Some questions...
(Image from Hello Kitty Hell)
Since there's no one of us as smart as all of us put together, I have a question for the crowd.
I'm working on a post that needs some statistical support, specifically, good estimates of bicycle usage here in the US. Now it's fairly easy to come up with some figures in Google, but they vary from a low of about 40 million to a high of 80 million. Statistically, that qualifies as a wild-assed-guess.
But I had an idea. What about estimates of tire sales, tire manufacturing numbers, or tire imports? Tires wear out much faster than bikes, so that while bicycle sales numbers may be relatively flat, tire usage may better indicate short-term variations.
I'm speculating that some people will get their dusty old bike out of the shed, put new tires on it, and ride it to work or the grocery store. Bike usage goes up. Bike sales do not.
Any ideas?
Labels: bicycle tire, bicycle usage
posted by Ed W at 1:10 PM
5 Comments:
it is funny...
someone will have a bike
not ride it all that often
it will get stolen
they will replace it
they will hang it in their garage or in their apartment
bike theft is good for sales
and well
some people like to upgrade ever few years
some people never upgrade
it boggles my mind when I see an older established gentleman on his Schwinn Varsity everyday
when he could easily swap it out for something more comfortable with better braking and shifting
bike sales are steady
bike sales tend to work around bicycle enthusiasts
the geeks like me who have a bike for every day of the week or every style of riding
pitt bikes in cyclocross!
tell me the industry doesn't love that
they love that like light manufacturers love 24 hour racing
oh
I love that tread
does it come with a pink sidewall
My daughter loves it too. Her first question was 'can I get those for my Blazer?'
A Hello Kitty tire. How cute.
Citizen Rider has his own economic indicator: responses to his "job opening" ads.
Glad you all liked the tire! But I did find the Statistics Issue from BRAIN, April 2007, with the usual figure from NSGA(?) citing 40 million people rode a bike at least once in the previous year, and 5-6 million rode at least 110 days in the calendar year. I don't know how the stats were derived, so I'll have to write to BRAIN and NSGA.
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