Another 12 months have flown by and once again it’s time to look back at the past year on Bike Hub.
2021 gave us some glimpses of normality, with many more cycling events taking place, albeit on a compressed schedule. And while constrained supply fell short of the demand for new cycling gear, many consumers and retailers looked to the second hand market as a supplementary channel.
The heightened relevance of pre-owned is reflected in our numbers with a record R720 million in stock value listed in 2021 and over R246 million in recorded sales*.
Here’s a look back at 2021 on Bike Hub by the numbers.
Website stats – Headline activity
While more pages were viewed and more time spent on Bike Hub in 2021, we did see a decline in the number of unique users visiting the site. Although South African user numbers remained steady year-on-year, we had considerably fewer International visitors finding Bike Hub via search engines.
Unique visitors
1 771 953
-15.83%
Pageviews
52 413 996
+1.02%
Sessions
7 035 138
-4.15%
Average visit mins.
06:45
+1.47%
South African User Split
- 46.27% Gauteng
- 35.66% Western Cape
- 8.76% KwaZulu-Natal
- 3.28% Eastern Cape
- 1.41% Mpumalanga
- 1.30% Free State
- 1.12% North West
- 1.01% Limpopo
- 0.36% Northern Cape
International User Split
- 57.78% South Africa
- 10.33% United States
- 4.41% United Kingdom
- 2.25% Australia
- 1.69% Canada
- 1.45% Philippines
- 1.32% Germany
- 1.24% Netherlands
- 0.97% Italy
- 0.93% France
Member stats
New Members (2021)
18 774
Total Members (All time)
167 112
+12.66%
Gender Breakdown
69.96% Male
30.04% Female
Top 20 articles of 2021 – at #8 was SRAM’s announcement of the trickle-down of AXS wireless shifting to the GX Eagle groupset.
Classifieds Activity
Adverts listed
69 051
+18.06%
Leads Generated
203 444
+2.25%
Advert Views
19 967 068
+17.64%
Avg. value – All Categories
R 10 482.15
-8.09%
Avg. value – Mountain Bikes
R 25 052.29
+12.28%
Avg. value – Road Bikes
R 21 438.60
+5.74%
Listings and Sales Figures
Total Listings Value
R 723 802 939
+15.74%
Recorded Sales Value*
R 246 179 144
+61.52%
*Recorded Sales Value: This figure is based on user reported sales data and likely under-represents the true sales figure. 38% of ads created in the period were actively reported by the seller as having been sold. A further 37% of ads were removed by the seller and 24% expired after 30 days without any feedback from the seller.
Bike Hub Pay
At the end of 2020 we launched Bike Hub Pay, a secure payment service which protects buyers and sellers. In 2021 we helped over 1800 buyers and sellers to trade safely with over R8.5 million in successful deal value.
With usage of the service growing month-on-month and a steady stream of glowing reviews we hope to enable many more safe deals in 2022.
Top 20 articles of 2021 -The most viewed article of 2021 was the announcement of the new Scott Spark sporting integrated suspension.
Search rankings – Most searched bike brands
Specialized maintained its long run at the top of the podium with more than double the searches of their closest rival. The remaining four places on the search podium saw the same names with a slight mix up for 2021.
Scott and Trek both moved up a place to second and third respectively, while Giant dropped from second to fourth place and Cannondale held its spot in fifth.
- Specialized – 23.62% (23.42%)
- Scott – 10.69% (10.11%)
- Trek – 9.68% (8.15%)
- Giant – 9.64% (10.30%)
- Cannondale – 7.84% (8.09%)
- Santa Cruz – 4.04% (4.50%)
- Merida – 4.01% (3.95%)
- Bianchi – 3.91% (3.59%)
- Pyga – 3.23% (3.39%)
- Titan – 2.73% ( 2.39%)
- Silverback – 2.48% (2.53%)
- Colnago – 1.63% (1.57%)
- Pinarello – 1.52% (1.47%)
- Momsen – 1.52% (2.00%)
- Canyon – 1.40% (1.56%)
(2020 figure listed in brackets)
Top 20 articles of 2021 – Giant introduced an all-new Anthem with FlexPoint suspension. Pictured here at the 2021 Absa Cape Epic, a thread that came in 4th in our most viewed forum topics for 2021.
