13 ms·

Pandemic sparked European cycling revolution

140 points by edward 6y ago

q_andrew 6y ago
Crossing my fingers hoping this happens in the US, then I look at how many places that don't even have sidewalks (let alone bike lanes) and remember why cars are the only way to get anywhere here...
- OnACoffeeBreak 6y ago
  If we can take the dearth of bikes for sale during the pandemic as an indicator of growth in popularity, I would say the US is experiencing a biking boom. I've been trying to buy a mountain bike for my kid for the past four months unsuccessfully. Local shops are just out of stock at least for bikes below $1k.
  - analog31 6y ago
    While I think that the COVID has triggered a genuine level of interest in cycling, I also think it has been compounded by supply chain disruptions. Bikes are low margin items, which means they probably ship by container, are also shipped seasonally, so even possibly the delay of one or two ship loads in early Spring could disrupt the entire industry.
- aaaxyz 6y ago
  I live in Canada in a bike friendly city but I dread having to bike through the US-style suburbs for many reasons: - 3-4 lane boulevards where motorists drive at 60-70km/h and pass close to you; - giant malls where cars turn into and out of parking lots without paying too much attention; - lots of right turn only lanes that force you to stay on the middle lane between two lanes of cars (which makes some motorists very angry) or to stay close to the curb and cross with the pedestrians (which forces you to get on the sidewalk, disembark to hit the button and wait 1-2 minutes at _every_ intersection); - intersections where cars can turn right on a red light; - motorists not being used to driving around cyclists;
- bleepblorp 6y ago
  Pandemic-induced growth in bike use for commuting is mostly at the expense of public transit ridership. People aren't trading their cars for bikes, they're trading the risk of dying from a transit-related COVID-19 superspreader event for the risk of dying in a vehicle vs. bike crash. A mode shift towards bikes won't happen in most of the US because most of the US doesn't have viable public transit, and therefore, there's no need for Americans to switch transport modes. I believe bike use has increased in relation to public transit ridership in greater New York, but this is absolutely the exception to the rule as NYC was (prior to COVID-19) a transit-dependent city.
- bobbylarrybobby 6y ago
  Here in New York City I’m noticing the use of CitiBike, our bike share program, really taking off. Many more people in the bike lanes than a few months ago. It’s getting to the point that the volume of bikes is beginning to exceed the system’s ability to rebalance itself (or be rebalanced by people whose job it is to do so); popular destination bike stations have no empty bike docks and popular source locations are nearly entirely empty.
baebeegeezus 6y ago
It’s the US too. I was in a car accident with 2 bikes on the back that were unrepairable. Trying to find replacement bikes are close to impossible. Just yesterday I went to 2 local bike shops who had no stock and the bikes they do get in are pre sold, so there’s never any inventory. All manufacturers I’ve checked also don’t have anything available online. I guess they prioritize their dealers who can deal with the customer facing stuff so they can focus on more manufacturing. Even finding basic parts like a tube can be difficult! I found that the service levels at my local shop also went way way down, as they just can’t keep up with the volume. When I asked one of the bike store people about it yesterday, he just shrugged and said that it’s probably being used as a social distancing safe sport and replaced a lot of gym memberships and other sports.
- 3nf 6y ago
  Yeah, here in Denver there has been a huge amount of novel cyclists. Lots of old bikes dug out of storage and brand new bikes with slightly wobbly riders. Also, more diverse riders. I think it's great. There's also a big increase in poorly maintained bikes- a squeaking chain is not just wearing itself out faster than usual, but also wearing out expensive drivetrain parts. Lubricate and clean your chains (and WD-40 is not lube)!
- taxcoder 6y ago
  Like you say, not just bikes but parts too. Finding a replacement tube for my son's bike was quite difficult about two months ago.
rossdavidh 6y ago
This looks great, but my first thought was, "what happens when all these new cyclists experience their first winter on a bike?" Not saying that it _should_ cause them to reconsider, just that it might, and we won't really know until we see what happens in December-January.
- analog31 6y ago
