Bicycle industry

The Bicycle Industry or Cycling Industry can broadly be defined as the industry concerned with bicycles and cycling. It includes at least bicycle manufacturers, part or component manufacturers, and accessory manufacturers. It can also include distributors, retailers, bicycle organizations, bicycle event promoters, and bicycle related service providers.

In the United States, it generated $6 billion of revenue in 2005.

Besides advocating for greater safety, comfort, and convenience for bicyclists, many members of the industry promote bicycles for poverty alleviation. Experiments done in Africa (Uganda and Tanzania) and Sri Lanka on hundreds of households have shown that a bicycle can increase the income of a poor family by as much as 35%. Transport, if analyzed for the cost-benefit analysis for rural poverty alleviation, has given one of the best returns in this regard. For example, road investments in India were a staggering 3-10 times more effective than almost all other investments and subsidies in rural economy in the decade of the 1990s. What a road does at a macro level to increase transport, the bicycle supports at the micro level. The bicycle, in that sense, can be one of the best means to eradicate poverty in poor nations.

World Bicycle Relief, which specializes in large-scale, comprehensive bicycle distribution programs to aid poverty relief and disaster recovery initiatives in developing countries around the world, includes among its sponsors such notable companies as Accell Group, Bicycle Technologies International, Giant Bicycles, GT Bicycles, Quality Bicycle Products, Shimano, SRAM Corporation, Specialized Bicycle Components, and Trek Bicycle Corporation.

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