You can add bicycles to the short list of products that are flying off shelves--or, in this case, racks--during the coronavirus pandemic.The New York Times reports that bike shops from Brooklyn to Phoenix are selling two to three times the amount of bicycles that they'd normally sell during this time of year, as Americans look for ways to exercise and get from one place to another as recreational activities and public transportation are discouraged. In March, nationwide sales of bicycles, equipment and repair services nearly doubled compared with the same period last year, according to the N.P.D. Group, a market research company. Sales of commuter and fitness bikes in the same month increased 66 percent, leisure bikes jumped 121 percent, children’s bikes went up 59 percent, and electric bikes rose 85 percent. “I have never seen anything remotely approaching this,” says Ryan Zagata, president of Brooklyn Bicycle Company, where sales have soared by more than 600 percent this year compared with the same period in 2019. “If you went into a store three weeks ago, you could find a bike under $1,000. Right now, shelves are bare.”
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