On your bike: Covid boosts sales

Bikes have been racing out the shop door as more Kiwis forced to stay in the country get the cycling bug.

Electric bikes and traditional bicycles were selling well through lockdown and accelerated after the restrictions were lifted, with the renewed interest in cycling said to have been sparked by the onset of Covid-19.

New Zealand imported $91.8 million worth of bicycles last year — more than 253,000 — and $67m worth of electric bikes, according to Stats NZ.

About 63,500 electric bikes were imported, up from 47,350 in 2018 and 23,326 in 2017.

That trend has only continued this year.

Campbell Read, owner of Queeenstown bike rental business Charge About NZ and importer to retailers eBikeStudio, said the pandemic had encouraged people to get back on their bikes — and to get a new one.

Sales in the business were up about 200 per cent on this time last year, while Charge About sold most of its rental bikes to meet demand.

“A lot of retailers have [sold out of bikes] . . . big importers haven’t been able to meet demand because they have to get all of their orders together at the beginning of the year,” said Read.

He said a big factor in the surge in sales was the inability to travel internationally and therefore more money in the pockets of consumers.

“When we went into lockdown everybody started getting a bit desperate going ‘oh God, we need to get a bike to get about because this is one of the few things we’re allowed to do’,” said Read.

“The demand has been huge. Even panic-buying. The evening before going into level 4 lockdown, people rocked in and bought $12,000 carbon electric mountain bikes.”

Read said there could be a bike shortage in New Zealand in the months ahead as major manufacturers prioritise distribution to markets closer to home. Most bicycle imports are from Taiwan, while China leads in e-bikes.

Prices could also be hiked next season as a result, he said.

“Our dealers across the country have all said that bike demand, generally, is really high — it’s one of New Zealand’s top pastimes.”

He puts the surge in sales in recent weeks down to “more disposable income because people aren’t travelling” and the focus on domestic tourism and many wanting to see the country by bike as part of camping trips.

Trade Me spokeswoman Millie Silvester said demand for bikes had increased since lockdown. There have been more than 400,000 searches for bikes on the site in the last seven days, up 22 per cent on the week prior, and ‘mountain bikes’ were among the most searched for items over the past week.

Auckland Transport said the number of cycle movements recorded for commuter trips decreased during lockdown. However, it recorded a surge in the number of people, especially families, taking advantage of quieter streets by riding bikes in their neighbourhoods. Some areas saw a 100 per cent increase in bike use compared to the same period last year.

And it’s continued since lockdown — Auckland Transport reports 14 per cent of Aucklanders are biking more often than they did pre-lockdown and 75 per cent said they intended to continue to walk or bike after lockdown ended.