Most of us the day the training wheels came off: learning to balance our weight on two tyres as we propelled ourselves forward, out of the driveway and onto the street. That shared experience was, for more than a hundred years, a very local story: bicycles were once almost exclusively manufactured, assembled and sold within an individual country, perhaps within a single region.

Take the UK, 50 years ago – when bottom brackets, cranksets, sprockets, handlebars, shifters, dustcaps and gussets might have all come from a single factory in Nottingham. They would often be sold in a shop nearby and ridden perhaps no further than a few miles from home.

Today, that picture is very, very different. The process of producing a typical bicycle has been divided up and shared out among workers and craftspeople from Asia to Europe. In doing so, this once small-scale trade has become a highly integrated feat of international collaboration.

The result is a global industry worth $45bn (£36bn), with more than 100 million bicycles produced in the world each year. And the bicycle industry confers benefits beyond isolated fields like transport or environmental policy: industrial design, employment, health and social policy all get a boost from bicycle production.

Bikes are used every day and on every inhabited continent, in the most affluent nations as well as developing countries. Even in today’s high-tech age, their production outpaces that of cars or computers. As pollution rises and the cost of fossil fuels continues to climb, cycling is often the most flexible and sustainable method of transport.

From aptly named “boneshakers”, to penny-farthings, to low-slung recumbent bikes, this centuries-old invention is, in many ways, the vehicle of the future.

Getting people on bikes depends on more than just growth in manufacturing and the availability of bikes. A culture of cycling and urban planning that welcomes bike s is also essential. Hence, the non-profit BYCS launched its “bicycle mayors” scheme, aiming to connect cyclists, city councils and urban planners in major cities around the world.

Firoza Suresh is the first bicycle mayor of Mumbai, a city well known for its hectic and relentless traffic. But Suresh is used to challenges; at college, she was the only girl who travelled in on a bicycle. “We didn’t have a bicycle stand in my college,” she says. But Suresh’s enthusiasm soon caught on among her peers, and the college had to adapt. “Because so many people started cycling then the college decided they needed a cycle stand.”

Today, much of Suresh’s work as bicycle mayor depends on cooperation between government officials to establish and maintain public services such as bike lanes, bike shares, and road safety signage. Her initiative, Smart Commute, aims to get half the city’s population to commute to work by bicycle by 2030.

“Policy plays a huge role in bike safety and whether or not people will choose to bike,” says Morgan Lommele, director of state policy at People for Bikes, an industry coalition based in Colorado, US. “Cycling takes place on public property, so cyclists need a better relationship with mayors and public officials.”

Despite the ubiquity of bicycles, many cities simply aren’t equipped with the infrastructure to encourage cycling. That may be changing: Lommele’s organisation works to improve road safety, while bike-share programmes in cities like Chicago and Mexico City help people make connections between public transport and their end destinations.

Another way to the dots across the urban landscape is to change the design of the bike itself. A niche market has developed in portable cycles, dominated by the Brompton bike. This folding two-wheeler effectively turns into a briefcase: dubbed the “Swiss Army knife of bicycles”, commuters can take their Brompton on the train or in the back of a cab, and store it under their desk at work.

“There’s nothing normal about a Brompton,” says Butler-Adams. “Every part is unique.” The company designed all 1,200 parts that make up its signature product – including the wheels, brake calipers and the robust mechanisms which transform this machine into a pocket bicycle.

Marketed as a top-end commuter bike, the Brompton is exported to 47 countries. But a bicycle that costs anywhere from $800-3,500 (£640-2,800) will always be a luxury good. When it comes to the two billion bikes currently in use around the world, many are freewheel, single-speed workhorses built to carry out essential daily activities: food delivery, rides to school, work or hospitals.

The supply chain to create bicycles might have dispersed around the world, but the overall nature of the bicycle itself has remained virtually unchanged for the past 100 years. Sure, a triathalon model might be equipped with “wind-cheating” technology, a BMX road bike might have stainless steel chainstays and special tyre treads, but the average two-wheeler looks – and functions – much the same way as it has for decades. That is, up until the advent of the e-bike.

An electric bicycle still requires peddling, but riders get assistance from a small, battery-powered motor. What the iPhone was to cell phones, the e-bike may be to the bicycle industry. It promises an alternative to emission-spewing vehicles, a means to encourage new ridership, and a way to revolutionise cities. The e-bike can travel up to 45km/h (28mph) potentially replacing fossil-fuel-powered mopeds and motorcycles, with implications not just for recreation but possibly even the daily commute as well.

“I do see a shift in transportation cycling thanks to e-bikes,” says People for Bikes’ Lommele. “The e-bike market is growing 75% each year, and those are mostly new riders.”

That shift correlates to a reduction in carbon emissions, an increase in the proportion of people cycling in the world’s biggest cities, and ultimately could go a long way to fulfilling ambitious sustainability goals. “These grand ambitions put the bicycle industry at the core of sustainable development,” says van Schaik.

According to a report by Markets and Markets, the global e-bike market was estimated at $21.1bn (£16.9bn) in 2018 and projected to reach $38.6bn (£30.9bn) by 2025. “In two of Europe’s main markets, and the Netherlands, e-bikes have been embraced by the consumer,” says van Schaik. “Sales increased spectacularly in 2018.”

The bicycle is arguably the most versatile vehicle out there: flexible, cheap, low-carbon and healthy. If cycling were seen as essential to city design, it could improve safety and sustainability for cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Forward-thinking urban planners and policymakers are already recognising cycling as a serious mode of transportation, on par with buses and cars.

In the future that might mean sensors that gather data on conditions of urban bike paths and the most heavily-used routes become commonplace, along with improved helmet design and smart street signs for cyclists at intersections.

If people like cycle mayor Suresh get their way, zipping past the heavy traffic of a metropolis like Mumbai might actually be as easy as, well, riding a bike.


Image credits: Lion TV, Getty Images

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The world’s trading routes have been crafted over centuries and yet remain in a constant state of flux. Made on Earth looks at eight everyday products – from bicycles to whisky, spices to semiconductors – and explores the people, countries and intricate global networks that go into making and bringing these goods to market.