Wired has a nice article about how non-sport bikes are hot sellers again:
http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/news/2007/09/interbike_urbanbikers
This proves what can happen when fresh, smart people like Ms. Yeager are
put in charge of marketing, and allowed to try something different than
the same tired old formulas (More carbon! Even fewer spokes!).
This summer I spent 2.5 weeks in southern CA, where beach cruisers are
back with a vengeance. Everyone is riding, and teenagers are again using
bikes as their preferred mode of transportation. There seem to be 3x as
many bike shops as 5 years ago, most of them selling beach cruisers and a
few town/city bikes.
Text of the article is below, for the Usenet archives, in case Wired
eventually makes it unavailable.
Matt O.
***
"City Bike" Hot New Category at Bicycle Industry Show
--LAS VEGAS -- Some people believe that, right now, a quiet revolution is
taking place. In cities like London, San Francisco, Boston and New York,
the ranks of bicycle riders are swelling with the rise of a new breed: the
urban biker.
Traffic snarls, soaring gas prices and worries about global warming have
prompted a big boost in cycling, affecting even places like Los Angeles --
America's freeway capital -- that have traditionally given bicycles the
cold shoulder.
"What's really happened in the past year is a cultural shift," says Monica
Howe, 31-year-old outreach coordinator for the Los Angeles County Bicycle
Coalition.
At Interbike 2007, the bicycle industry's giant annual trade show, the
shift toward the urban rider is loudly evident. Fancy road and mountain
bikes are clearly no longer king of the roost -- or road. It's the scads
of fixed-gear, town, single-speed and other urban bicycles that are
drawing the crowds.
The rise of the urban biker is reflected in Specialized's 2008 catalog,
which lists 34 different models of city bike to choose from.
The company is even rolling out six different versions of its ultrapopular
single-speed, fixed-gear Langster. Each model is named after a city that's
on the urban biker radar: the four cities named above, plus Chicago and
Seattle. The New York Langster has narrow handlebars for speeding through
ranks of slow-moving cars, while the Seattle model is equipped with
fenders.
"People really gravitated toward bikes with that urban feel," says Travis
Widder, an associate production manager at Specialized. "We wanted to give
nods toward cities where that bike sold well, where people really embraced
that category."
Interbike 2007 is a lot less sporty than years past. Clothing
manufacturers have more messenger bags on show. Jerseys and shorts are
more urban, less multi-colored lycra.
Swobo, the trendy clothing maker, recently launched its first line of
three city bikes, and is just one of several companies showing new urban
rides.
If anyone gave birth to the urban biker movement, it's probably Sky
Yaeger, Swobo's managing director.
Yaeger was responsible for designing a slew of bikes during her time as
production manager at famed Italian manufacturer Bianchi. Some of her
designs, like the fixed-gear Pista, have been elevated to cult status.
Thanks to the bike's simplicity, it became the favored transport of
urbanites like skaters and surfers.
"What happened is we crossed over the bike culture into skate, surf," she
says. "The kids that are doing it now wouldn't have bought a bike five
years ago. That's a huge delight to me -- because they're on bikes."
In L.A., the bike revolution is helped by shops like the grassroots
Bicycle Kitchen. "It makes it easy for anyone to put together a bike
cheap," says Howe. "And it made it hip, which can't hurt."
Volunteers at the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective, a nonprofit that
provides tools and training for riders to maintain their bikes, have
experienced a huge bump in visitors.
"It's gotten out of hand," says Michael Wise, the collective's treasurer.
"We don't have enough volunteers to help the people coming in looking."
San Francisco's trendy Mission District is a hotbed of bicycle activity. A
bicycle lane running the length of Valencia Street is a major artery, as
hipsters in hoodies and precisely rolled, tight-fitting jeans flow along
the street.
At Valencia Cyclery, which is often proclaimed the city's best bike store,
sales associate Babs Brockaway says she's seen the number of customers
leaving with shiny new fixed-gear ("fixie"😉 and single-speed bikes
skyrocket. The store stocks five or six choices, up from a single model
two years ago. The simplicity appeals to neophyte riders overwhelmed by
too much technology.
"It's simple: You just pedal," she says. "This is shocking, but there are
people who buy bikes with gears, who don't shift gears."
Just across from Valencia Cyclery is Ritual Coffee Roasters, a popular
coffeehouse often stuffed full of young hipsters glued to their MacBooks.
It's also a favorite haunt of the urban biker.
Outside, Matt McDonald, a 24-year-old photographer from Boston, talks
about his fixie.
"My friends in Boston were getting into these bikes, and it was just sort
of appealing to me. It's like there's nothing to worry about, and they're
just a blast to ride."
***