Not too long ago, Winter and its accompanying snow and ice would force bicyclists to put away their bicycles until Spring. But, in recent years, fat bikes have allowed bicyclists to ride outdoors year-round. Fat bikes have very large tires that provide traction on snow. They first came on the market a decade ago, and have gone mainstream just in the past couple of years, even though a fat bike usually costs more than $1,000. According to Jay Townley, a partner in Gluskin-Townley Group, a consultant and market research company focused on the bicycle industry, “[t]he industry, quite frankly, needed something. If anything, the fat tire bike helped to keep a stable bike industry instead of losing volume.”
Today’s market size shows the total retail sales of fat bikes in the United States in 2016. According to NPD Group, “fat tire bike sales have grown eight-fold in the past three years.”
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2016
Market size: $74.7 million
Source: David Sharp, “Conquer Winter Snow With ‘Fat Bikes’,” Lansing State Journal, March 12, 2017, page 5D
Original source: NPD Group
Image source: Marn, Peter, “Bicycle-bicycle-tire-fat-186057,” Pexels available online here.
In the United States, more than 52 million people age 6 and above participated in wheel sports, defined as bicycling and skateboarding, in 2016. The vast majority, 45.8 million, were bicyclists; 6.4 million were skateboarders. Among bicyclists, 3.8% participated in BMX, 18.8% participated in mountain biking or rode primarily on non-paved surfaces, and the rest, 77.4%, rode their bikes primarily on roads and other paved surfaces.