  In my view, it will be what always happens. I'm a year round commuting cyclist in the upper Midwest, so I see bike traffic go up and down with the seasons and the weather. In addition to the cold, there's also the darkness. The coldest month is January, and by that point, you only see the die-hards. It's not just psychological, but also requires being prepared to deal with the cold, ice, and road salt. For instance I have a dedicated winter bike with studded tires, and a pre-rusted chain. ;-) Oddly enough, the people who are out in the worst weather always seem to have the biggest grins on their faces. So while I feel smug about being one of the die-hards, I also don't even try to encourage people to ride through the winter until they've at least acclimatized themselves to riding regularly in normal weather.
  - tvb12 6y ago
    I doubt I'll ever ride a bike to work in the winter. I say this because there's a backwoods road on my commute which I cannot avoid and which gets skinnier and skinnier as the storms add up. It reaches a point where two lanes become something closer to one and a half, and where I suspect a difference in vehicle height is occasionally the only thing preventing side-view mirrors from clipping. Drivers remain unfazed, or at the very least they do not slow down.
  - TheGallopedHigh 6y ago
    Why do you ride in ice and snow? Sincere question.
    - analog31 6y ago
      Admittedly, it can't be justified on purely utilitarian grounds. I do own a car after all. Part of it is that I'm just addicted to cycling. But I'm also not strong enough to be a competitive cyclist, and don't live in an area with extensive mountain biking. So I have to look for ways to make it more interesting. I also love being outdoors during the winter, so I also go cross country skiing, or just take long walks. Surely, folks who have engaged in real survival sports would laugh at me, but still, arriving at work on my bike at -20 F feels like I've been on some kind of an adventure. My friends think I'm crazy, but I remind them that regular people go to work, outdoors, in colder temperatures, and they survive. The old saying is: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing." On the other hand, my spouse has a job where you have to pay extra for parking, so she either rides her bike or takes the bus depending on schedule. Right now during the COVID, the bus service has been cut way back, so it's 100% bike for her. My kids are both college students, and don't have cars, so a bike is their only option.
pi-rat 6y ago
I live in a hilly city, and the green part of the city council here ran a campaign this year were they cover 25% of the cost of an ebike (up to ~$550 for bikes and ~$1100 for cargo-ebikes). Now I see Tern GSDs and Riese & Müllers all over the place. Bought one myself, and it really removes the hills from the equation when deciding to bike or not. They got bike counters at major routes, but sadly haven't released stats for 2020 yet. Number of bikers have been at a stand still for the last 8 years, looking forward to see the effect of COVID + sponsored ebikes when the new numbers are out.
- 411111111111111 6y ago
  Friendly reminder to get your chain checked periodically. Mine snapped within the first 9 month of daily driving (1200km), when I bought it first. Now I just replace it every checkup (800km)
  - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
    Well maintained chains will last 4500km. Cassettes (all steel) are good for two chains.
    - magicalhippo 6y ago
      The e-bikers passing me in the hills seem to mostly enjoy using quite high gears, which I assume places a higher load on the chains.
      - pi-rat 6y ago
        It’s also a very heavy bike, with a extra long chain, able to carry two kids and a load of groceries. The chain is probably under some serious strain when going uphill, even when correctly geared and well maintained.
        magicalhippo 6y ago
        Almost all of the bikes passing me are regular types, eg this[1], meaning no more room for kids and groceries than a regular bike. That said they might indeed have a heavy-duty chain for all I know. [1]: https://www.buddybike.no/elsykler/c4/hvit https://www.buddybike.no/elsykler/c4/hvit
COVardsStayHome 6y ago
Third-worldization of the world continues.
anonymou2 6y ago
It is terrible that people equate bike lanes to cycling. Bike lanes are built to kick cyclists off the roads that motorist believe belong to them. It is very ironic that because of the pandemic so many defenders of bike lanes are coming out like mushrooms. I find it ironic, because to me, the pandemic has shown precisely that there is no need at all for bike specific infrastructure. In Madrid, the city where I live, during the worst months of the pandemic, I would go out with my bike and there would be a ratio of like 20 bikes to 1 car. The cyclists that I saw used the traffic lanes as they needed. It was quite something. You would think that proponents of bike lanes would have to shut up. But no, now they say that bike lanes are the solution to the pandemic!
- pjc50 6y ago
