Rich Chinese are buying bikes that cost the equivalent of three-year average salary in China, motivated by nostalgic times when the main mode of transportation was on two wheels, writes Thomson Reuters.
China is now the largest auto market in the world. Here, sales of top bikes could increase by up to 15% per year as this means of transportation becomes a status symbol for rich executives.
Yu Yiqun, chief of an advertising company in the Chinese capital, go to work on his favorite bike, a custom handcrafted Alex Moulton that cost $16,000.
“It may be the only bike of its kind in Beijing. It’s like the Rolls-Royce of the bikes. A classic piece, manually buiit,” says Yu, 40 years old. He has 35 luxury bikes.
“I remember my father used to take me on a bike in the city, in the winter, over a distance of 40 kilometers when outside was minus 40 degrees Celsius. Back then, cycling was the means of transportation that meet your dream to travel far. It was a relatively cheap means of transportation but it required strength.”
Yu symbolizes the new culture on two wheels in China, where wealthy executives, aware of the need to live healthy, improve their lifestyle. In some cases, they abandon their shiny cars and hit road on bikes more expensive than a car.
“Demand for regular luxury goods like watches and premium cars reached a saturation point. Higher income groups now prefer the two-wheeled luxury to display their unique taste and healthy lifestyle,”
said Zhou Jiannong, manager at Rbike Networks.
A distributor in Hong Kong tries to honor an order of 1,000 luxury bikes that will be offered to employees as year-end bonuses by a financial company.
“People are tired of conventional gifts like wine or tobacco. For those on the mainland, a bicycle is a unique gift that shows a great lifestyle,” says Adam Wong, chief executive of Hong Kong based Komdor Bicycles. The average price of bicycles ordered by the bank is $480.
Shanghai Tang fashion company, eager to feast on a piece of this cake, allied with Dutch bicycle manufacturer Colossal Cycling Bicycle in order to build bicycles only for China, a market with a demand estimated at 28 million units per year.
“High-end ranges will be the main source of growth for the Chinese market. In China, bicycles are more than a means of transportation. They have become a fashion,”
said Terry Liu, an analyst at Fubon Research in Taiwan.
Expensive limited editions such as the Colnago brand in Italy, and Look, in France, can cost up to $38,700 apiece, nearly 100 times more expensive than a Flying Pigeon, the official bike of China, launched in the fifties. But the price is not an obstacle for wealthy Chinese start looking for their dream bike.
“Businessmen do not look at the price. They look for quality. Their bikes have imported parts which conform to their tastes and needs,” said Zhang Lei, executive at a company that sells paper. He plans to spend $1,500 to refurbish his bike.
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