The situation in the Indian bicycle industry for the last few months has been like the proverbial quote of water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

The pandemic resulted in an unprecedented global demand for bicycles and India was not spared from this fortunate deluge. Suddenly everyone is riding in our cities, pop up bike lanes have, well, “popped up”, social media has created local cycling ambassadors and cycling is emerging as an urban counterculture.

This article though, is not about demand for bicycles but about their supply, or rather the lack of it, and how perhaps to some extent exemplifies our woes as a manufacturing nation. Unprecedented demand has led to acute supply side challenges. Retailers have run out of stock, imports are constrained and consumers have been waiting to get a bicycle of their choice for months. Global brands are coping with sudden demand led production ramp up and their supply lines are understandably skewed in favor of their home and traditional markets. Production itself has not been smooth as Covid-19 has complicated the manufacturing ecosystem. Add to that a unique situation for us in India where port restrictions for all things Chinese have slowed down release of containers that have landed.

But why should we as a country be faced with this situation? Surely, we should have been able to satisfy our domestic demand locally. We manufacture close to 18 million units annually. One of the largest numbers anywhere. But that’s where the Indian bicycle manufacturing story begins and ends and perhaps even reflects the muddled state of our manufacturing priorities.

Majority of bicycles manufactured in India till recently, close to 80%, are the single speed black roadsters or their touched-up variations. The steel framed “Doodhwallah” type with spring loaded saddle and a century old handlebar design that knocks at your knee. Historically, in rural India and even in early working-class cities black roadsters were the mobility choice of masses. Pune was even called a city of cycles! The Roadsters iconography was even adopted by a political party as its election symbol.

Society moved on, needs morphed, aspirations evolved, and Indian masses switched their mobility preference to other modes. The black roadster though remained mired in slush puddles of village roads of 60’ & 70’s and so did our bicycle industry.

Globally the bicycle sped along to create a multi-billion-dollar industry straddling sport recreation and leisure. While brands from Europe and US are market leaders, China and Taiwan have emerged as manufacturing hubs. The latter is in fact acknowledged as the bike design and manufacturing capital of the world. Steel frames have transitioned to advanced alloys and carbon composites, advanced bionics go into design and components use cutting edge precision engineering. Bicycle sporting events like Le Tour and Giro match viewership of golf, tennis and cricket. There are bikes of every kind to suit every kind of need. Road bikes, hybrids, MTB’s and folding bikes for sport, leisure or commute and everyone is riding.

But there are no takers for the black roadster or a low-quality steel frame. And that’s where the root of the problem lies for India. A lopsided demand-supply equation.

But why did we remain stuck in the past? Afterall leading Indian cycling companies are not small and short of resources. Hero and TI Cycles belong to groups with market cap exceeding USD 5 Billion. Even the Tata’s manufacture bikes. There is even a thriving component cluster in Ludhiana. They could have easily pivoted. So why did they not? The primary reason is a mix of the state’s socialist priorities and the inadequate inspiration to excel amongst manufacturers.

Cycles were a favorite giveaway in most state government’s social schemes. Free bicycles for the school going child, especially girl child, was and still remains a popular scheme. These schemes accounted for a large share of production of cycling companies that were awarded tendered contracts. The schemes were even conveniently structured in a manner that orders were assured year after year and no incumbent government would dare to reverse it for the fear of populist backlash. Cycle companies were thus assured of a continuous fodder for their production lines.

Business was attractive in more ways than one. Not only did the state assure demand, these companies even got prime industrial land, soft finance from public sector banks, NPA write offs etc. But when you get accustomed to public contracts with no free market pressure, innovation and quality takes an obvious back seat as producing lowest quality for cheapest price becomes an annual routine. That’s precisely the malady which gripped the industry.

An inspired vision amongst promoters could have launched the industry into an innovation orbit, but most preferred mediocrity in an environment of socio-populist comfort. While they prospered, acquired real estate, expanded and diversified their business’ none thought of putting a winning Indian product or a team on the world racing circuit that would set a manufacturing benchmark for the country. Or even coming up with some innovative component. After all a bicycle is not a particle accelerator or a rocket launcher! Even an honest desire to give a product of highest quality to that girl child laboring on a steel frame could have led to product innovation! Clearly inspiration was missing.

This cocktail of socio-populist comfort and vision myopia did not put pressure even on the upstream and allied ecosystem. We have marquee steel corporations, but one still cannot get a special steel alloy tubing at competitive production scale. Ditto for high quality components. It may surprise many, but we still don’t make bicycle tires of a high quality!

Promoters may take umbrage at being accused of vision myopia and blame the “system”, but the reality is that if they could manage to prosper and grow in the same “system” what stopped them from producing a world class product that could have done India proud.

Lately, it is sad to see large bicycle companies transition from robust manufacturing to a questionable future in trading. A reputed manufacturer pulled back after an unsuccessful attempt to be a distributor of global bicycle brands. Some are getting into disingenuous assembly arrangements under bilateral FTA’ and then there are others who are buying small units in Europe. You can’t buy innovation. You have BE innovative. And that is a function of inspiration not commerce. Such fickle academic window dressing strategies mean little. There should be a visionary desire to showcase best in class manufacturing ingenuity to the world.

And what should the government do? To be fair it has done a lot for these large companies. After all, in a free market system, state can help kick start, but the enterprise has to eventually sustain and even pay back. It can’t be constantly asking for sops. And these are big companies that can and should take on the responsibility. If at all, the state or even VC’s should support small bicycle manufacturing startups instead. Genuine innovation hot shops. Help them solicit support from steel and component industry. Facilitate a bicycle park on the lines of textiles perhaps with SEZ like policies and exemptions for DTA sales with low GST. There is little point of high duty on super premium imported brands retailing above Rs. One Lakh. Who are we protecting, the Black Roadster?

If at one end of our nation’s manufacturing spectrum is ISRO at its other end should be the pride of producing a world beating bicycle. There is a silver lining with the recent focus on manufacturing, atmanirbharta and vocal for local. Hopefully it will motivate some to excel.

Till that happens a Contador or a Geoghagen powering a trail on an Indian manufactured bike will remain a dream.

#GetOutAndRide.