  This depends on relative numbers and local culture; if there's not many cyclists and drivers behave aggressively or recklessly towards them, cycle lanes encourage people to try it in comparative safety.
  - anonymou2 6y ago
    Cycle lanes are a trap for those who do not know. What exactly are the skills that you need to ride your bike in the normal road that are not needed when you ride on a bike lane?
    - saiya-jin 6y ago
      You need mainly velocity and acceleration. Unless you have a powerful ebike, most bikers accelerate 5x slower than usual car, even slower than scooters, and max speed around 25-30kmh on flat road. So they become obstacle that is often difficult to avoid safely in the car. There are +-2 countries that I've seen implement bikes seriously - Netherlands and Denmark. Both have more bikes than residents AFAIK. The magic is to have dedicated bike lanes that nobody else uses. You only slow down/stop on intersections with car roads or pedestrian paths, otherwise its all for you, wide enough to overtake slower biker.
      - 6y ago
jondubois 6y ago
I knew that this pandemic would lead to a revolution sooner or later. Nobody believed me.
abalashov 6y ago
As a semi-serious road cyclist (5000 - 8000 mi/year), I can attest to the shortages and the general backlog in the industry that has made it very difficult to get a bike, but more especially to get bikes serviced. Everyone's digging out the rust-bucket under their porch and trying to get it overhauled, when they're not snapping up entry-level road bikes and casual cruisers/hybrids/commuter bikes... The ultra-expensive stuff remains more available, though not necessarily service for it. That's the stuff we hardcore roadies buy anyway, but now it's pretty much the only thing sure to be in stock, and even then, far from assured in all cases.
- flyinghamster 6y ago
  Seeing what has happened to the parts and service market makes me fervently glad that I restored my long-neglected recumbent back to operating condition last year. Sadly, I haven't ridden it nearly enough this year, but at least it's ready to go.
GhostVII 6y ago
Mountain biking is super popular now in Ontario. The local trails are way busier, and bike shops are low on parts and bikes. Everything in the midrange (3k or so) is pretty well sold out.
Glawen 6y ago
The article doesn't explain why bike sales took off. It really startled me to learn how hard it became to buy a bike or spare parts. I live in a very bike friendly city, so new infrastructures is not the reason why people bought bikes. I still don't get what convinced people to buy bikes during the pandemic.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  Gym closures.
- chaostheory 6y ago
  Probably the same reason VR has been on the rise. For the privileged who are stuck at home, they’re just sick of seeing the same four walls and breathing stagnant air, and they want something faster than walking
- alkonaut 6y ago
  People don't want to go to the gym or on the bus. So instead of the gym you take up mountain biking, and instead of the bus you bike commute. That's potentially two bikes just for one person. Once you start though, you realize the required number of bikes is N+1 where N is the number you already have. I was a mountain biker before the pandemic, but this spring I realized "I'm going to have a LOT of time to mountain bike this summer, so I'll get that $3k bike I've been thinking of getting for years now". I was super lucky to get my hands on one in 2020, and I had to go up to a more expensive $3.5k bike to even find one at all.
- II2II 6y ago
  In my neck of the woods, people were looking for outdoor activities when businesses shut down. In some cases it was because they were out of work, in others it was because they couldn't go to the places they would traditionally go to. Cycling was one of those things people latched on to, but it wasn't the only thing. I wouldn't not be surprised if most outdoor sporting goods saw a surge in sales. Since the pandemic has been beaten out of my region (at least for the time being), even team sports are very common.
- yencabulator 6y ago
sandworm101 6y ago
What are so quickly forgotten are the class disparities around bikes. Not everyone has a job where they can arrive drenched in perspiration. Not everyone has a place to lock up a bike at work. Not everyone works at a single location for which they can plan a regular commute. Some people are on call 24/7 across wide areas. Many have to carry tools with them. And lots of people are simply too poor to live withing reasonable biking distance of work. Personally, im in the military and on call 24/7. Unless i lived on the base, in barracks, a private vehicle is the only way i can possibly get to work in a reasonable time (the base is 10+km across, and uber isnt allowed past the guards). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-london-uk-sadiq-khan-bikes-race-class-gender-a8367916.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-lond... "Too few women and people from ethnic minority groups cycle in London and more must be done to promote diversity among a largely white, male and middle class biking community, the city’s walking and cycling commissioner has said."
