OFF TRACK | NUMBER CRUNCHING
I N THE SADDLE
Paul Hinton, Marketing Manager, Upgrade What bikes do you own and where’s your favourite place to ride? To tell the truth, at the moment I only have a road bike, which I have used for commuting for the last six years. But now I’m at Upgrade, the list of bikes I will have will massively increase. I have been playing on 29ers this autumn and am loving the larger wheels, so a single speed 29er may be on the cards – or the Pivot Mach 429! Tell us about your business background: Having spent six years of pro racing (four years with Team Raleigh, two for myself), I was then asked to join Saracen Cycles as promotions manager and later as brand development and design manager. Seven years service gave way when Saracen closed. I then joined a small distribution company as brand manager for five years. I’m now at Upgrade after a short stint at Madison this year, where I was senior brand manager for the P&A department. Tell us about your role at Upgrade: As senior brand and marketing manager, I’m tasked with looking after the umbrella aspect of all the brands, but am responsible for the Lezyne and Freedom brands directly. Marketing will involve advert placement, products for reviews, shows and events, sponsorship and catalogue production. I will also be racing again in 2011 for the Kinesis Morvelo Project team in the quest to regain the Veteran XC National Championship jersey.
Let’s get statistical The big freeze has dominated the thoughts of many retailers and distributors in the trade over the past month, but the Government has also been mulling over the results of the Public Health White Paper published in December. It contains some alarming statistics on the cost of car-centric communities, and that all too common habit of hopping into a car at the first opportunity...
-17.9C (Or -0.22 Fahrenheit) – the temperature recorded at RAF Leeming, North Yorks in December, the coldest at the station since records began in 1945. The North East of England was one of the areas hardest hit by extreme winter weather in December.
£50 billion
Can you pinpoint a product in Upgrade’s catalogue that you see being a big-seller? The new DMR Vault pedal is going to be huge. There is so much talk about it on the web already. Also, the Lezyne Dirt Floor Drive track pump range is getting so much attention that we would encourage dealers to forward order these for first quarter of 2011 to avoid disappointment. What shows, races and events will Upgrade have a presence at in 2011? This year we’re to be ever-present and will be found at the London Bike Show, Cycle Show at NEC, the TCR Show and a huge number of events including triathlon, XC, DH, 4X, dirt jump, marathon, cross... the list goes on. The highlights will be the UCI XC and DH/4X World Cups, Mountain Mayhem, Bristol Bike Fest and joint events with our dealers. What’s the biggest rush achievable on a bike, in your opinion? Winning the 2007 Veteran National Champs! Or nailing a fantastic piece of singletrack that is technical to ride. But zipping through the London traffic as a courier in the late ‘80s was a buzz.
82 BIKEBIZ JANUARY
The amount that obesity will cost the nation annually by 2050. December’s Public Health Paper said “active travel and physical activity has to become the norm in communities”.
145,000 The number of consumer visitors VOS Media predicts will attend the combined London Bike Show, Outdoors Show and London International Boat Show held in ExCeL this month. BIKEBIZ.COM