icemilkcoffee 

Well, it's anecdote. I presented statistics and then I presented anecdote. Do you have anything?

livedarklions

Inflation is controlled for by using the 2012 dollars. There could be disproportionate inflation in bike prices (e.g., tariffs, lingering supply chain issues), but that 's a lot of disproportion for that to be the only explanation.

prj71

That data in the graph is a bit bogus. A lot of bike shops are sitting on a lot of bikes that they bought but that they can't sell. I'm hearing it a lot from LBS that I've been in recently. They have bikes in boxes not even put together. So that graph may be indicating bikes that were bought that are now sitting unsold.

Also if you poke around online, a lot of bike companies have slashed prices on bikes to a level near what they were priced in 2019-2020. For instance the bike I purchased in 2020 for $5200 rose all the way up to $7000 by the end of 2022 and is now "on sale" for $5500. That same scenario is now playing out across the entire industry including component parts.

mstateglfr 

Yeah, in my next post I clarified that using 'inflation' in that post was intended to be specific to bike industry and not general economic inflation.

prj71

You make a good point. Those caught on like wildfire the past three years with folks who normally never rode bikes at all and with the downhill mountain bike crowd that became tired of pedaling back to the top.

Take away the e-bikes and that graph is a lot different.

icemilkcoffee 

The foot note on that chart seems to indicate it came from personal spending surveys. It links to here: https://www.bea.gov/itable/national-...ersonal-income

So I don't think it is counting inventory as sales.

icemilkcoffee 

Come to think of it- that could very well be the explanation. E-bike sales are indeed included in that figure. There has been a huge and ongoing boom in e-bikes.
Traditional bike shops that don't sell e-bikes are missing the wave.

livedarklions

Can you link or quote where you got that information? I couldn't find their definition of a "bicycle".

urbanknight

Sounds like I failed.

GamblerGORD53

E bikes are 10x the cost of Walmart bikes. That's where the $$$ are adding up.
All bikes are up 50% the last 5 years. There's $21,000 bikes now.

Koyote

Glad to hear it.

Given the level of economic illiteracy in this country, I take nothing for granted.

WGB 

I'm with @SurferRosa . Everyone always talked about how the Toronto bike market is overpriced but I've been watching the listings there and the used market has stalled. C&V bikes are just sitting and the prices seem to be dropping.

Calsun

I wonder how much of the increase is the result of affordable electric bikes. Many of the new bicyclists I see on the roads and on local bike paths are riding e-bikes. There has also been an ongoing interest in mountain and gravel bikes to be able to more safely bicyle without worrying about motor vehicle traffic.

mrodgers

My bike (2014 but was the same cost in 2016) is 43% more today. And that's a cheap one.

veganbikes

No your bike did not go up that much. Maybe in your mind but no there isn't a low end bike like that, that rose that high. Prices did go up that is true but I have more than extremely high doubts your bike doubled in price. Would love to see the proof but I am sure you will say "the pudding store is out of pudding". To those who might not get it "the proof is in the pudding".

Now say if you bought your bike in the 90s and the equivalent is $700 today I can see that but that is 20-30 years on and irrelevant to this conversation.

In terms of it being anecdotal it is anecdotal, you are just telling us a story and while it may or may not be true there is no evidence to back it up and again it is one bike out of probably hundreds of thousands of different bikes from different brands over the world.

Getting back to the topic at hand the boom is over and has been for a while. People are still buying bikes but nowhere near boom levels. However steadily electric bicycles have been a growing market that has been getting bigger since before the pandemic was a thing. Also tack on the electric mopeds that usually get lumped in with bicycles and you will see growth or at least some higher numbers than pre-pandemic but there is no boom anymore and the idea it is still around is crazy to think about as working in the industry from well before the pandemic till not that long ago I could see not just at the shops I worked at but through talking with other shops and vendors in the industry and looking at industry news that things were not booming. Certainly not doing poorly but not as well as we would all like.

Fredo76

No need for your personal anecdotes, folks!

Our resident eggheads will speculate using their own.

Koyote

Right on! Those eggheads are so silly.

By the way, I once won a pile of money by betting on 14 Black at the Roulette table. So that proves that 14 Black is always a great bet!

Daniel4

Read only a few comments from page one.

1) the chart is in 2012 dollars. So inflation has been removed.
2) If you can bought a bike once during the pandemic, I don't think the accessories you purchased in the years after total per year to be the same as the bike purchase. So $8billion in sales in early 2020 was maintained into 2023 were all new bike sales as compared to $6 billion in 2019.

BillyD

Old news, everybody knows that.

Koyote

It was a trick. There is no 14 Black on a roulette wheel.

livedarklions

Even if there was, 14 Red would be faster.

grantelmwood

This just means bikes are more expensive.
How about a graph of units sold ?

indyfabz

How about it?

livedarklions

Or not. It could be a combination of factors.