Women essential to future of bicycling

A recent webinar on emerging trends by the League of American Bicyclists concludes that women are essential to the future of bicycling. In fact, the industry’s continued viability depends on their participation.

But while women accounted for 51 percent of adult bike riders in 2014, they were projected to spend $2 billion less than men in bicycle retail businesses.

For Liz Cornish Jones with LAB’s Women Ride, these numbers mean “huge potential” to convert women into lifetime riders and lifelong bike-shop customers.

“How much of what we say about women is true and how much is myth? And how much has the bike retail industry bought into, and continued to sell these myths right back to women?”

LAB will be posting surveys for women and bicycle retailers, in an effort to identify and eliminate barriers to women’s bicycle ridership and in an effort for retailers to better realize and capture women’s increased bike business.