By IANS,
New Delhi : The Indian market for women’s bicycles is “embarrassingly” small, but that has not deterred Firefox from launching its women specific bikes here with the aim to encourage more ladies to take up cycling as a sporting activity.
According to Shiv Inder Singh, managing director of Firefox Bikes (India), there has been an increasing demand for bicycles especially made for Indian women although it’s a small market.
“It’s an embarrassingly small market, but also steadily growing one. What we realised is that when the right equipment is not there, how can you expect a sport activity to grow? These bikes are not your usual pink coloured city bikes. They are the ones you can go mountain biking on,” Singh said at the launch of the Trek 3700 WSD, one of the bike models, here Wednesday.
The 3700 WSD has been manufactured by international bicycle manufacturer Trek and distributed in India by Firefox Bikes limited.
“These bikes have been designed such that we kept a woman’s frame in mind and designed the bike accordingly so that it makes her comfortable while riding it and is also safe,” Singh told IANS.
The women specific design includes short top tube, short stems, narrow handlebars (for smaller shoulders), short crank arms length, wider saddle and short reach brake levers.
Starting at Rs.16,000, the bikes come in various sizes to suit different frames and heights.
“Besides encouraging women to take up biking, bicycling also provides solutions to global problems such as pollution, traffic congestion and health and obesity problems,” Singh said.