Young people "ride" the fire bike industry

The Return of the Bicycle

"I started riding four years ago and commuted more than ten kilometers a day, mainly to lose weight. Then I started to enjoy the ride because the speed is completely under your legs and you can enjoy the fast-moving cityscape." Geng Zhi, who is engaged in media work in Beijing, although the "riding age" is not long, the equipment is a lot. He told the Global Times reporter that his riding tools from the beginning of the second-hand mountain bike to the road car, cycling clothes, glasses, helmets are complete, the new road car has also been modified many times, including the frame and tires. "It's been so hot lately that I chose to ride at least 20 kilometers at night."

Zhong Sichen, who works for a finance company in Shanghai, just bought a road car this year with a clear purpose: "mainly to relax after work." The survey results of the Guanchao Research Institute show that for young riding friends, "cure", "decompression", "friends" and "health" are high-frequency keywords. It is obvious that the bicycle is no longer a simple means of transportation, young people fall in love with cycling, and more feel the emotional value brought by this sport.

According to information provided to the Global Times by the China Cycling Association, bicycle riding in the Yangtze River Delta has steadily increased, and bicycles have gradually returned to People's Daily life. In Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities, the annual number of cyclists exceeded 100 million.

"The trend of increasing the number of cyclists is clear." Sun Jian, the founder of Beijing Tiebrush Bicycle Club, has 20 years of cycling experience, witnessed the process of the domestic bicycle market atmosphere gradually strong, in his words, this is a process of Chinese cycling enthusiasts "awakening". He told reporters: "Twenty years ago, it was popular mountain bikes and folding bikes, which belonged to the initial stage of bicycle development. At that time, each brand just entered the market, everyone's awareness of cycling is not yet in place, with the spread of professional knowledge of cycling in recent years from the media, the increase of bike shops and clubs in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, people gradually 'wake up' to how to 'play' bicycles, and now it can be clearly found on the street that fewer and fewer people ride mountain bikes, more and more people like road bicycles and professional bicycles. "

According to reports, mountain bikes have wider tires, greater friction with the ground, and greater resistance to speed up, which is more suitable for cross-country riding. Road bikes have narrower tyres and lighter fittings, making them suitable for racing on flat surfaces and for long distances, and faster.

"We recently expanded the store because of a noticeable increase in customers coming to see the cars." In a Giant store in Xidan, Beijing, a Global Times reporter saw a number of road bikes neatly placed in prominent positions, priced at about 6,000 to 15,000 yuan. The store manager told reporters that in the past, the store mainly sold mountain bikes and commuter bicycles, and as cycling enthusiasts increasingly prefer to choose professional road vehicles, the products in the store have also made targeted adjustments.

The improvement of cycling professionalism also represents the increase of funds invested. Some senior enthusiasts told the Global Times reporter that road cars, as a sport and a hobby that burns money, are often "one cent goods, two cents goods, three cents goods." However, in his view, there is no absolute technical barrier to road bicycles, and many international brand road vehicles costing tens of thousands of dollars are also manufactured by domestic manufacturers. Expensive road cars are mostly made of weight-saving carbon fiber and special aerodynamic design, while cheap road cars are mostly made of aluminum alloy and a small number of steel.

Domestic bicycles "ride" into the high-end market

In an American brand Trek bicycle store located in the west third Ring road of Beijing, Ms. Dong, the manager of the store, told reporters that the best-selling road car in the store is a carbon fiber frame road car priced at about 20,000 yuan, she said that at present in the field of road bicycles, there are very good products at home and abroad. However, the industry generally regards the car manufacturers that participate in the "Grand Tour" every year as the first echelon.

The Grand Tour includes the Tour of France, the Giro d 'Italia and the Tour of Spain. Among them, the Tour de France is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tours, and it is also the most well-known bicycle race in the world. European and American bicycle brands such as plum, Lightning, Trek and Canon Dell are the protagonists of the "Grand Tour" for many years, and some champion athletes and riders have also brought star effect to the factory, and their "chariot" models are often sought after by many enthusiasts. The Tour de France just ended two days ago, the champion Bogacha used a customized "war pony" by the Italian bicycle brand, and after the game, the price of this brand of road bicycles increased a lot, and a car is difficult to find.

