London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

British foldable bike maker plans to launch subscription service next month as the cycling boom continues

British foldable bike maker plans to launch subscription service next month as the cycling boom continues

British folding bike maker Brompton is planning to launch a subscription service next month as part of an effort to get more people using its bikes.

The London-based firm, which has sold around 500,000 bikes worldwide, will charge subscribers £30 ($39) a month if they sign up to a 12 month contract, or £42 a month if they opt for a rolling monthly contract. In return, they get to hold onto a £1,000 Brompton M3L bike, insurance, and access to a free repair service.

Brompton Bike Hire Managing Director Julian Scriven told CNBC that “demand for bikes has gone ballistic” during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Brompton subscription offering will launch in the U.K. in September but Scriven said that he would like to launch in Germany and the U.S. next.

“I have a strong affection for Germany,” said Scriven on a phone call Tuesday. “I think it’s often a much overlooked market for cycling but it’s incredibly strong. And then if I wanted to take on the ultimate challenge, America has a lot of untapped potential.”

Brompton, now 44-years-old and with approximately 400 staff, already has a bike hire scheme that allows people to pay a one-off fee of £6.50 to hire a bike for a day. This falls to £3.50 a day if they pay a £25 annual fee.

By comparison, the Brompton subscription service will work out at around £1 a day. Users must register online and Brompton said subscribers can pick up a bike from any Brompton hub in the U.K. and keep it for as long as they need.

Unlike the Brompton bike hire scheme, there’s no fancy app for the subscription service. Users must sign up online and contact Brompton directly if they wish to change their membership or get a repair.

Scriven said the coronavirus pandemic has been changing how long people hire bikes for. Before the pandemic, people would typically hire bikes for three to four days consecutively but recently some users have been keeping the bikes for over 30 days.

The idea for the Brompton subscription service was “formulated a year ago” but it “really crystallized” when Brompton started to react to the Covid-19 crisis, Scriven said. “I wish we could have got it out a bit quicker,” he added.

Scriven has set himself what he calls a “modest target” of getting around 1,000 people signed up as subscribers within six months of the service going live and he’s expecting many of them will be young riders.

“The millennial generation and Gen X are very much into not having ownership of stuff,” he said, adding that they’re happy to rent a home or share an office. Other subscription services like Netflix, Spotify, and HelloFresh are also popular with this age group.

E-bike push?


Brompton isn’t the first company to launch a bike subscription service.

Founded in 2016, Buzzbike charges Londoners £29.99 a month for access to its bikes, while Hurrecane claims to offer the only e-bike subscription service in the U.K., with plans ranging from £40 to £60 a month.

At the end of July, Buzzbike raised £1.7 million from the heir of Adidas and other investors to fuel its growth.

Covid is driving seismic shifts in the way people move around cities,” said Tom Hares, CEO and co-founder of Buzzbike said at the time.

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a record-breaking level of interest in our service,” he added. “Our latest investment round will give us the means to invest into technology, product development, key hires and capability to scale to the demand we’re witnessing.”

Over in Berlin, the founders of music streaming service Soundcloud launched an e-bike subscription start-up called Dance last month with subscriptions costing 59 euros a month.



Dance cofounders (L-R): Christian Springub, Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, and Alexander Ljung.



Brompton also makes e-bikes but Scriven said these will not initially be available through the subscription service, despite knowing the demand is there.

“The number one question in testing has been will you be offering Brompton Electric on the subscription product?” he said.

Scriven said he wants to be sure Brompton has got the model right before introducing Brompton’s electric bike, which is a “more complex” and more expensive product.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
×