Google Trends points to rise in road cycling

12 comments
By BikeRadar UK | Tuesday, Jan 25, 2011 10.15am

Google Trends has become a powerful barometer of the world’s tastes and preferences on virtually every subject under the sun. As far as cycling is concerned, the number of searches for terms such as “road bike” and “mountain bike” provide a snapshot of two-wheeled trends which can now be tracked over the past six years.

UK bike shop chain Evans Cycles have looked at Google Trends for different types of bikes and compared those results with their own sales figures. The headline result from their comparison is that interest in road cycling in general and in hybrid bikes in particular is on the up, mountain biking’s star is on the wane, and the level of interest in folding and singlespeed machines remains static.  

Graph showing the volume of searches on google uk for different types of bikes:

Graph showing volume of searches on Google UK for different bike types (click to enlarge)

And according to Google, those trends appear to be occurring on both a UK- and world-wide basis. Evans Cycles blogger Will Lockie says: “We can see that interest in road bikes has increased in 2010 over the previous two years, driven partly by the increasing popularity of sportive events – essentially non-competitive road riding.

"Don’t forget also the mainstream interest in cycling having a knock-on effect here too, encouraging more people to take up the sport. Interest in mountain bikes, on the other hand, looks to be down on previous years. Folding bikes and singlespeed bikes are relatively flat in comparison – perhaps due to all-year-round interest rather than seasonal peaks when the weather is nice!”

Road bikes sales trend at evans cycles over the past three years:

Hybrid bikes sales trend at evans cycles over the past three years:

Mountain bikes sales trend at evans cycles over the past three years:

The above graphs show sales trends at Evans Cycles and www.evanscycles.com over the past three years; exact sales figures have not been released

Evans’ view of the market appears to chime with that of fellow retailers Hargreaves Cycles, of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. They sell up to 3,000 bikes a year and owner Eddie Vokes told us: “We’ve probably seen a slight increase in overall sales in the past 12 months but that’s been mainly on the road side. We had a good year on hybrids and it looks like more people are interested in commuting by bike, but I’d say mountain bikes have held fairly steady.

"We’ve seen a lot of people fitting mudguards on road bikes which could indicate that they’re using them for commuting too. Hybrids have gone up a lot, partly on the back of the Cycle to Work scheme. Last year the scheme really took off, I think because a lot of councils and hospital boards took it up.”

One trend that Mr Vokes has been struck by is the plummeting demand for children’s bikes. It seems to him that pre-teen children just aren't interested in cycling. “We’re finding that kids are getting lazy and there’s no two ways about that,” he said. “Up to the ages of about 12 or 13 they're not interested and then we start to sell a few BMX bikes, but apart from that, nothing.

“It’s three years since we’ve had a decent Christmas and this one was the worst ever. We used to do between 500 and 700 kids' bikes at Christmas but this year we sold 56. I’ve got about £15,000 worth of stock sitting there that we’ll simply have to hang onto for another year. It seems they just want to stay in their bedrooms with the computer games."

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"Maybe it’s the parents that are being a bit over-cautious with their kids, telling them, ‘You can’t play out on your bike, because it’s too dangerous'. They’re going to have to do something about it because there are more obese kids about than ever. It’s very worrying,” said Mr Vokes, who should know, given that he's been selling bikes since 1973.

At the other end of the scale, high-end bikes seem to be selling well. Hargreaves bought some run-out stock of straight-forked Ridley Noah road bikes which proved to be very popular. Mr Vokes puts their popularity down to offering a value-for-money package that appealed to riders with cash to spend but who still had a nose for a bargain.

As for trends for the coming year, Evans Cycles’ head bike buyer Joel Natale had this to say: “We expect to see continued growth of road and hybrid bike sales... Also, perhaps we’ll see a bit more diversification in these categories as people start to push the envelope again. We’ve had the retro and singlespeed theme for a while, and cyclo-cross has been growing at a rate. Over the next few years I’d expect to see touring and audax make a resurgence also.

"Steel’s been very cool over the last few years so we're looking forward to seeing whether this develops further. In the mountain bike world the biggest topic is definitely 29ers. It does seem like 2011 will be their year – the product and the market has now developed... Simply put, there’ll be even more great ways to get out and cycle next year – let’s just hope we get some support from the weather!”

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User Comments

There are 12 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 12 of 12 comments

  • no vertical scale on the graphs?

  • I think each horizontal line represents one bike sold.

