Life on two wheels V

Interview Gu Juexin (Chairman of the Board, Shanghai Forever Co.,Ltd.)

In the late 1980s, with China's reform and opening-up policy, some ventures from Taiwan Province started to enter the mainland market. Nongovernmental enterprises began to boom and other foreign bicycle enterprises started to enter China. Forever and other famous brands that grew up in the state-planned economy were facing a great challenge.

With the rapid development of society, the demands and expectations of consumers are changing and expectations are rising. In order to survive in this new competitive market, all the Chinese bicycle manufacturers are trying their best to provide different products to meet the differing demands of consumers. Production lines are introducing mountain bikes, racing bikes, foldable bicycles and a range of sturdy, bicycles of use by delivery industries like the postal service.

Until recently in the bicycle kingdom, the bicycle has been seen as a form of transportation, as a means of life. But now with China's rapid economic development, a new generation is increasingly looking at bicycles as something else, as a recreational tool, as a toy.

In the 1980s and 90s, great changes took place in bicycle production. Different, new types of bicycles emerged to take the place of the old ones in order to meet a growing demand for recreational bicycles. One of the new bicycle markets that manufacturers are seeking to capture is the demand for sport and trick Interview Wang Wei:

Exciting, very exciting, it can make me feel free and like it suits me perfectly. Every time you learn a new trick, you come to a point when you feel that it is too hard, but if you keep trying, you'll succeed in the end.

While enjoying the excitement and happiness brought by playing with bicycles, the riders will also have to be prepared for injuries that worry their parents. Wang Wei has found out that there's a great difference in viewpoint about bicycles between the younger and the elder generations.

Wang Wei said the elder generation like my parents might think it's enough if a bicycle can be ridden. But for me, I think a bicycle should match a person. A person can only have one bicycle that is a perfect fit.