At the end of December I generally do a year-end wrap-up with all of our sales data, but since we’re now halfway through the year, it seemed like a good time to check in on some sales trends.
If it’s your first time here, TPC carries more brands and models than any other bike retailer. We sell hundreds of new and Certified Pre-Owned bikes every week. This puts us in a unique position to see how different bikes stack up. Do more people buy road or mountain bikes? How much does the average TPC shopper spend on a bike? What bike models are leaving the competition in the dust? Let’s find out.
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What Was the Most Popular Bike Discipline of 2024 (So Far)?
|
Bike Type |
% of Sales |
|
Road |
32.9% |
|
Mountain |
31.8% |
|
Gravel / Cyclocross |
19.2% |
|
E-Bike Road |
6.5% |
|
E-Bike Mountain |
6.1% |
|
Time Trial / Triathlon |
3.5% |
Last year, mountain bikes outsold road bikes by 10%, but so far this year, things are much closer with road bikes just barely beating out mountain bikes. Why? Well road bikes tend to have the highest sales in the spring when the weather starts to get nice. The race season is already in full swing by March, so cycling fans are already in the road mindset.
Here’s my personal theory — in a lot of popular mountain biking areas, the trails tend to still be wet in the spring, so paved roads might be more appealing. We’re only 6 months in and we might see sales flip in favor of mountain bikes in the later half of the year.
One thing that’s interesting to me is the ~3% growth in gravel bike sales. We’ll see if gravel stays this strong but gravel has been slowly eating into both road and MTB sales over the years. At some point in the near future, I expect the three disciplines to all be fairly close.
Average Selling Price and the Most Expensive Bike (So Far)
- Average Bike Purchase: $3,506
- Most Expensive Bike Sold: $10,999
The average sale price for bikes in the first 6 months of the year is $83 higher than last year. Is that significant? Not really in my mind. That ~$3,500 price-point has been the sweet spot for dedicated cycling enthusiasts for a while. It gets you a nice modern bike that likely won’t need any upgrades to hang with high-end bikes that cost thousands of dollars more.
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The most expensive bike we sold was a 2023 Specialized S-Works Shiv TT for $10,999. TT/tri bikes are a bit of a niche item, and serious TTers and triathletes tend to be willing to drop serious coin for marginal gains in performance. The Shiv is a serious machine though, with a lot of unique aero features that claim to offer big reductions in aero drag, plus lots of clever amenities for storing fuel on long rides.
The Top-Selling Bike Brands of 2024 (So Far)
Overall
- Specialized
- Trek
- Giant
- Cannondale
- Cervelo
Are you surprised by any of the brands in the top 5 here? I’m not. The only big change since 2023 is that Orbea dropped to 6th, and it’s been replaced in the top 5 by Cervelo, which jumped up from 7th. 3rd-5th place are extremely close and Orbea would have beaten Cervelo if we’d sold just a few more!
Top Road Brands
- Specialized
- Trek
- Cervelo
- Giant
- Cannondale
Again, no surprises here. It’s all the same top five from last year. However, the top two brands, Specialized and Trek, have swapped places since the end of last year. Is this some shocking coup? No. The two big dogs in the road bike market are regularly swapping places throughout the year.
Top MTB Brands
- Specialized
- Trek
- Santa Cruz
- Yeti
- Pivot
Santa Cruz and Yeti have each moved up a place, and Pivot has displaced Orbea. It is cool to see 3 “core” MTB brands (brands whose core focus is mountain bikes rather than drop-bar bikes) in the top 5. Again, Orbea is out of the top bike, but it’s super close.
Top Gravel/CX Brands
- Specialized
- Trek
- Cannondale
- Kona
- Bianchi/Cervelo
4th and 5th place are the real shockers here. Or maybe it’s not shocking at all. Kona (who recently went bust and was bought by the founders) and Bianchi bikes have been heavily discounted this year, so savvy buyers have been scooping them up by the fistful. Cervelo tying with Bianchi is also surprising since it only has one model (the Aspero) which comes in at a much higher price point. People seem to really want Cervelos this year!
Top TT/Tri Brands
- Cervelo
- Quintana Roo
- Felt
- Trek
- Argon 18
Speaking of Cervelo, it’s still our most dominant TT/tri brand, followed very closely by Quintana Roo and Felt. As I said last year, TT/Tri is the one category at TPC where the big brands can never get a stranglehold on the top 5. Triathletes are often much more willing to branch out and try different things!
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Best-Selling Road Bikes of 2024 (So Far)
- Specialized Tarmac
- Trek Domane
- Specialized Roubaix
- Trek Emonda
- Giant TCR Advanced
The Tarmac and Domane are always locked in battle. Last year, the Domane came out on top, but so far this year, the Tarmac is leading. The introduction of the updated Tarmac SL8 definitely helped. Not only is that bike in high demand, but it caused a lot of Tarmac SL7s to enter the used market. Tarmac SL7s are still highly desirable and never last long on our site.
Best-Selling Mountain Bikes of 2024 (So Far)
- Specialized Stumpjumper
- Specialized Epic / Epic EVO
- Trek Fuel EX
- Giant Trance
- Trek Top Fuel
Things here still look more or less the same, but a new model has entered the top 5 — the Giant Trance. I actually bought my wife one. It’s one of the most versatile trail bikes around. We’ve used it for everything from XC marathon races to weekends at the downhill bike park.
Best-Selling Gravel/CX Bikes of 2024 (So Far)
- Specialized Diverge
- Trek Checkpoint SL/SLR
- Kona Libre
- Cannondale Topstone Carbon
- Bianchi Arcadex
Remember the discounted Konas and Bianchis I mentioned earlier? The two big sellers were the Kona Libre and Bianchi Arcadex. They leapfrogged many other bikes to enter the top 5. I have my doubts that they’ll still be there at the end of the year though since we’ve sold through pretty much all of them.
Best-Selling TT/Tri Bikes of 2024 (So Far)
- Trek Speed Concept
- Cervelo P3
- Quintana Roo PRfive
- Argon 18 E-117
- Specialized Shiv
These bikes are all super close. Seriously, the difference in sales between each model is only a few bikes. I really have no clue how this list might look at the end of the year. That said, the Cervelo P3 is generally our strongest seller, so I’d bet that it will take the top spot by December.
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