Sun Jian said, "This is the brand premium brought by the century-old Tour de France cycling culture." In the early years, when it came to buying a bicycle, most people would still choose Giant, Merida, Lightning and Trek these high-end brands, of which Lightning and Trek are American brands. But with the rise of domestic bikes in recent years, cycling enthusiasts have more choices." It is understood that in 2020, Shanghai Phoenix launched "FNIX" "FNIX STAR" and other brands, and the brand's road car series products are priced at more than 1,000 yuan, and the most expensive one is priced at about 10,000 yuan. Also an old bicycle company, flying pigeon and Permanent are benchmarked to the low-end market, launching road vehicles and mountain bikes for cycling sports below 1,000 yuan. In addition, the rising popularity of domestic brands such as Kemp, Spebitt, and Xidesun also attract young riders with their price advantages and innovative designs.

In spite of this, it is still difficult to see the price of domestic bicycle brands compared with European and American brands. According to Sun Jian, the three major parts of the sports bicycle include frame, kit (including transmission transmission and braking system) and wheel set, among which, the variable speed braking system is dominated by the Japanese brand Shimano and the United States of America, which have a large number of patents in the world, resulting in domestic "Pingtei" companies need to spend a lot of time and labor costs to bypass patents for research and development and production. Therefore, even with the strong investment of Chinese companies, it is difficult to seize the market in a short time. The frame and wheel set of these two major domestic brands can "recover a point", the current cost performance of domestic wheel set has far exceeded similar foreign products, the quality of domestic frame and foreign brands are comparable, but in the price is difficult to reach the level of foreign brands, the same frame, foreign brand price at least 1 times higher than domestic, mainly due to the European and American brand premium.

Is the city ready for the boom?

In Europe, cycling culture has a deep historical heritage, bicycle is not only a means of transportation, but also a way of life. In the Netherlands, for example, cycling is a part of everyday life and the city has been designed with the convenience of cycling in mind, with an extensive network of bike lanes and friendly traffic rules. In the Netherlands, there is a bicycle lane on the traffic road that is used by cars, rail vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles, and the eye-catching purple road surface reminds people to pay attention to bicycles passing by. In addition, trains and trams in the Netherlands allow bicycles to ride with riders, eliminating the worry of how to connect bicycles and public transport.

Sun Jian said that whether it is Belgium, the Netherlands, or France, Italy, their cycling culture can be said to have experienced hundreds of years of accumulation, and the people's love for cycling is also passed down by generations of relay. "I think when the post-90s and post-00s bicycle enthusiasts gradually grow into the backbone of China's cycling, and continue to guide more people to invest in it, we can also have our own unique Chinese cycling culture." But at the same time, cities have to prepare accordingly."

Geng Zhi mentioned that on the routes he often rides, he will encounter many irregularly arranged manhole covers or areas with too many stones, followed by some risk factors: for example, there are many cases of motor vehicles occupying bicycle lanes, and serious vehicle congestion during the morning rush hour.

Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank who is also a cycling enthusiast, observed that the construction of bike lanes in many cities is still not perfect, and there are problems such as discontinuous, occupied, and mixed with motor vehicles. From the perspective of traffic management, although some cities have given some care to cyclists in traffic management, such as setting cycling priority signal lights and strengthening traffic law enforcement to protect cyclists' right of way, some cities still focus on motor vehicles in traffic planning and management, ignoring the needs of cyclists.

Sun Jian believes that China's first and second tier cities have very good infrastructure, and the hardware is suitable for the development of cycling culture, but the city's rulers also need to pay attention to the software such as slow walking system, cycling greenway and cycling culture promotion.

In addition, a good cycling experience is particularly important for cycling enthusiasts, cycling is more taboo to ride boring flat roads, so the supporting conditions of "mountains and water and good scenery" are more conducive to the development of regional cycling culture, many counties in China also have such quality.

Recently, many cities have proposed to "build bicycle-friendly cities". Guangzhou promoted 520 kilometers of mountain and sea cycling roads; Beijing issued the "2024 Action Plan for Improving the Quality of Beijing's Urban Slow Driving System", which will widen 169 kilometers of non-motorized lanes and add 12.7 kilometers of non-motorized lanes in the sixth district and Tongzhou District this year. Wuxi accelerated the construction of "mountains and rivers" cycling network, focusing on building Taihu Lake, Lihu Lake, Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, Bodu Port, Masan, Yangshan and other areas.