BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
While road cycling had dominated headlines and product inventories in the bicycle trade over recent years, the industry is reporting an increase in demand for mountain biking product.
Last month we ran a straw poll, asking the trade "Have you seen a growth in demand for mountain biking product over the last year."
The majority of respondents – 61.25% – saying they had seen an increase in demand for MTB product. Almost a third (30%) said they’d not seen any change, while the minority of respondents – 8.75% – said demand for MTB product had decreased.
[NOTE: These results have been updated since we ran them in our November edition of BikeBiz, in our community page, sponsored by Oxford Products, due to further survey responses.]
One of the comments we received on the topic was from Roger Cook of Nemesis GB: "Is there a resurgence in mountain biking? In my view, yes there is, certainly on local trails (possibly at trail centres too). There are people introduced to cycling via the road wanting to take their cycling experience a bit further and exploring new routes and adventures. It is showing signs of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s where MTBs were simple. Nowadays they just have bigger wheels – I think this is the interesting thing and has to be worth pushing.
"A rigid 29er or short travel 650B hardtail offers a rider a huge range of choices in terms of places to ride compared with a road bike and both are much more accessible than say a 150mm+ travel full sus bike with the higher cost and maintenance. Whatever the reason, more people riding whatever bike they choose has to be good.”
So, what do you think? Do you agree with the majority? Feel free to add your thoughts on the current state of the MTB market in the comments below.
