In February last year, Tirath Singh, 43, took his bicycle—a Trek Madone 5.5—to Munnar and set out on a biking trip to Kanyakumari with 10 friends. They covered the distance of about 400km in four days. Later that year, he participated in the qualifiers for Race Across America—a biking ultra-marathon considered to be among the world's toughest—and narrowly missed making it.
Parvinder Singh, 42, head of IT services at Max Life Insurance , biked around Garudtal -Nainital-Mukteshwar , covering about 120km last May. This proud owner of four bikes —a Cannondale Scalpel mountain bike, a Dahon folding bike, a Giant Yukon modified hybrid and a Trek Domane road bike—is planning a trip to Manali later this summer. For Mamils, biking is the new golf .
A growing section in India is turning to bicycles to pursue its passion for fitness and travel. Meet the Indian Mamils aka the Middle-Aged Men in Lycra . Aged between 35 and 45 — a few are pushing 50 — these men are part of an affluent demographic that likes to splurge on fancy bicycles rather than cars and motorbikes . Kitted out in cycling tees, spandex , gloves and helmets, they ride bikes that cost anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 10 lakh. The bikes are fitted with spiffy instruments like GPS and cyclocomputers (a digital speedometer that measures a range of things from speed and distance to altitude and heart rate).
The term Mamil was coined in 2010 when a UK-based market research firm, Mintel, noted the existence of a group of well-off cyclists in a report on the bicycle industry. As the document explained, "Thirty or forty years ago, people would ride a bike for economic reasons, but our research suggests that nowadays a bicycle is more a lifestyle addition, a way of demonstrating how affluent you are."
Such is the bike bromance that the market for imported bikes has opened up over the last 10 years, bringing into India names like Trek, Specialized, Giant, Kona, Schwinn and Bianchi. Before that all one could find were staid old models from native brands like Hero, Atlas, Hercules and Avon.
The Indian bicycle industry, which sells 15.5 million units annually, throws up some interesting statistics. While common bicycles are selling less, the mid-premium and premium segments are growing . According to industry sources, black bicycles accounted for 65% of the total sales in 2007, but this number slipped to 55% in 2011 and is expected to fall further to 45% this year. But sales in the mid-premium segment rose from 34.5% in 2007 to 44% in 2011, and are expected to touch 53% this year. In the premium segment, sales rose from .5% in 2007 to 1% in 2011and is expected to reach 2% this year.
This trend has lured many Indian bicycle manufacturers into the premium and mid-premium segments. Hero and TI Cycles have launched their own upmarket brands, Urban Trends and Montra, respectively . Other Indian manufacturers have tied up with foreign firms to import and distribute their bikes—Atlas with Merida, TI Cycles with Cannondale, Mongoose, GT and Schwinn, and Firefox with Trek.
Though there is no specific demographic data, industry insiders say that a large chunk of the premium bike market is dominated by Mamils. "Based on empirical evidence, I'd say Mamils comprise 65-70 % of the premium bike market," says Pravin Patil, MD and CEO, Sprint Sports Pvt Ltd, a manufacturer of premium bikes and the South Asia region importer and distributer for bicycles made by the Taiwanese company, Giant.
The reason for the trend is not hard to trace: this is a demographic segment with high disposable income and growing fitness concerns. "As a kid, everyone is a cyclist , but as they reach college, most gradually give up cycling and switch to other modes of transport like cars and motorbikes . Fitness concerns too are not that severe in the 20s. But they become important during one's 30s and 40s, which is when a lot of people return to cycling," says Shiv Inder Singh, MD, Firefox Bikes.
For Mamils, cycling is an integral part of their lives. "I find myself stiffening up if I don't ride for long," says Anand Sinha, 44, who works as a senior programme officer with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . He points out that the biking fraternity shares a certain mindset. "They are all outdoor-oriented , care for fitness, the environment , and like discovering new places."
That makes it a great networking sport, like golf. "Biking is the new golf," says Tirath Singh, a chef on the management board of the Delhi-based health food retail chain, Whole Foods. His involvement with Whole Foods was the result of interactions with other bikers in his group who had set up the chain. There is another similarity between avid golfers and cyclists, says Singh. "Just as there are golf widows, there are cycling widows too," he quips.
