East Asia Luxury Cycling Boom; Can you help me make sense of it?

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tmr5555
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Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:13 am

by tmr5555

Hi, I'm absolutely and totally ignorant on the matter but looking on Instagram, "high end" clothing look books etc, cycling seems to be incredibly in fashion as a past time in certain East Asian countries (such as Thailand), maybe It's viewer bias, maybe cycling was always popular over there, but has just occurred to me. The market seems to have expanded just as exponentially as it has in the UK. What gives? Is it capitalism looking for new markets? Would someone like to comment?

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silvalis
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by silvalis

It's just following other luxury booms in east asia. It's all about brand names as status. Started >10 years ago? 15?
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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

erm, since when is instagram a source of statistically viable data?

as for the the luxury goods, it's a trend visible in any country that came from piss poor to "western standards" rapidly - see the whole eastern EU or big cities in Russia. people who remember having nothing, and then working their asses off and becoming considerably rich in the process just "need" to share their status with the rest of the folk by showing off logos and price tags. it's as old as (modern) world I'd say.
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TonyM
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by TonyM

“Working their ass off”....maybe for some people there. Some others get rich with other methods....

gravity
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by gravity

So.... cycling is only for the western ppl :roll: ? Third world country cant enjoy cycling or even afford a bicycle :roll: ? Nice. Good to know that I'm not the only one living under a rock :wink:

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TonyM
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by TonyM

gravity wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:06 am
So.... cycling is only for the western ppl :roll: ? Third world country cant enjoy cycling or even afford a bicycle :roll: ? Nice. Good to know that I'm not the only one living under a rock :wink:
:thumbup:

Originally the "core" countries are France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Spain. Look at the Tour de France (France), Giro d'Italia (Italy), Vuelta a Espana (Spain) and the classics in France, Belgium and Holland. Look at all these words like "peloton", "echelon", "directeur sportif", "gruppetto", etc...

More recently countries like Germany (Ulrich...), UK (Wiggins...) and the USA (Lemond, Armstrong,...) have seen a huge increase of popularity for road cycling.

It is just surprising to many westerners that road cycling is picking up so fast in Asia. And that luxury is important. In the USA quantity matters more. That's usually the n+1 philosophy. Not only for bikes but for cars also etc...Many westerners have no idea why luxury companies like for example LVMH (Louis Vuitton Most Hennessy) or Porsche are focussing on the Asian market and not on the USA any more.

And remember that many westerner have never been in Asia - or just for 2 weeks in Pucket...and they still think Asia is still the 3rd world country China.

Don't get upset about this.....

moonoi
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by moonoi

There definitely has been a massive uptake in cycling in Thailand (where I live) in the last 5 years, it used to be I would cycle around and rarely meet another cyclist, but now they're everywhere. The AOT opening the dedicated cycle track around the airport has helped massively as well, giving people in Bangkok a safe place to ride. Most of them wobbling around at 20kmh on their Team Sky replica Pinarellos ;)

That said, cycling has been pretty big before that, lots of events like the Doi Inthanon challenge have been run for 12-13 years now.

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TonyM
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by TonyM

moonoi wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:22 am
There definitely has been a massive uptake in cycling in Thailand (where I live) in the last 5 years, it used to be I would cycle around and rarely meet another cyclist, but now they're everywhere. The AOT opening the dedicated cycle track around the airport has helped massively as well, giving people in Bangkok a safe place to ride. Most of them wobbling around at 20kmh on their Team Sky replica Pinarellos ;)

That said, cycling has been pretty big before that, lots of events like the Doi Inthanon challenge have been run for 12-13 years now.

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Are these cyclists Thai or Expat etc...?

moonoi
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by moonoi

Both, the Thais love Peter Pouly and his "training" camps

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TonyM
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by TonyM

moonoi wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 5:48 am
Both, the Thais love Peter Pouly and his "training" camps

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I just googled Peter Pouly and I find it always fascinating to see what is happening in other regions of the world! :thumbup:

BTW I absolutely love Thailand and I used to travel so often there (business and private) but I would be scared to ride my road bike on the roads.... :( It's nice to see that there is a dedicated cycle track now! :thumbup:

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Kayrehn
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by Kayrehn

The Indonesians are very much into bike bling as well I heard, and LBS here in Singapore actually gets some business from them. A small group does weightweenie competitions too, if I remember right. They have audax events too and I was tempted to join them in the past.

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tmr5555
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Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:13 am

by tmr5555

Cycling is having a resurgence in the UK thanks to team sky and the success of British cycling funded by the national lottery and dare I say the “healthy living” trend, likewise in the USA Lemond and LA helped a lot in making it more “mainstream” so both these western countries which I’d argue do not necessarily have road cycling “encoded in their dna” like the continental big three progressed along similar lines, so when observing why there are a billion cycling shops in London or why Rapha came around there is a observable logical progression.
So I’d just out of curiosity want to know the progression it took to establish cycling as it appears to be over in south east Asia. Because when you think of it, as trends go it’s quite kooky to choose cycling as your go-to sport and recreational activity, again this may be viewers bias such as watching the news only in English and then wondering why all news is in English.

tmr5555
Posts: 356
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:13 am

by tmr5555

Also, the way the stuff is marketed is also strange, whereas “athlete endorsements” might be the more common usual method, they seem to be using, dare I say, “fake model athletes” I come from an advertising background so this puzzles me a bit, you want people to aspire to pros, make them chase the carrot at the end of the stick by drilling messages such as “these wheels are soo, pro, you will become a pro, get the best out of your self etc..” At least this is the more “western” approach these days, taking advantage of the egos of the customer, whereas the message over there is a much simpler “sex sells”, not any less effective but perhaps a more direct and simplified approach to marketing. This strategy is also more in line with selling a “lifestyle” product.

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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

gravity wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:06 am
So.... cycling is only for the western ppl :roll: ? Third world country cant enjoy cycling or even afford a bicycle :roll: ? Nice. Good to know that I'm not the only one living under a rock :wink:
you misunderstood, my comment was about ostentatious display of bike fashion, or demonstrating certain activities in a pretentious manner. it's like there was a period of food porn in social media, suddenly it looked as if all the people I know ate only sushi and some fancy salads. what insta and fb do is distort reality by promoting individuals eager to try out new stuff, but also those who seek attention and popularity by showing off expensive things (almost only) they are able to buy. and although they're often reffered to as 'trendsetters', IMHO it has nothing or very little do with what the vast majority of people do/think/buy/wear etc.

regarding cycling, sure there's a huge step up in what people wear or ride, which is just a consequence of market growth. if we in Poland had a tradition of leisure activities like western societies do, it wouldn't be so rapid and often ostentatious. I grew up in the 90's when stuff started to arrive and people would pick up activities previously not availible to the masses (although one might argue they still aren't). they couldn't conceal lack of technical skills, "sport culture" or anything, but they could get the best equipment. and that's still the case here, people too often don't buy what they need, they buy the most expensive stuff they can afford.
kkibbler wrote: WW remembers.

jlok
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by jlok

tmr5555 wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2018 10:43 pm
Is it capitalism looking for new markets?
yes.

an example is to just look at how the industry+media is pushing women cycling. some group of people is trying to create women cycling market by promoting gender equality. based on that you should respect women cycling regardless. pro women riders should get equal salary as men (even though there is far less audience and hence less possible revenue in the money stream). you should watch women cycling not because it is as exciting as watching men racing, just because you should pay respect to the so called equality.
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