BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Suppliers shipped 3 percent more bikes to shops this January than last year, in spite of inclement weather up and down the West Coast and throughout the Southwest. A milder winter in other regions may have helped the business, although it's too early in the year to call the results a trend.
Product trends from last year appear to have carried into January as the transit and fitness category continues to be where the action is on the pavement side. Suppliers shipped 4,234 more of those bikes to shops, a 14 percent increase over last year. Shipments of kids' bikes were up an impressive 24 percent as 2,976 more bikes with wheel sizes smaller than 26-inch shipped during the first month; BMX was up 8 percent.
E-bikes posted big gains, more than doubling last year's shipments, a gain of 1,113 units with 1,941 ebikes shipped. In January, more e-bikes shipped than in the 29er full-suspension, fatbike, cyclocross or performance woman's categories.
Mountain bike shipments were down 12 percent overall, due to big drops of fat bike and 27.5 front-suspension and 27.5 full-suspension shipments.
