User:Mark Bickerton

Born Sept 7th 1959 in Welwyn, Hertfordshire. Father was Harry Bickerton and mother Carol (nee Sworder). Educated Allhallows School and Mid-Herts College of Education (Now DeHavilland College-part of The University of Hertfordshire). Was involved with the design, prototyping and early production of the Bickerton Portable Bicycle. After School, college, travelling and work-experience in 1980 started M I Bickerton Products to sell Bickerton bikes direct to consumer. From 1982 to 1991 Mark was a director (latterly MD) of Bickerton Rowlinson Ltd (BRL) which made the Bickerton Portable Bicycle. BRL was owned by Harry Bickerton and Steve Rowlinson. Whilst running Bickerton Bikes, he also imported some very early Dahon folding bikes under Bickerton branding and some very early mountain bikes. In 1991 Bickerton Rowlinson Ltd ceased production and the company became involved in the recruitment industry, so after a period of consultancy work Mark formed Fusion Cycles Ltd selling Fusion, Klein, Dahon and Voodoo bikes. In 1996 Fusion Cycles was taken over by the MCL and Amethyst Groups (UK distributor of Mazda and Kia Cars) when the business was re-named Cyclemotion Ltd. By the end 2005, MCL group had moved away from import and distribution to specialise in third party warehousing and logistics, and at the same time Mark took Cyclemotion out of MCL Group. Working directly with Dahon and more recently Tern as their UK agent and OE representative, Cyclemotion had many partners including Paligap, Evans Cycles, Zyro, Fisher, Madison, Raleigh, Dawes, Saracen, LandRover, Hotwheels, SeaSure, Unipart, Halfords, Action Bikes, and Edinburgh Cycle Co-op. He has been attending meetings of the Bicycle Association for over 25 years and was a BA Council member between 2000-2005 and from 2007 to date. From 2010-2014 he was president of the BA. Mark now works with Tern folding bicycles and re-founded Bickerton Portables in 2011.