- addicted 6y ago
  I don’t understand your comment because bike commuting advocates advocate for biking by demanding implementation of solutions to the precise problems you’re talking about. 1) If you have a reasonable bike lane network, you can reach significant distances while biking at a comfortable pace at which point you won’t really have any visible sweat. It actually requires effort to run up a visible sweat while biking (other than where you’re seated). 2) If you have a reasonable bike network, everywhere in a city should be easily accessible via bike no matter where you need to go. It’s far easier and cheaper to build new bike access than new car access. And converting a lane is a matter of signs and a few cones. 3) If a place has a reasonable bike network you can actually use the several hundred dollars a month on gas and car insurance and the depreciated value of your car to probably move in closer to where you work. 4) An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph. That’s about 20kmh. So your 10km distance is about 30 mins. And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat. 5) The discrepancy between men and women (and likely ethnic minorities) is entirely due to a lack of infrastructure. Everywhere there is good bike commuting infrastructure the disparity diminishes. Making biking safe eliminates gender disparities at least. There are many countries that are doing this successfully. It’s not a unique or novel concept. There may be American cities that are so sprawled out that it doesn’t make sense, but even there there’s value within city downtowns. And all of the above is for regular normal bicycles. Add ebike and pedal assist to the mix and the argument becomes way stronger.
abc03 6y ago
Manufacturers won‘t produce more spare parts or bikes. They know it won‘t last long. A shortage of bikes was mainly for e-bikes this year.
- FridgeSeal 6y ago
  I wouldn't be so sure of that. Where I am bike shops practically ran out of S/M/L bikes in Mountain bikes, road bikes and commuters. Second hand bike market has been insane as well. Most bike shops in my city also hired extra staff just to keep up with demand, and one of the boutique mountain-bike shops near me had to put up signs letting people know that their services are 100% booked out until March next year.
agumonkey 6y ago
Did bike since the pandemic. When you have large and long bike lanes, it's bliss. City driving by car is horribly inefficient. Now with partial thin bike lanes.. you end up like a car, stopping and starting constantly, low speed.
- nicbou 6y ago
  Berlin converted full lanes into bike lanes during the pandemic, to help distancing. Many of us are hoping they're here to stay.
  - mmm_grayons 6y ago
    How to bikes protect people better than enclosed vehicles?
    - cecja 6y ago
      Traffic is low that's why they opened the whole road instead of just a small space on the sides of it. More space between the bikers means more protection...
      - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
        I think it's more about public transport. In the UK at least everything would grind to a halt in cities if everybody moved from buses and trains to cars. There just isn't enough capcity so local government are doing whatever they can to avoid that.
    - II2II 6y ago
      Many people cannot afford to drive and cities cannot afford to provide infrastructure for everyone to drive. That means alternative modes of transportation must be available. Traditionally, that has been mass transit. Mass transit is not the most desirable mode of transportation during a pandemic.
    - okr 6y ago
      They do not. And many of us hope, that they will go away. And i hope, the city can afford to invest in a separate bike infrastructure. Maybe with quicker e-bikes and scooters even. As a cyclist i am super annoyed by cars. As a pedestrian i am super annoyed by cyclists on the side walk, ignoring all the rules. And as a car user, well, we all know how traffic jams are and how cyclists come out of nowhere. It is all being politicized at the moment. And in winter only a few hardcore bikers put the effort to dress up to get to the office, which, in corona times, are anyways not the best place to be. I really dislike how they created those popup bikelanes. And will redirect my vote to parties, which put jobs and recovery first. I rather walk than to support this uncoordinated nonsense. But hey, thats me. :)
dpeck 6y ago
Same in US, 26in bikes were (are?) very hard to find since they fit so many people. On one of our crazier COVID adventures we drove from Atlanta to a suburb of Chattanooga to pickup a bike there that would fit my kid and was of the quality we wanted.