    So, last year they sold almost 8 full-sus MTB's.

    I'm not surprised at the decline. Raw materials went up. But, so did everything else (as far as I can tell, as a MTB'er). It's almost like there was a consensus that MTB'ers could afford more, so charge them more. This, in a recession, was not good. The results can be seen.

    I'm sure it will bounce back. Heck, I know I'm doing more than my fair share to boost the MTB "shiny stuff" sales sector. Might as well hand over my wages to the bike shops each month.

  • The Google trend also shows what a bunch of fair weather cyclists we all are!

  • I am very disappointed by this report. The graphs displayed are close to meaningless and any trends extrapolated are equally so. This data does not demonstrate anything regarding the trends of bike sales and is at best - sloppy.

    Evans - next time you want to avoid embarrassment, get a professional to do your stats for you... (Mail me if you like - will work for bike parts)

  • Damn lies and statistics, eh?!

    Google trends only indicate google trends, not bike sales... perhaps mountain bikers are early adopters, and generally a younger crowd, maybe those people who already have mountain bikes are getting into road cycling later in life, maybe road cyclists are more likely to use google that mountain bikers, maybe maybe maybe...

    I'm more inclined to listen to the views of those in the industry who suggest that mountain bike sales are holding steady, as road and hybrid sales increase - due to people looking for alternative forms of transport.

    the most concerning is the kid's bike sales though...

  • Hi all, the graphs show unit sales, so do represent very real cycling trends over the last few years.

    Apologies for not adding in the actual figures but I wanted to keep my job! :)

    We wanted to see what overall trends are out there and though this might be an interesting approach.

    best regards

    Will Lockie

  • @Will Lockie, with the market data you have available and of course economic data/questionaires at point of sale, you could have presented this data AND made it meaningful. I think I get the jist of your report, but I like to have that bar just a little higher, as apparently do others who have commented here.

  • Makes me laugh to see all these newbies on mega expensive bikes - hope to pick up a bargain when they quit cycling after a few soakings next winter.

    The kids item is the main worry. The main issue is finding a safe place for them to learn to ride. However there are other issues: Most kids bikes that are sold are garbage and viewed as a disposable items and there is then a huge price hike for any semblance of quality. When is a designer going to develop a brake that can actually be reached and operated effectively by a small child? Why are they so heavy - kids can't possibly ride a single speed up the mildest incline. Designers and manuafacturers need to get their heads together. More adults are now cycling and I suspect will spend a bit more for quality kids bikes.

  • I'm no statistician (I'm not even too sure how to spell it), but...

    If the Google Trends thing is only looking at the terms 'mountain bike' and 'road bike', does that mean anything? Maybe MTBers just search for the name of the product on Google (e.g. 'Commencal Meta', not 'Commencal Meta Mountain Bike'), and maybe MTBers just don't buy as much stuff from Evans.

    If those two assumptions hold true (or more complicated assumptions that mean essentially the same thing) then isn't this all a bit meaningless?

    Then again, my next bike's going to be a road bike. I like both Road and MTB cycling- MTB more, really- but I just can't afford to buy a mountain bike any more- you can still get a decent road bike on the C2W scheme, but as the latest MBUK proves, a grand won't get you much more than a BSO nowadays.

  • @Dr-Chars - understood and we'll take that on board next time

    @Wheelsucker1 - agreed, this is something that manufacturers should take note of.

    @neil_sheehan2000 - it's a good point, Google trends will only show you the search trend for the exact term entered, so we tried to pick terms to compare that would give us as broad an indication as possible of interest in the different disciplines. As you say, your next bike is a road bike even though you like MTB - which is a trend we have seen a lot lately also (including a lot of the people in our office!)

  • Kids bikes eh?

    My kids love cycling, just a shame that it gets dark so early until end of Feb. Oh and their bikes are only a little less heavy than mine. I weigh 16 1/2 stone, they weigh about 4ish, but their bikes are definitely not a quarter of the weight.

  • Not convinced the MTB trend is waning...it only reports on full bounce bikes, but it seems that the hardtail is making a return to popularity...if it is just reviewing MTBs by full suspension then it is going to be falling...I think far more bikes sold over the last 6 months or so have been hardtails - cheaper to buy, but I think a lot of folk are looking to get back into the skills and smoothness of riding a bike rather than just barreling along and letting the bike adjust for mistakes in line choice.

    (a very broad sweeping statement and not accurate in all cases)

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