patentcad

>>Recent figures cited in an industry trade publication show that 94.5% of those who ride bicycles do so for recreation or fitness, 0.3% for racing, and approximately 5.2% for transportation, a growing market that is important for the industry because it establishes cycling as a legitimate part of the nation’s transportation mix.<<

If you take that .3% stat and extrapolate up from there, 50K licensed USCF members would be outnumbered by at least 1.5 million non-racing cycling enthusiasts, or about 33 non-racers for every racer. Actually, I'd guess it's more like 100+ non-racing bike weenies for every racer. When I posed this question to my LBS owner, he agreed. He told me that he has 50-100 fairly avid cyclist customers who do not race for every one that does. You see that here in the NY area- tons of people on pricey bikes in lycra who aren't racing, but love to ride their road bikes. And there is a very active racing scene here (NY Metro NY/NJ/CT area). Does anyone else have industry figures on this?

UT_Dude

No figures, but I'd say 50-100 Freds per racer sounds about right.

patentcad

Sounds a bit like Night of the Living Fred to me.



We are outnumbered my kleine Nazis. Ach Der Lieber.

iab

I guess your mental state from the Mets collapse has affected your math skills.

0.3% racers to 99.7% freds is equivalent to 1 racer to 333 freds. You forgot a "3".

Squint

Fredsersians

Racers:Spartans

Pizza Man

So taking the 50,000 licenced cyclist number would mean about 16.7 million total cyclists.

I wonder what percentage of total industry spending is by racers.

Racers probably wear out equipment (and replace their equipment more regularly) than non racers.

patentcad

The several dozen BF Road Nazis here account for 20% of annual bike schwag expenditures alone. You can look it up.

I would appreciate it if nobody here told my daughter how bad my arithmetic sucks.

gcl8a

Will that make Pcad the next Alexander the Great?

patentcad

More like Pcad the Wussy. I am trying to Harden the F Up, and it's not as easy as it sounds.

gcl8a

It was supposed to be a reference to Alexander the Great (Pcad) restoring greatness to Ancient Greece (the Road Nazis) after being plundered by the Persians (the Freds), but a quick perusal of wikipedia shows my history is a little...er...mistaken

patentcad

You have exceeded your Metaphorical License. Report to Road Nazi Headquarters for reassignment.

gcl8a

Heh. Maybe I should Cat down...

patentcad

You could then potentially qualify for the coveted BF Bicycle Racing Sandbagging Merit Badge. This year's recipient, Dr. W. has his hanging from the rearview mirror of his car.

Greg180

+1

JBS103

Well if you consider someone who buys a bike, leaves it in the rain for five years, and then comes and buys another one, a standard, non-racing customer, then yeah, its probably 100:1.

But if you are talking about frequent riders, who actually take care of their bikes, but just don't race, then it's probably less.

Or maybe not. Hard to tell.

I can say though, that $500 and below bikes are the bread and butter of most family LBS.

patentcad

>>But if you are talking about frequent riders, who actually take care of their bikes, but just don't race, then it's probably less<<

Does anyone have reliable figures on how many 'enthusiast' cyclists there are in the US??