Earlier, India had Hero, Hercules, BSA and Avon cycles, but then new cycle brands came in the market like Firefox (an Indian brand) and premium, international brands like Trek Bikes from the US, Scott Sports from Switzerland and Merida and Giant from Taiwan. It makes one think then, which are the best cycle brands available in India, especially if one is looking to buy a top-class cycle in one’s budget.
Let’s look at these cycle brands available within various budgets.
Premium brands (Generally over Rs. 60,000): Merida | Scott | Trek | Giant | Cannondale | Specialized | Orbea | Fuji | Canyon | Bianchi | Marin
Mid-budget brands (Generally within Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 60,000): Phoenix | Psynyde | Btwin | Firefox | Montra | Raleigh | GT | Schnell | Bergamont | Schwinn
Low budget brands (Generally under Rs. 20,000) : Hercules | Avon | Cosmic | TATA Stryder | Hero | Kross | OMO | Atlas | Mach City | Frog
Most of the premium brands are headquartered outside India; some with sophisticated R&D teams developing bikes for professional athletes participating in races like Tour De France.
Best Premium Cycle Brands in India
Generally above Rs 60,000
The bicycle brands in this list are well known for their presence, performance, popularity, availability in India and quality. Premium bicycle brands price most of their bikes around and well above Rs. 60,000. The price bracket depends upon the model you buy – a road bike, mountain bike, time trial or a triathlon bike.
Trek Bicycles
Trek is an American bicycle brand founded in 1975, headquartered in Waterloo, Wisconsin, USA. They entered the Indian market directly a few years ago only. Many top athletes ride in the Trek in the World Tour and compete under the team Trek Segafredo.
Currently, Trek Bicycles sponsors the 2018 National MTB Champion, K Kiran Kumar Raju in India. Fabian Cancellara, former professional road bicycle racer from Switzerland used to ride for the UCI ProTeam Trek–Segafredo. However, Lance Armstrong is the rider who really brought the Trek brand to the world stage.
Merida Bicycles
Ike Tseng opened Merida in 1972 in Taiwan. This brand has an interesting story and is well known for the quality of their bikes. The Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team also uses Merida as the name suggests. Merida is also a high-performing bicycle brand in the world tour road races like Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, etc.
Giant Bicycles
Giant Bicycles is yet another top bicycle brand based in Taiwan. It produces the best bicycles in almost all the segments of cycling i.e. road, hybrid, MTB, time trial and track racing. They disabled their BMX segment in 2008.
Tom Dumoulin from Netherlands, who is the winner of 2017 Giro d’Italia and rides Giant bicycles, won the individual men’s time trial world championships.
Scott Bicycles
World Champion and 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist Nino Schurter rides Scott. Need we say more? This brand has earned a huge respect and popularity amongst amateur and serious rides alike. Scott is a Swiss brand founded in 1958. They are well known for their innovations and quality.
Based in Mumbai, Scott holds a significant market share in the premium bicycle market in India.
Convolution Bicycles
Convolution is an Indian brand based in Pune. They make road bicycles targeting high performance and use premium components to build their bikes. What sets this brand apart is their deep R&D on Indian cyclists and developing bike geometry as per the Indian body. Currently, Convolution makes one popular model, Aspera, with three components – Sora, Tiagra and 105.
Cannondale Bicycles
The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation is an American bicycle brand founded in 1971. In India, TI cycles distributes Cannondale Bicycles under their Track and Trail flagship stores.
The 2018 World MTB Marathon Champion, Henrique Avancini from Brazil rides a Cannondale. In India, Cannondale Bicycles sponsors Shiven, a mountain biker from Himachal Pradesh, and runner up at the 2020 National MTB Championships.
Specialized Bicycles
Specialized Bicycle Components was founded in 1974 by Mike Sinyard and is headquartered in Morgan Hill, California. A number of World Champions and World Tour teams in road and MTB racing ride Specialized, like Peter Sagan, Jaroslav Kulhavy, Annika Langvad, etc.
