How the traditional & fancy segments are dominating the Indian bicycle market

Janifha Evangeline

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A silent revolution is occurring in the way people are commuting today especially the ones residing in cities. People dwelling in the urban areas today have started using bicycles for various reasons. These include reasons such as keeping fit, to office commuting & leisure, and hence we see a number of cycling clubs have proliferated on social networking sites. Therefore, witnessing the surge in demand, bicycle manufacturers are now focusing on this niche but growing segment of recreation bicycles.

A few years ago, the Indian bicycle market that was only about brands such as Hero, Hercules, BSA, Avon & Atlas is now seeing global players set up their shop here and these include Trek, Kona, Schwinn, Decathlon & Bianchi. The price of these bicycles range between Thirty thousand rupees & three lakh sixty thousand rupees. Most of the Indian bicycle companies have also expanded their base in the professional as well as recreational areas in the metros as a reaction in this influx of international brands and hence product offerings beyond the occupational bicycle are growing to a greater extent.

The bicycle market in the country is twelve million units a year, of which 5-7 percent are niche bicycles. This is one of the segments that is now proliferating at twenty-five to thirty percent every year, as per industry estimates. For instance, a few years ago, an Indian company - Firefox Bikes entered into a tie-up with Trek (a US-based bicycle brand). With fifty-two outlets & adding at least 2 every month, Firefox has started retailing Trek other than its own range and the company claims to be selling around two thousand and two hundred bikes every month & anticipates twenty five percent growth, annually.

The traditional as well as the fancy segments in the country dominate the bicycle market since these are early days for international bikes here as they trying to establish their footprints. The purchasing trend is picking up and in a few more years, the cycling culture will become more

popular owing to health benefits people get from cycling. The industry is anticipating a rapid expansion & growth in the segment. Most of the bicycle manufacturers in the country are looking to have an active and immense presence in social media platforms & hence are building up community interaction via bike trails & city-based activities.

Customized Bicycles

Customized bicycles are an even smaller market which is emerging out of the leisure bicycles and several cycling enthusiasts as well as experts deliver bicycles as per the customers’ specific requirements or needs. The Indian bicycle market is witnessing a good growth in this market and a lot of people are now getting into cycling. Although customized bicycle market is small the responses are commendable. However, the major drawback is that bicycle parts are not easily available here and due to which buyers and sellers are facing difficulties.

After sales services & accessories: the two important arms of the bicycle business

The 2 most important arms of the bicycle business are after sales services & accessories. Although the after-sales for leisure & high-end bicycles play a significant role in obtaining customers only trained staff is able to do repair work. In the interior regions of the country, dealers do not want these leisure bicycles as they are not able to provide the after-sales service and all these new players in the industry should be focusing on this issue since it is already stopping a good amount of business.

While the large-scale units are permitted to manufacture bicycle frames, chains & rims for captive consumption, most of the bicycle components, spares as well as bicycle accessories in the country, expect for free wheels & single piece bicycle hubs are manufactured by the Small-Scale Sector.

Manufacture & export of complete bicycles comes under the category of the organized sector. The Indian bicycle industry today is churning out several amazing bicycles which can easily make a style statement but unfortunately the road ahead is not at all easy for the manufacturers but is rather tough for the two-wheeled bikes. Indeed, the Indian bicycle industry has a great future as long as the prices are kept competitive & specialized attention is given to quality & delivery schedule, it will be placed in the international market owing to its cheap labor, sufficient engineering along with low cost of manufacturing.

The road ahead

The basic stumbling blocks in the bicycle industry are inadequate availability of funds for modernization, & lagging behind in technological advancement as per international standards. The Indian bicycle industry will flourish if these hurdles are removed. Furthermore, for more efficient cycles, bicycle manufacturers are using new materials, from steel to aluminum to carbon. An entire cycle manufactured from carbon now weighs 6.5 kilogram and indications are that we should be able to bring down the price points in top-end cycles through local manufacture to a large extent.