140 points by edward 6y ago

Crossing my fingers hoping this happens in the US, then I look at how many places that don't even have sidewalks (let alone bike lanes) and remember why cars are the only way to get anywhere here...

OnACoffeeBreak 6y ago
If we can take the dearth of bikes for sale during the pandemic as an indicator of growth in popularity, I would say the US is experiencing a biking boom. I've been trying to buy a mountain bike for my kid for the past four months unsuccessfully. Local shops are just out of stock at least for bikes below $1k.
- analog31 6y ago
  While I think that the COVID has triggered a genuine level of interest in cycling, I also think it has been compounded by supply chain disruptions. Bikes are low margin items, which means they probably ship by container, are also shipped seasonally, so even possibly the delay of one or two ship loads in early Spring could disrupt the entire industry.
aaaxyz 6y ago
I live in Canada in a bike friendly city but I dread having to bike through the US-style suburbs for many reasons: - 3-4 lane boulevards where motorists drive at 60-70km/h and pass close to you; - giant malls where cars turn into and out of parking lots without paying too much attention; - lots of right turn only lanes that force you to stay on the middle lane between two lanes of cars (which makes some motorists very angry) or to stay close to the curb and cross with the pedestrians (which forces you to get on the sidewalk, disembark to hit the button and wait 1-2 minutes at _every_ intersection); - intersections where cars can turn right on a red light; - motorists not being used to driving around cyclists;
bleepblorp 6y ago
Pandemic-induced growth in bike use for commuting is mostly at the expense of public transit ridership. People aren't trading their cars for bikes, they're trading the risk of dying from a transit-related COVID-19 superspreader event for the risk of dying in a vehicle vs. bike crash. A mode shift towards bikes won't happen in most of the US because most of the US doesn't have viable public transit, and therefore, there's no need for Americans to switch transport modes. I believe bike use has increased in relation to public transit ridership in greater New York, but this is absolutely the exception to the rule as NYC was (prior to COVID-19) a transit-dependent city.
bobbylarrybobby 6y ago
Here in New York City I’m noticing the use of CitiBike, our bike share program, really taking off. Many more people in the bike lanes than a few months ago. It’s getting to the point that the volume of bikes is beginning to exceed the system’s ability to rebalance itself (or be rebalanced by people whose job it is to do so); popular destination bike stations have no empty bike docks and popular source locations are nearly entirely empty.

baebeegeezus 6y ago

It’s the US too. I was in a car accident with 2 bikes on the back that were unrepairable. Trying to find replacement bikes are close to impossible. Just yesterday I went to 2 local bike shops who had no stock and the bikes they do get in are pre sold, so there’s never any inventory. All manufacturers I’ve checked also don’t have anything available online. I guess they prioritize their dealers who can deal with the customer facing stuff so they can focus on more manufacturing. Even finding basic parts like a tube can be difficult! I found that the service levels at my local shop also went way way down, as they just can’t keep up with the volume. When I asked one of the bike store people about it yesterday, he just shrugged and said that it’s probably being used as a social distancing safe sport and replaced a lot of gym memberships and other sports.

3nf 6y ago
Yeah, here in Denver there has been a huge amount of novel cyclists. Lots of old bikes dug out of storage and brand new bikes with slightly wobbly riders. Also, more diverse riders. I think it's great. There's also a big increase in poorly maintained bikes- a squeaking chain is not just wearing itself out faster than usual, but also wearing out expensive drivetrain parts. Lubricate and clean your chains (and WD-40 is not lube)!
taxcoder 6y ago
Like you say, not just bikes but parts too. Finding a replacement tube for my son's bike was quite difficult about two months ago.

rossdavidh 6y ago

This looks great, but my first thought was, "what happens when all these new cyclists experience their first winter on a bike?" Not saying that it _should_ cause them to reconsider, just that it might, and we won't really know until we see what happens in December-January.

