Heaptalk, Jakarta – For the past couple of years, cycling has not become the hottest trend as it is seen today until the appearance of Brompton followed by a myriad of tweets from the netizen that put it into a glimpse controversy of the price and its users.
That was on the heap, then it faces the fastest growing trends, including the category called “gravel grinders” also known as all-road, open road, x-road, or adventure bikes, depending on what kind of bikes do people used.
In the urban area itself, like Jakarta, we can find that cycling is no longer a seasonal routine, but an “almost every day” activity that is carried out by the urban people. no wonder if on the roadway so many cyclists often have conflicts with “motorists” related to the traffic sign obedience, or how cyclist sometimes found endangered their safety, it’s not a strange thing, yet as the typical urban riders that often ignore the rules.
Previously, cycling activity can be more often found on the car-free day, every weekend, but now almost every day including going to their office, friends visiting, hang out, community gathering, and many more. Even to the extent, some people bring their bikes inside a restaurant. Just put aside the controversy of this behavior. At least we can simply figure it out that cycling becomes a common thing in our daily life.
This growth trend was also triggered by the impact of the implementation of the Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB), University of Indonesia Social Experts, DR. Revie Rahmawati explained that this situation forces some people to keep their distance, avoid crowds, and get used to their body to do exercises. So that, by this cycling trend is considered a positive thing to do, considering that social distancing can be achieved through this activity, plus it contributes to reducing the ratio of air pollution in the cities.
The concrete example can be found on the heart of Jakarta, like Thamrin and Sudirman street, as quoted from Director of the Indonesian Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Faela Sufa, the numbers of bicycle users are growing every month, even compared to the last year it grows more than ten times.
The same thing also happened in other cities in London, Amsterdam, and several cities in the US. In London, it currently heaving with traffic; mostly for journeys that are under five miles—under two miles—so for short, and routine trips. And for the innovation the local company tends to embed it with predictive analytics, smartphone apps, wireless connectivity, and digital urban planning tools, thus it will get more people on bikes.
Meanwhile, in the US, cited from Forbes, there is even an emerging trend of adventurous cycling. The concept heated up in places like the Pacific Northwest. Midwest and New England where there are thousands of miles of beautiful backroads, Forest Service roads, and logging roads, all unpaved and with the perfect combination of great scenery and almost no traffic.
And how about in Indonesia? My predictions, it depends on many factors, such as the bicycle producers, supportive environments mean road markings, both in urban, suburban, and rural areas, and the most important is the influencers. Simply said that the factors of how they campaign the good side of cycling, bring the cycling as the lifted-up image, and connect the activity into an endless aspect of life can encourage people to move on their bikes.
Moreover, correlating to the technology innovation, bikes can be developed into e-bikes as also there is a roll-out of the 5G industry, make it possible to integrate with smartphone apps, GPS tracking, and podcasts activity. Like what Suunto did, the Sports Watches who have been doing long innovation on the internet of things (IoT), can visualize the map tracks, calculating the elevation, and the speed per hour by wearing this.
It is also interesting to see from the bike vendor that they seem optimistic about the future of the industry. Hendra, the founder of Roda Maju Bahagia, told us that the corps can sell up to of up to double quantity every month, raising from the previous year, it’s only reaching hundreds number. Inline, the CEO of PT. Insera Sena as the brand owner of Polygon, William Gozali stated that his corps have started to feel the increasing demand for bicycles since mid-April 2020.
Seeing a significant increase in demand, the manufacturers do not want to be left behind to continue to innovate, to bring new experiences to the cyclist. “Innovations – and freshly-built cycling infrastructure – will make bicycling safer, faster, and even more convenient,” said Wiliam.