Advert breakdown
Ads by Location
- Western Cape – 43.73%
- Gauteng – 38.90%
- KwaZulu-Natal – 8.27%
- Eastern Cape – 3.38%
- Mpumalanga – 1.42%
- North West – 1.68%
- Freestate – 1.68%
- Limpopo – 0.41%
- Northern Cape – 0.40%
-
International – 0.07%
Ads by Category
-
Bikes – 33.17%
- Mountain bikes – 18.3%
- Road bikes – 9.63%
- Components – 28.07%
- Accessories – 13.86%
- Clothing & Apparel – 10.72%
- Wheels & Tyres – 8.56%
- Frames – 2.88%
- Entries & Services – 1.67%
- Electric Bikes – 1.07%
Top 20 Articles
Most viewed articles published in 2021
- Scott launch a bold new Spark RC and Spark 900
- Canyon discontinues direct sales to South African market
- Photo Story: Cross Cape – Plettenberg Bay to Stellenbosch
- Darkhorse Wheels launches Darkhorse Bikes division with its flagship bike, the Eclipse
- Honey: Custom Creations Born Out of Lockdown
- Santa Cruz release all-new Blur
- Giant announce new lighter Anthem with FlexPoint suspension
- SRAM bring AXS wireless ecosystem to GX Eagle drivetrain
- Specialized opens Experience Centre on Blaauwklippen Wine Estate
- Titan Racing – Vanquish
- Tankwa Trek 2021 Cancelled
- Alan Hatherly and Simon Andreassen join Cannondale Factory Racing
- Riding the Cross Cape route: tips for your 7 day ride plan
- Rapidé introduces Tigré steel MTB hardtail
- Specialized level-up the Levo with new geometry, firmware and a haircut
- Cape Town Cycle Tour launch virtual tour and charity challenge in March
- PureMotion Sports Takes Over Distribution of Lake Shoes
- First look at the Canyon Grizl adventure gravel bike
- Alan Hatherly claims podium in Les Gets World Cup
-
Photo Story: 500km unsupported around the Garden Route
Top 20 articles of 2021 – In March 2021, Rae Trew-Browne went to a solo mission to discover what the 750km Cross Cape route has to offer – Photo Story: Cross Cape – Plettenberg Bay to Stellenbosch.
Forum Activity
Overall forum activity saw significant declines in replies and new topics, largely due to a decision made in the first half of 2021 which reduced the scope of non-cycling discussion on the platform.
As anticipated, cutting controversial non-cycling debate lead to a significant drop in comment numbers. From a qualitative perspective this is a drop in numbers we welcome. Amid a digital industry fuelled by outrage and vanity metrics, in this context, quality is certainly better than quantity.
New topics
2 550
-20.83%
Replies
85 119
-45.87%
Topic views
3 152 063
-23.72%
Top 10 Most Viewed Topics(Created in the 2021 period)
- Tokyo Olympics 2020 – Cycling – 73,356 views
- 947 Ride Joburg – 56,798 views
- Giro d’ Italia 2021 – 54,055 views
- Absa Cape Epic 2021 thread – 48,561 views
- Munga 2021 – 37,114 views
- Motorists vs Cyclists…. again – 36,323 views
- Fraud Charges Against “Cycle Tour Operator” – 29,256 views
- Double Century 2021 – 28,489 views
- Cape Town Cycle Tour 2022 – 27,962 views
- Am I being unreasonable here? – 26,025 views
Top 10 Most Replied-to Topics
- Petition: Bring Back the Classifieds Comments – 4,991 comments
- Where has your bike taken you today? – 4,179 comments
- Tour de France 2021 – 2,724 comments
- Cape Town Cycle Tour 2021 – 11,811 comments
- Tokyo Olympics 2020 – Cycling – 1,139 comments
- The Classics – 1,057 comments
- Giro d’ Italia 2021 – 918 comments
- Boast about your latest purchases here… – 912 comments
- Cyclists with a “Running” Problem – 747 comments
- 947 Ride Joburg – 714 comments
Topic starters
- OVERDRIVE – 40 topics
- Styvie – 20 topics
- Bundu Ric, Steady Spin – 18 topics
- ouzo – 17 topics
- Zebra – 16 topics
- Mojoman – 15 topics
- Mike Mac, love2fly – 14 topics
- mecheng89 – 13 topics
- RomP – 11 topics
- Jaco Greef, MudLark, Sampaj, lechatnoir – 10 topics
Top Posters
- DieselnDust – 2,346 posts
- Hairy – 1,988 posts
- ChrisF – 1,829 posts
- ‘Dale – 1,594 posts
- Frosty – 1,320 posts
- Jewbacca – 1,294 posts
- TNT1 – 1,210 posts
- ouzo – 1,209 posts
- Mountain Bru – 1,044 posts
- TheoG – 1,029 posts
Whether you bought or sold in the Classifieds, read articles or discussions, added your two cents or started a conversation on Bike Hub in 2021 – thank you!
I was sweating, in case the threshold limit was 10 😉