analog31 6y ago
In my view, it will be what always happens. I'm a year round commuting cyclist in the upper Midwest, so I see bike traffic go up and down with the seasons and the weather. In addition to the cold, there's also the darkness. The coldest month is January, and by that point, you only see the die-hards. It's not just psychological, but also requires being prepared to deal with the cold, ice, and road salt. For instance I have a dedicated winter bike with studded tires, and a pre-rusted chain. ;-) Oddly enough, the people who are out in the worst weather always seem to have the biggest grins on their faces. So while I feel smug about being one of the die-hards, I also don't even try to encourage people to ride through the winter until they've at least acclimatized themselves to riding regularly in normal weather.
- tvb12 6y ago
  I doubt I'll ever ride a bike to work in the winter. I say this because there's a backwoods road on my commute which I cannot avoid and which gets skinnier and skinnier as the storms add up. It reaches a point where two lanes become something closer to one and a half, and where I suspect a difference in vehicle height is occasionally the only thing preventing side-view mirrors from clipping. Drivers remain unfazed, or at the very least they do not slow down.
- TheGallopedHigh 6y ago
  Why do you ride in ice and snow? Sincere question.
  - analog31 6y ago
    Admittedly, it can't be justified on purely utilitarian grounds. I do own a car after all. Part of it is that I'm just addicted to cycling. But I'm also not strong enough to be a competitive cyclist, and don't live in an area with extensive mountain biking. So I have to look for ways to make it more interesting. I also love being outdoors during the winter, so I also go cross country skiing, or just take long walks. Surely, folks who have engaged in real survival sports would laugh at me, but still, arriving at work on my bike at -20 F feels like I've been on some kind of an adventure. My friends think I'm crazy, but I remind them that regular people go to work, outdoors, in colder temperatures, and they survive. The old saying is: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing." On the other hand, my spouse has a job where you have to pay extra for parking, so she either rides her bike or takes the bus depending on schedule. Right now during the COVID, the bus service has been cut way back, so it's 100% bike for her. My kids are both college students, and don't have cars, so a bike is their only option.

pi-rat 6y ago

I live in a hilly city, and the green part of the city council here ran a campaign this year were they cover 25% of the cost of an ebike (up to ~$550 for bikes and ~$1100 for cargo-ebikes). Now I see Tern GSDs and Riese & Müllers all over the place. Bought one myself, and it really removes the hills from the equation when deciding to bike or not. They got bike counters at major routes, but sadly haven't released stats for 2020 yet. Number of bikers have been at a stand still for the last 8 years, looking forward to see the effect of COVID + sponsored ebikes when the new numbers are out.

411111111111111 6y ago
Friendly reminder to get your chain checked periodically. Mine snapped within the first 9 month of daily driving (1200km), when I bought it first. Now I just replace it every checkup (800km)
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  Well maintained chains will last 4500km. Cassettes (all steel) are good for two chains.
  - magicalhippo 6y ago
    The e-bikers passing me in the hills seem to mostly enjoy using quite high gears, which I assume places a higher load on the chains.
    - pi-rat 6y ago
      It’s also a very heavy bike, with a extra long chain, able to carry two kids and a load of groceries. The chain is probably under some serious strain when going uphill, even when correctly geared and well maintained.
      - magicalhippo 6y ago
        Almost all of the bikes passing me are regular types, eg this[1], meaning no more room for kids and groceries than a regular bike. That said they might indeed have a heavy-duty chain for all I know. [1]: https://www.buddybike.no/elsykler/c4/hvit https://www.buddybike.no/elsykler/c4/hvit

COVardsStayHome 6y ago

Third-worldization of the world continues.

anonymou2 6y ago

It is terrible that people equate bike lanes to cycling. Bike lanes are built to kick cyclists off the roads that motorist believe belong to them. It is very ironic that because of the pandemic so many defenders of bike lanes are coming out like mushrooms. I find it ironic, because to me, the pandemic has shown precisely that there is no need at all for bike specific infrastructure. In Madrid, the city where I live, during the worst months of the pandemic, I would go out with my bike and there would be a ratio of like 20 bikes to 1 car. The cyclists that I saw used the traffic lanes as they needed. It was quite something. You would think that proponents of bike lanes would have to shut up. But no, now they say that bike lanes are the solution to the pandemic!

