From the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the shores of the South China Sea, in recent years, with the hosting of various cycling events across the country, bicycles have gradually transformed from mere means of transportation into fashionable sports equipment.
At the finish line of the fifth stage of the 12th Tour of Qinghai Lake International Road Cycling Race, Zhang Shanshan, a cycling enthusiast from Chongqing, eagerly awaited the approaching race teams. She told reporters that for this cycling trip, she purchased gear such as a helmet, cycling computer, windproof glasses, cycling jersey, and a cycling backpack, spending nearly 2,000 yuan. “What I have is just considered average equipment,” she said. Zhou Fei, a cycling enthusiast from Chengdu, shared that when she first got into cycling five years ago, after riding over 50 kilometers of mountain roads in jeans, she found her buttocks painfully chafed. She immediately went to a cycling gear store afterward and bought herself a pair of cycling shorts.
Pang Xiaozhong, director of the Science and Technology Development Center at the Sports Science Research Institute of the General Administration of Sport of China, said that for a long time, cycling gear worn by Asians has been designed based on the physiological characteristics of Europeans. For example, Europeans tend to have narrower feet, while Asians have wider ones; Europeans generally have longer legs, while Asians have shorter ones. “Wearing such gear does not help improve performance.”
Many cycling enthusiasts have expressed that foreign brands are too expensive, and they hope to see more cost-effective domestic options in the market. Pang Xiaozhong believes that the main gaps in local brands lie in the lack of specialized materials and relatively backward human engineering capabilities.
According to statistics, China’s sports cycling population reached 5 million in 2012. Assuming each person spends 500 yuan on cycling gear, the total market capacity could reach 2.5 billion yuan.