Study: Used bike owners ride more, buy more

ALLENTOWN, PA (BRAIN) — Owners of bikes they bought used ride more, buy more, and visit bike shops more often than owners of bikes they bought new, according to a new study.

Used-bike owners also ride their bikes to work more often than owners of new bikes, and, in what the researchers called a big surprise, they are wealthier: 22 percent of owners with household incomes of $200,000 or more own a bicycle they purchased used, compared to 12.5 percent that own a bicycle they purchased new, said Elliot Gluskin, managing partner of The Gluskin Townley Group, which will release the complete results of the American Bicycling Consumer research study next month.

Gluskin said the results contain information that the bike industry will find "actionable."

For example, he said, “A finding of immediate interest is 64 percent of owners of used bicycles are planning to purchase a new bicycle in 2012, (and) spend a median of $1,000, which is more than owners of new bicycles plan to spend," Gluskin said.

The Gluskin Townley Group, LLC is a marketing and research consulting firm serving clients in the bicycling, fitness, outdoor, event, media, investment, and education industries.