Seeking to ignite growth with products appealing to more than the athletic and aggressively outdoorsy, the nation's bicycle makers are exploring the commuter bike. The idea is to provide an inexpensive and comfortable bicycle that comes with all the essentials -- lights, locks, suspension, fenders and even a bell -- necessary for getting to work and back.
The US$4.2 billion American bicycle industry also senses a market opportunity in the continued sluggish, travel-compromised economy.
Already, bicycles that are designed to be more accessible to nonskilled riders are the industry's fastest-growing category. These so-called "comfort" bicycles grew to 20.8 percent of the estimated 17 million bicycles sold in the US last year. That was up from 13.6 percent in 2000, according to statistics from the National Bicycle Dealers Association.
Now the industry is hoping that the market is ready for a true everyday transportation or commuting bicycle.
"I think support for this kind of bike is growing," said Mike Sinyard, founder and owner of Specialized, one of the nation's largest bicycle manufacturers.
Several years ago Specialized tested the commuter-bike idea in the US with a European-inspired Globe Voyager, a bicycle that came with a rack, chain guards, lights and fenders -- the sorts of accessories that racing cyclists abhor as encumbrances. Specialized is planning to introduce a production-line bike similar in concept to the test model, according to several industry executives.
Joe Breeze, one of the inventors of the recreational mountain bike during the 1970s that is now the industry's most popular product, demonstrated a new line of bikes, the Breezer, at this year's show. The response, he said, was an indication that the bicycle industry is reawakening to cycling as basic transportation.
Breeze said Americans were still far from the European view of the bicycle as basic transportation. But he said he was optimistic because this nation's bicycle industry has begun to act more effectively as a lobbying force.
The industry has been slow to recognize the commuter market because many of today's executive decision makers and designers are former racers, according to Felix Magowan, president of Inside Communications, which publishes VeloNews, a cycling newspaper. he said. "Racing bikes and mountain bikes are great," he said. "But it's like using your downhill skis to go to work."
That is why start-ups like Breeze's are noteworthy. So is the new interest in adult-friendly bikes by large bicycle companies like Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大), a Taiwanese manufacturer.
Giant coined the term sport utility bicycle, or SUB, last year to describe a new line of bikes that went beyond the comfort category, which had previously been aimed at baby boomers who shied away from mountain bikes and racing cycles. Now the category is expanding to those who consider themselves youthful at heart, if not necessarily young of seat.
At the expo, Giant introduced the Revive, a bicycle that features an adjustable wheelbase and a back support, and is a kindred spirit to the increasingly popular recumbent bicycles that the industry has been making in growing numbers in recent years.
"A lot of baby boomers want the ultimate in comfort if they're going to get back on a bicycle," said Dean Bradley, a Giant product manager.
"People tell us, `My back hurts, my neck hurts, I'm too tall, or I don't like swinging my leg over the bar,"' he said. "We're trying to take away all the excuses."
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
RSS