by bike rather than private cars. This shift will have huge benefits for:

the climate
public health and wellbeing
road congestion
air quality

If you are a regular cyclist already, none of those aims will be achieved.

This scheme doesn't only use established repairshops.

If you look at the interactive map of registered repairshops who have signed up to this initiative you will see that many are new small scale workshops, working from home. These are competent engineers, many of whom have signed up in an attempt to earn some money, having been furloughed.