Bikes Worldwide

Hands up if you've recently taken up cycling. Wow - one million hands go up! I started an article with this opening line in the last Newsletter so why do so again? Well, if the number of people cycling is increasing then so must the production of bicycles. In 1965 the number of bicycles and the number of cars produced worldwide was the same, some 20 million. Since then both have risen substantially. Car production is now up to 40 million units whereas bicycle production exceeds 120 million. For a world population of 7 billion that's one new bicycle for every 58 people, including those too old or too young to ride! There are probably more than one billion bicycles in the world; over half have been manufactured in China (where use is declining rapidly) and most of the rest are from India, Taiwan and Japan. Top of the range machines are still made in Europe. [Source: worldometers.com]

John Norman