New or used?

(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Bicycle Retailer & Industry News reported on an interesting (forthcoming) study from marketing and research firm The Gluskin Townley Group yesterday. The report compared the demographics and buying habits of buyers of used bikes versus buyers of new bikes. Here’s more from BRAIN:

Owners of bikes they bought used ride more, buy more, and visit bike shops more often than owners of bikes they bought new, according to a new study. Used-bike owners also ride their bikes to work more often than owners of new bikes, and, in what the researchers called a big surprise, they are wealthier: 22 percent of owners with household incomes of $200,000 or more own a bicycle they purchased used, compared to 12.5 percent that own a bicycle they purchased new, said Elliot Gluskin, managing partner of The Gluskin Townley Group.

The full study is due out next month. I’ll try to track down a copy and share more.

I find this very interesting, especially given that most bike dealers do not specialized in used bikes or offer them at all. However, my hunch is that the ones that do (Sellwood Cycle Repair and Citybikes come to mind) do very well with them. Could this report mainstream used bikes? I would love to hear from used bike buyers and bike shop employees about this. What do you think accounts for this? Do these findings surprise you or validate what you’re already seeing?











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