U.S. Bicycle Industry: Statistics and Facts | Hacker News Reader

U.S. Bicycle Industry: Statistics and Facts

statista.com

25 pointsjseliger20 comments

I know that such stats not straightforward to obtain, but I'd be interested in seeing numbers on the "death rate" of durable goods like bicycles and guitars in addition to the "birth rate". I just have no idea if the population of such things (per capita) is stable, or growing, or shrinking.

We sure seem to buy a lot of bikes, but it doesn't seem like a proportionate number of people are riding them.

I suppose bikes fit in this interesting niche of being a leisure item/exercise item, but because there's potential for everyday/practical usage people are more willing to buy than other leisure items? I'm not sure.

Right now my family has 8 bikes in our garage for 3 people. All of them get ridden at one time or another depending on the specific activity. My 3 bikes include a folding bike for short errands around town or transit trips with a long transfer on one end, a mountain bike, and a skinny tire road bike for longer weekend rides. For families that ride, we are not that unusual.

I grew up in a tourist area where >50% of houses were summer rental income properties. A significant chunk were furnishes with a set of cheap bikes and bike locks for the renters to use. So some significant percent of half of all houses there had 2-6 Walmart bikes.

The guy that has a massive collection of 1930s Scandanavian hunting rifles (or whatever other niche) skews the "average" gun owner stats. I would bet that similar outliers are at play for bikes since it's a similar case of some people use them as tools, a lot of people own a few, some people own a ton

I can happily say that my mountain bike was made in America AND was also cheaper than the competitors. Although Turner now makes its bikes in Taiwan since they only do carbon. Guerrilla Gravity is another US manufacturer with decent prices. Anyone know any others?

It's rather sad that not only have the $200 dollar bikes been outsourced, i.e. moved manufacturing overseas, but also the high end frames and components have mostly gone overseas.

Taiwan is a great place, but i wish we kept some of the high end mfg stateside.

On the other hand I didn't worry whether my Trek came from Taiwan or America because I don't live in either country.

Especially when one considers the markup on high end frames and components. They must be making a killing on the cost savings by doing it overseas. My friend who works at one of the companies that makes high end bikes said the type of stuff that'd cost thousands of dollars (even on the secondary market) was priced at a extreme fraction of the cost during a sale where employees could buy components and bikes. People who didn't even need some of the items (especially wheelsets) bought them because of how ridiculous the prices were relative to buying them at normal price.

Like, absolutely staggering amount of savings where you could make a tidy profit off of it on the used market. Even companies I know that went out of business didn't give nearly as much discounts on some of the items I saw they were selling (e.g. monitors). I'm still a little saddened that he forgot to ask me if I wanted anything!

Ride for a team (the amateur kind that anyone can sign up for), and even the lower category riders get deals well below street price. Try flipping it on eBay and that benefit will disappear quickly, but it does give an idea of the markup. Because I’m pretty sure Trek et. al. are going to ensure that they still make money on Cat 3 riders.

> I can happily say that my mountain bike was made in America

It's a common sentiment, but it's also presumes things that I don't necessarily agree with and that certainly many other HN readers who are outside the U.S. wouldn't agree with.

I want people in the U.S. to have good jobs, and I want the same for the people in China and Taiwan. If they all trade with each other, each doing what they do best, there are more jobs, more wealth, and better products. Better to have Italian wine and German manufacturing than to have each country try to do both (speaking very generally for purposes of illustration; obviously there is German wine and Italian manufacturing).

Also, bicycle manufacturing is not a high-paying job; I'd think everyone would want to have a better job and let people in another place, where bicycle manufacturing would be an improvement, have the low-paying ones.

Fool! The obvious choice for wine is France! :)

Green Gear Cycling, Inc. in Oregon manufacture Bike Friday folding bicycles in Oregon, USA. They are not cheap.

Whoops: "About 47.6 billion e-bikes are projected to be sold globally in 2018."

I am buying 40

I've never heard of statista. I'm interested in hearing experiences and opinions from anyone that uses it! Why is it useful for you? How does it compare to other sources for you?

I was thinking the same. Many links on the page are behind a paywall (ex: https://www.statista.com/statistics/225342/export-value-of-b...) Curious on kind of people who use this, journalists maybe?

I actually work at Statista now. If you have any questions I am happy to assist.

Read the report for only $325!

My bike was cheaper

It seems like 80% of the data is locked behind a paywall. What is left is interesting, but insufficient to make any conclusions.

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