pjc50 6y ago
This depends on relative numbers and local culture; if there's not many cyclists and drivers behave aggressively or recklessly towards them, cycle lanes encourage people to try it in comparative safety.
- anonymou2 6y ago
  Cycle lanes are a trap for those who do not know. What exactly are the skills that you need to ride your bike in the normal road that are not needed when you ride on a bike lane?
  - saiya-jin 6y ago
    You need mainly velocity and acceleration. Unless you have a powerful ebike, most bikers accelerate 5x slower than usual car, even slower than scooters, and max speed around 25-30kmh on flat road. So they become obstacle that is often difficult to avoid safely in the car. There are +-2 countries that I've seen implement bikes seriously - Netherlands and Denmark. Both have more bikes than residents AFAIK. The magic is to have dedicated bike lanes that nobody else uses. You only slow down/stop on intersections with car roads or pedestrian paths, otherwise its all for you, wide enough to overtake slower biker.
    - 6y ago

jondubois 6y ago

I knew that this pandemic would lead to a revolution sooner or later. Nobody believed me.

abalashov 6y ago

As a semi-serious road cyclist (5000 - 8000 mi/year), I can attest to the shortages and the general backlog in the industry that has made it very difficult to get a bike, but more especially to get bikes serviced. Everyone's digging out the rust-bucket under their porch and trying to get it overhauled, when they're not snapping up entry-level road bikes and casual cruisers/hybrids/commuter bikes... The ultra-expensive stuff remains more available, though not necessarily service for it. That's the stuff we hardcore roadies buy anyway, but now it's pretty much the only thing sure to be in stock, and even then, far from assured in all cases.

flyinghamster 6y ago
Seeing what has happened to the parts and service market makes me fervently glad that I restored my long-neglected recumbent back to operating condition last year. Sadly, I haven't ridden it nearly enough this year, but at least it's ready to go.

GhostVII 6y ago

Mountain biking is super popular now in Ontario. The local trails are way busier, and bike shops are low on parts and bikes. Everything in the midrange (3k or so) is pretty well sold out.

Glawen 6y ago

The article doesn't explain why bike sales took off. It really startled me to learn how hard it became to buy a bike or spare parts. I live in a very bike friendly city, so new infrastructures is not the reason why people bought bikes. I still don't get what convinced people to buy bikes during the pandemic.

whimsicalism 6y ago
Gym closures.
chaostheory 6y ago
Probably the same reason VR has been on the rise. For the privileged who are stuck at home, they’re just sick of seeing the same four walls and breathing stagnant air, and they want something faster than walking
alkonaut 6y ago
People don't want to go to the gym or on the bus. So instead of the gym you take up mountain biking, and instead of the bus you bike commute. That's potentially two bikes just for one person. Once you start though, you realize the required number of bikes is N+1 where N is the number you already have. I was a mountain biker before the pandemic, but this spring I realized "I'm going to have a LOT of time to mountain bike this summer, so I'll get that $3k bike I've been thinking of getting for years now". I was super lucky to get my hands on one in 2020, and I had to go up to a more expensive $3.5k bike to even find one at all.
II2II 6y ago
In my neck of the woods, people were looking for outdoor activities when businesses shut down. In some cases it was because they were out of work, in others it was because they couldn't go to the places they would traditionally go to. Cycling was one of those things people latched on to, but it wasn't the only thing. I wouldn't not be surprised if most outdoor sporting goods saw a surge in sales. Since the pandemic has been beaten out of my region (at least for the time being), even team sports are very common.
yencabulator 6y ago

sandworm101 6y ago

What are so quickly forgotten are the class disparities around bikes. Not everyone has a job where they can arrive drenched in perspiration. Not everyone has a place to lock up a bike at work. Not everyone works at a single location for which they can plan a regular commute. Some people are on call 24/7 across wide areas. Many have to carry tools with them. And lots of people are simply too poor to live withing reasonable biking distance of work. Personally, im in the military and on call 24/7. Unless i lived on the base, in barracks, a private vehicle is the only way i can possibly get to work in a reasonable time (the base is 10+km across, and uber isnt allowed past the guards). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-london-uk-sadiq-khan-bikes-race-class-gender-a8367916.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-lond... "Too few women and people from ethnic minority groups cycle in London and more must be done to promote diversity among a largely white, male and middle class biking community, the city’s walking and cycling commissioner has said."

