China tops in bicycle production, but handcrafted bike industry alive and well in US

There's no photo-finish in determining the largest bicycle-making nation on Earth. China wins by a huge margin with 87 million bicycles produced last year, about two-thirds of all bikes made.

That's nearly a three-fold increase in the past decade, notes the Financial Times. In fact, it's the only country among top bicycle producers to see any increase in that period, according to figures compiled by Earth Policy Institute.

The biggest fall came in the United States, where production dropped from 6 million in 1997 to 300,000 in 2007. But the good news is that a cadre of small companies with a handful of employees continue to make handcrafted bicycles in the U.S. (Picture of Winthrop, Washington-based Curtlo Cycles above.)

Domestic industry

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting story (“Bicycle builders are on a roll“) about the California-based contingent of this handbuilt bike industry. Not only are there small companies turning out high-end steel frame bicycles every year, there are small domestic suppliers that make the hubs, brakes and other components.

In fact, there's a former office furniture designer, Henry Folson, based in Redondo Beach who's the last to make bicycle lugs in the US.

The Times estimates there are 100 to 200 small-time frame makers in the US. Industry sources estimate Americans but about 20,000 custom-made frames a year.

That's less than 10% of US bicycle production, but it's certainly worth supporting.

Cutbacks

Looking at the figures, you'll see that US production was cut by more than half between 1997 and 1998 (6 million to 2.5 million). That's a huge one-year loss. I checked around, and discovered that the Huffy Bicycle Corp. closed its bicycle manufacturing plant in Celine, Ohio, in early 1998.

That might have been one of the factors, but I doubt if that single plant produced 3.5 million bicycles a year.

Others

Following China, other big bicycle producers are India, European Union, Taiwan, Indonesia and Brazil, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

Taiwan follows in Asia by producting 4.9 million bicycles, but that's half of  what it produced in the 1990s. In Europe, Italy leads with 2.5 million bicycles.

Back to the U.S., the low point for bike production was 200,000 tallied in 2005. Maybe we're on an upswing, possibly due to interest in hand-built bicycles.

Let's hope so. Bicycles are a great green industry.

Chart below reproduced from Earth Policy Institute