Motorcycle popularity begins to accelerate

A father and his son both take part in motorcycle training in Beijing in May. (WEI XIAOHAO/CHINA DAILY)

Starting as better commuting option, two-wheeled conveyances now becoming passion for many people

Li Dezhi, 38, is a CEO by day and a motorcycle enthusiast at night. The exhilarating sound of the engine, he said, frees him from the pressure of work and everything else.

"My mind is stimulated the moment I squeeze the clutch. Although I may be riding on the East Fourth Ring Road in Chaoyang district, I'm dreaming of riding on dirt across mountains and deserts," he said.

Li isn't the only one who rides to help slake their thirst to be in the countryside, especially since long-distance travel has been curtailed for months for city dwellers due to the resurgences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of people who ride motorcycles for commuting and entertainment has been expanding. That, plus the surging popularity of food delivery, has provided an impetus for the rise of the motorcycle industry.

In Beijing, there were 120,028 people who applied for a motorcycle driver's license in the first half of the year, accounting for about 45 percent of all driver's license applicants, according to State broadcaster China Central Television.

Nationally, 5.34 million motorcycles were newly registered for use in the first half of this year, an increase of 1.08 million or 25.38 percent compared with the number of the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

The increasing popularity of motorcycles has also spurred business opportunities in sectors like apparel, accessories and sporting clubs. A report by Shenzhen, Guangdong province-based research institute Zero Power Intelligence Group said that the trend helped support a $20 billion domestic market last year, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the world's total.

"The first impression I had of motorcycle riding was that it's convenient for commuting," said 28-year-old Beijing resident Wu Zhao.

Wu said he was motivated to switch from cars to motorcycles by the surge in gas prices in the spring. "It also makes it easier and cheaper to park in Beijing — such a crowded city."

Another Beijing resident, Liu Yifan, 32, said riding a motorcycle is beneficial in many other ways.

"Commuting to work takes me about three hours by subway per day. It's quite difficult to get a vehicle registration plate for a car in Beijing — I have applied for more than five years yet still can't get one. Electric bikes need to be charged frequently to cover the distance I need to go. Motorcycles turned out to be an ideal substitute," Liu said.

After a month, Liu said she came to think of motorcycle riding as a sport. "Riding on a replica racing motorcycle gives me a mixed feeling of exhilaration and fear, but also relaxation, which helps me to deal with work and the pressures of life, especially when faced with a COVID-19 resurgence."

Many people like Liu who took up motorcycles as a convenient method of transportation during the pandemic also discovered that their two wheels provided a release for their urge to go to wild, untamed areas. In 2020, the first year of the spread of COVID-19, the number of newly registered motorcycles surged 43 percent annually to 8.26 million. That number grew 21.67 percent year-on-year to 10 million last year, said the Ministry of Public Security.

On social media platforms, topics related to motorcycles have become a new way to drive traffic. On Xiaohongshu alone, there were more than 850,000 motorcycle-related posts as of late November. The total number of views of motorcycle-related videos on short-video platform Douyin reached 69 billion by late November.

Liu said the looks of a motorcycle rider are also important. She said people click and comment when she posts pictures of the outfit she wears when riding.

"It can be expensive. I buy two or three leather coats a year, with each running about 3,000 yuan ($430), several pairs of trousers that each cost around 1,000 yuan, several hundred for gloves and over 1,000 yuan for a helmet. Spending on this hobby can add up to tens of thousands of yuan a year," she said.

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Motorcycle enthusiasts show their riding skills during an international motorcycle trade expo in Chongqing in November. CHEN CHAO/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

Even spending on small things can add up. The market for helmets in China is expected to reach about 2 billion yuan by the end of this year, according to Market Monitor, a consulting firm in Changsha, Hunan province.

Li, CEO and head of a sports accessory business and an outdoor adventure veteran, is planning a new line to sell off-road motoring equipment to tap another growing market.

He now runs a company called Aosheng Extreme Distributor, which carries equipment for skiing and other sports.

"I started the business selling ski equipment two decades ago. At that time, the sport was not as well known, so our customer base was just a few hundred skiers in Beijing. But now, we are selling to numerous buyers and about 90 distributors across the country," Li said.

"The motorcycle sector is about to take off. We want to grab the opportunity and are confident about our prospects," he added.

An Fuxiu, founder of Sportbank, a Beijing-based sports industry think tank, said the growing popularity of motorcycles has helped many types of business such as training, apparel and accessories, competition organizations and outdoor activities such as mountain motorcycling.

According to online retailer JD, the motorcycle category saw a better-than-expected performance in this year's 618 shopping event, the largest mid-year shopping festival in China, with motorcycle sales increasing 106 percent year-on-year, helmets up 202 percent and other motorcycle equipment up 280 percent.

"Some fans want to modify their motorcycles. Those who like retro styles might replace the light and handles, those who pursue individuality may change their motorcycles' color and those who care more about the machine's configurations will increase the displacement, etc. Other modifications to motorcycles are also spurring a market," Liu said.

There is much more to spend money on. Liu said she had just parted with some 300,000 yuan to buy a motorcycle plate with a number preceded by "Jing A".

"Beijing's motorcycle license plates are divided into two types: numbers starting with Jing A and those starting with Jing B. Only motorcycles with the Jing A plate can be ridden throughout the city (except for roads such as the Chang'an Avenue and its extension), but issuance of that plate has long since been halted. So now, Jing A motorcycle license plates are traded for a high price," Liu said.

There were over 1.4 million companies whose businesses are related to motorcycling as of early September, according to Qichacha, a corporate information provider. There were 148,000 new registrations of motorcycle-related companies in the first half of 2022, up 52.6 percent year-on-year.

"The motorcycle sporting sector presents good development opportunities. But in order to achieve long-term development, more efforts are needed to create a relatively mature industry system. Government support will also promote the industry's development," An said.

In October, a new development plan on outdoor activities called for improving motorcycle road trip routes and camping services in designated areas. The plan was a joint effort of the General Administration of Sport, six other national-level departments and China State Railway Group Co Ltd.

"We are likely to see an increasing number of motorcycle competitions and clubs," An said.

"The downstream motorcycle parts manufacturing industry will move to greener and more energy-efficient production. There is also a growing chance we'll see motorcycle riding combine with other outdoor activities such as mountaineering, camping and tourism — even e-sports and virtual reality," An said.

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