addicted 6y ago
I don’t understand your comment because bike commuting advocates advocate for biking by demanding implementation of solutions to the precise problems you’re talking about. 1) If you have a reasonable bike lane network, you can reach significant distances while biking at a comfortable pace at which point you won’t really have any visible sweat. It actually requires effort to run up a visible sweat while biking (other than where you’re seated). 2) If you have a reasonable bike network, everywhere in a city should be easily accessible via bike no matter where you need to go. It’s far easier and cheaper to build new bike access than new car access. And converting a lane is a matter of signs and a few cones. 3) If a place has a reasonable bike network you can actually use the several hundred dollars a month on gas and car insurance and the depreciated value of your car to probably move in closer to where you work. 4) An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph. That’s about 20kmh. So your 10km distance is about 30 mins. And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat. 5) The discrepancy between men and women (and likely ethnic minorities) is entirely due to a lack of infrastructure. Everywhere there is good bike commuting infrastructure the disparity diminishes. Making biking safe eliminates gender disparities at least. There are many countries that are doing this successfully. It’s not a unique or novel concept. There may be American cities that are so sprawled out that it doesn’t make sense, but even there there’s value within city downtowns. And all of the above is for regular normal bicycles. Add ebike and pedal assist to the mix and the argument becomes way stronger.

abc03 6y ago

Manufacturers won‘t produce more spare parts or bikes. They know it won‘t last long. A shortage of bikes was mainly for e-bikes this year.

FridgeSeal 6y ago
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Where I am bike shops practically ran out of S/M/L bikes in Mountain bikes, road bikes and commuters. Second hand bike market has been insane as well. Most bike shops in my city also hired extra staff just to keep up with demand, and one of the boutique mountain-bike shops near me had to put up signs letting people know that their services are 100% booked out until March next year.

agumonkey 6y ago

Did bike since the pandemic. When you have large and long bike lanes, it's bliss. City driving by car is horribly inefficient. Now with partial thin bike lanes.. you end up like a car, stopping and starting constantly, low speed.

nicbou 6y ago
Berlin converted full lanes into bike lanes during the pandemic, to help distancing. Many of us are hoping they're here to stay.
- mmm_grayons 6y ago
  How to bikes protect people better than enclosed vehicles?
  - cecja 6y ago
    Traffic is low that's why they opened the whole road instead of just a small space on the sides of it. More space between the bikers means more protection...
    - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
      I think it's more about public transport. In the UK at least everything would grind to a halt in cities if everybody moved from buses and trains to cars. There just isn't enough capcity so local government are doing whatever they can to avoid that.
  - II2II 6y ago
    Many people cannot afford to drive and cities cannot afford to provide infrastructure for everyone to drive. That means alternative modes of transportation must be available. Traditionally, that has been mass transit. Mass transit is not the most desirable mode of transportation during a pandemic.
  - okr 6y ago
    They do not. And many of us hope, that they will go away. And i hope, the city can afford to invest in a separate bike infrastructure. Maybe with quicker e-bikes and scooters even. As a cyclist i am super annoyed by cars. As a pedestrian i am super annoyed by cyclists on the side walk, ignoring all the rules. And as a car user, well, we all know how traffic jams are and how cyclists come out of nowhere. It is all being politicized at the moment. And in winter only a few hardcore bikers put the effort to dress up to get to the office, which, in corona times, are anyways not the best place to be. I really dislike how they created those popup bikelanes. And will redirect my vote to parties, which put jobs and recovery first. I rather walk than to support this uncoordinated nonsense. But hey, thats me. :)

dpeck 6y ago

Same in US, 26in bikes were (are?) very hard to find since they fit so many people. On one of our crazier COVID adventures we drove from Atlanta to a suburb of Chattanooga to pickup a bike there that would fit my kid and was of the quality we wanted.