ABSTRACT
Prior to the rise of neoliberal globalization in the late 1970s, most industrialized countries had long-established domestic bicycle industries serving their national market. The rise of economic globalization in the first half of the 1970s coincided with the 10-speed bicycle boom. As the Japanese economy moved up market to concentrate on automobiles and electronics, the rising Asian Tigers sought to emulate Japan, with Taiwan concentrating on bicycles and electronics. China rapidly became the world’s biggest bicycle manufacturer and has accounted for around two-thirds of global production for the last two decades. In short, since 1980 there has been a growing geographical separation of consumers from makers of bicycles which has had major economic consequences. The 21st century has seen automation considerably reduce labour inputs. Recent political, economic and technical developments show signs of initiating a new geographical restructuring of world bicycle production.
