“The bike industry is collapsing!” is probably the impression you’d come away with, if you believed everything you heard on the internet. However, a little like Chicken Licken (who, in the popular children’s folk tale, believed the sky was falling down after an acorn fell on his head), you’d be believing something of an over exaggeration. Interestingly, most of these over-exaggerations appear to come from individuals who don’t actually work in the cycling industry.
What does worry me is that some of this content - often found within sensationalised videos designed to win the YouTube algorithm - may have the power to self-perpetuate. A little like the toilet paper hoarding during the pandemic, when every roll sold out, for no apparent reason beyond fear-mongering.
