When I started counting bikes in Kona, it was 1992 and I was three years into making my bikes for use in triathlon. I don't remember what it is that caused me to want to start counting bikes. Maybe I was bored. Maybe I was curious. I don't remember wanting to count for commercial reasons, but I can't discount that motive.
Maybe I knew I had a lot of bikes in the race and I wanted to prove the point. As likely as anything it was because I'm competitive, and I wasn't in a position to train and race for the Ironman -- the bike count was the closest thing to a race in which I had a dog in the fight.
It was the Quintana Roo Bike Survey back then, from 1992 until 1998, and in 1999 it became the Slowtwitch Bike Survey, commensurate with my ceasing to be a manufacturer and commencing my job change to tri-journalist. After fifteen years I'm done counting bikes on the Kona pier. My last count was last October (I announced my Kona retirement).
But I'm not done writing about it, and I thought it a good idea to take a long, broad look at the trends we've seen over the Survey's 15-year history.
FRAME MATERIALS
AEROBARS
MORE COMING...
