Veteran bicycle maker gets smart

Fan Fengqiang, a 26-year-old in Beijing who owns a garment store, recently bought the Buzzard, a smart sports bicycle for 5,999 yuan ($900; 812 euros). The made-in-China Buzzard is so smart that Fan now uses it not only for exercise, but also to commute to work.

The bike, made by Tianjin Flying Pigeon Co Ltd in collaboration with LeSports, has a number of built-in intelligent devices that monitor, in real-time, not only his speed, but also blood pressure, heart rate, calorie consumption and other aspects.

"LeSports provides the smart functions' design while the 80-year-old Tianjin Flying Pigeon incorporates them in the bike," says Li Dalong, vice-president of LeSports.

The companies predict there is an ample market for the concept.

According to the Shanghai University of Sport, there were 6 million sports bike enthusiasts in China by the end of 2015. The number of sports bike users has grown 20 percent just this year, according to data from AliCloud, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Users of sports bikes priced at more than 5,000 yuan have increased by 10 percent.

"Some friends ask about it the first time they see it. Then, after knowing its smart functions, they say they want to buy one. Strangers always strike up a conversation with me about it when I stop at a red light on roads," Fan says.

Such bikes have attracted the attention of even Premier Li Keqiang. He visited an outlet of Flying Pigeon in Tianjin during the Summer Davos Forum in June.

The premier test-rode a top-end smart bike. Impressed by its design and features, he assured support for global promotion of such Chinese products.

Zhang Jinying, president of the company, says Flying Pigeon has been through three critical phases in its evolution into a top-end bicycle manufacturer.

As an industry veteran who has been with the company since 1986, she has seen them all. The first phase was in the 1990s, when China sped up its economic reform toward building a market-oriented economy, she says.

The second phase started in 2013 when the company established a bicycle industry park in Jinghai district of Tianjin. Advanced production equipment and a professional team helped the company to upgrade its technology and management.

"The third phase began with our cooperation with LeSports to produce the Buzzard series. Smart bikes are viewed as an industry benchmark, and helped create for Flying Pigeon a new brand image as an intelligent bike producer. That is a big transformation for the old brand," Zhang says.

Flying Pigeon has more than 2,000 employees and produces more than 2 million bikes a year. It now has three main categories: classic models, retro models and smart bikes. They build nearly 200 designs.

"The big data we accumulate helps us to customize the smart bikes. We'll use consumer feedback and consider making mini smart bikes to meet female riders' needs, mountain smart bikes and road smart bikes, and so on," Zhang says.

The Buzzard's market debut was in August 2015. Since then, it has inspired copycats to produce similar products, yet Li of LeSports is confident the company's products will prevail.

"We established a riding community with a built-in system called Bike OS and a smartphone app. It's our core competence. It's possible to make a bike, but it's difficult to build a bike-riding ecosystem," he says.

"Our smart bikes are tapping into overseas markets this year. We're building sales networks in North America, the European Union, Japan and South Korea. Foreign customers will be able to buy the bike soon on our overseas online shopping site, LeMall."

peipei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/12/2016 page27)