The Bike Hub marketplace processed over 47,000 enquiries in Q1 2026, up 2% year-on-year and 4.3% on the previous quarter. Gravel continues its remarkable growth run, and Bike Hub Pay hit a new quarterly record with 989 completed deals. Here’s the full breakdown.
A note on methodology: Enquiries represent total responses to ads on the Bike Hub marketplace. They are not a direct measure of sales, but internal data shows that sale volumes track closely with enquiry trends year-on-year, giving us confidence that enquiries are a reliable indicator of demand.
Enquiries Hold Steady with Year-on-Year Growth
Growth is modest but consistent, continuing a positive trajectory we’ve been tracking for several quarters.
For anyone selling on the platform, the key takeaway is that buyer activity remains healthy and growing, even against a tough economic backdrop.
Enquiries by Bicycle Category
Category share offers a recent view of what buyers are actively looking for and how demand shifts with the seasons.
In Q1 2026:
- Dual suspension mountain bikes remain the dominant category at 34.1% of all bike enquiries. Dual sus share tends to increase in Q2 as road bike demand eases off seasonally.
- Road bikes rose to 27%, consistent with peak summer season.
- Gravel bikes continued to climb, reaching 7.7% of enquiries, their highest recorded share to date.
- E-bike enquiries remained steady at 6%.
Gravel Gains Ground
Gravel bikes continue to be the standout growth story on Bike Hub. Total gravel enquiries reached 1,669 in Q1 2026: up 39.2% year-on-year from Q1 2025. To put this trajectory in perspective: Q1 2022 saw just 843 gravel enquiries. In four years, that figure has nearly doubled.
The Western Cape continues to lead the category by a significant margin, accounting for the largest share of enquiries at 809, 48.5% of the national total. As we head into gravel event season in the Western Cape this is likely to remain consistent.
Dual Suspension Holds Steady
Dual suspension mountain bikes remain the dominant category on Bike Hub, and Q1 2026 tells a story of steady demand rather than dramatic growth. Enquiries are up 4.8% year-on-year from Q1 2025 and 1.5% on the previous quarter, figures that reflect a mature, stable segment.
At 34.1% of all bike enquiries, this is the marketplace’s bread-and-butter segment, and demand remains consistent.
Road Bikes Show Seasonal Consistency
Road bike enquiries show clear, predictable seasonal patterns. Q1 2026 enquiries grew 2% year-on-year and 12% on the previous quarter. Q1 is consistently the peak quarter for road bikes, driven by the summer riding season.
The price band data tells an important story about where demand sits:
- 26.9% of enquires fall into the R25k–R50k price bracket.
- 57.5% of enquiries in the sub-R25k price range.
Q1 is consistently the strongest quarter for road bike demand, and the bulk of that demand is concentrated below R50k. For sellers this is worth noting: Q1 is your window to capitalise on the annual surge in buyer intent.
E-Bikes Settle
E-Bike enquiries are up 10% year-on-year in Q1 and are down 16.9% on the peak in Q4 2025.
The Q4 spike is likely seasonal: Black Friday, Christmas, and year-end bonus spending naturally inflate big-ticket categories, and with 49% of e-bike enquiries in the R50k-R100k range, buyers tend to time these purchases accordingly.
The 10% year-on-year growth suggests the e-bike market is settling into a steady level of demand.
Hardtail Mountain Bikes Dip
Hardtail mountain bike enquiries came in at 3,420 in Q1 2026, down 2.6% year-on-year and 13.9% on Q4 2025. A small decline, but worth keeping an eye on. The most likely explanation is a gradual squeeze from two directions: gravel bikes pulling away adventure-oriented buyers at the entry level, and increasingly affordable dual-suspension bikes attracting riders who might previously have started on a hardtail.
Over 96% of enquiries are in the under R25k price bracket, confirming that these are almost entirely entry-level purchases.
Bike Hub Pay Hits a New Record
Since launching in Q4 2020 with just 17 transactions, Bike Hub Pay has grown to process 986 deals worth R6.9 million in Q1 2026 alone. That’s nearly 58 times the original volume in just five years, and 30.3% year-on-year growth in deal count from Q1 2025.
The average deal value declined to R6,985 in Q1 2026, down from R8,927 in Q4 2025. Rather than a softening of the market, this reflects a broadening of adoption. Components and accessories now account for more Bike Hub Pay transactions than complete bikes, with clothing (particularly shoes, helmets, and eyewear) up over 40% in deal count quarter-on-quarter. Bike deals themselves remain healthy at 228 completed transactions with an average value of R16,260.
Buyers and sellers are trusting escrow protection across the full price spectrum, not just for big-ticket purchases. 66.9% of all deals in Q1 2026 were under R5,000, up from 60.6% in Q4 2025.
Conclusion
Q1 2026 paints a picture of a marketplace that is maturing rather than surging. Enquiries are up year-on-year across most categories, seasonal patterns are becoming increasingly predictable, and the underlying trends point toward a healthy, established market. Gravel continues its remarkable rise, dual suspension and road bikes deliver steady demand, and Bike Hub Pay continues to build trust in platform-mediated transactions.
Despite a challenging economic environment, buyer demand on Bike Hub remains resilient. For anyone looking to understand where buyer intent is heading, this data offers a quarterly window into purchasing demand across categories, price bands, and regions.
We look forward to tracking how these trends develop through the rest of the year.
Disclaimers:
- We are reporting on data from the Bike Hub marketplace only, which may not reflect the wider industry.
- Unique enquiries count one enquiry per user per ad, even if the user clicked multiple times or used multiple contact methods.
- User region data accuracy is based on IP address geolocation services by MaxMind, with 60-80% accuracy.
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