Cervelo Bicycles
Cervelo is based in Canada and was founded in 1995. It makes some of the most high-end aero bicycles. When it comes to speed, Cervelo takes the win. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of triathlon and time trial bicycles. Cervelo currently makes five series of bicycles across time-trial, triathlon and track racing.
Lapierre Bicycles
Lapierre is a French bicycle brand founded in 1946 by Gaston Lapierre. France based UCI World Tour Pro Team, FDJ, rides Lapierre bicycles. Lapierre makes MTB, road bicycles, ladies bicycles, BMX and folding bikes.
Ridley Bicycles
Ridley is headquartered in Belgium. The makers of Ridley Bicycles live and breathe cycling. They are the makers of some of the best MTB, gravel bicycles, road bicycles, time trial and triathlon bicycles.
Ridley Bicycles is sold at Track and Trail stores all over India. Naveen John and Arvind Panwar, India’s best time trialists, used to ride Ridley bicycles.
Canyon Bicycles
Canyon Bicycles are unarguably the best looking bicycles of all. Headquartered in Germany, they are known for innovative and superior bicycle designs.
Canyon Bicycles was founded in 2002 and quickly became the machine of the champions. They make some cool triathlon, cyclocross, MTB, road bicycles.
Mathieu van der Poel, a phenomenon in bicycle racing, rides a Canyon across all the racing formats he does – cyclocross, MTB and road racing.
Canyon Bicycles’ selling model has disrupted the cycling industry. They use a D2C (direct-to-consumer) model. Anyone can order a bicycle on their website and get it delivered. This has removed the middle party and has reduced the cost of the bicycles.
Bianchi Bicycles
Bianchi is an Italian brand and currently the oldest bicycle brand in the world currently in existance. It was founded in 1885 in Milan, Italy by Edoardo Bianchi.
World’s famous road bike racers, Marco Pantani and Fausto Coppi, used to ride Bianchi. Currently, Jumbo-Visma, professional UCI road team, rides Bianchi. Bianchi makes all sorts of professional racing bikes from road, cyclocross and MTB.
Marin Bicycles
Founded in 1986, Marin bicycles is at the forefront of the gravel and off road bikepacking scene currently. Its birthplace is the now legendary Mt. Tampalaise and the place where pure mountain biking was born in the 1980s. Marin bicycles make affordable to highly priced commuters, gravel and mountain bikes.
Fuji Bicycles
Originally from Japan and born in 1899, Fuji is headquartered in Philadelphia, USA now. Fuji makes some really nice and high-end road racing, enduro and mountain bikes.
BMW Cycles
Few people know BMW also makes bicycles, and cycles by BMW are available in India. They cost about Rs 1 lakh and are often preferred by luxury-lovers for commuting. Since the bikes are quite expensive but not specialised; they’re not built as road bikes or high-end mountain bikes, we see less of them on the road or on trails.
However, BMW does an Endurance Ride every year showcasing their bikes, giving riders an opportunity to test them, and this tour is quite popular for being a lavish, enjoyable experience for cyclists.
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Best Mid-budget Cycle Brands in India
Generally Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 60,000
B’Twin Bicycles
Decathlon stores all over India sells B’Twin bicycles. The French Decathlon group is known for their customer service. Their Rockrider and Triban series offer some good MTB and road bicycles respectively. Riverside is their entry-level hybrid bicycle model.
Firefox Bicycles
Firefox bicycles began their operations in India 2005. Fast forward to 10 years, in 2015, it was acquired by Hero Cycles. Firefox makes performance and value-for-money bicycles.
Their bicycle segments range from MTB, road, kids, hybrid and speciality. They were one one of the first Indian bicycle brands that brought quality riding to the Indian audience and focused on the performance aspect of the cycles.
Montra Bicycles
Montra Bicycles was launched under the brand of TI Cycles of India, Chennai in 2011. They have quality components and are built to deliver performance. Designed in England, they come in various segments like road, MTB, hybrid and speciality.
Phoenix Bicycles
Phoenix is a Shanghai based bicycle brand built in 1958. Interestingly, the Phoenix trademark is registered in 104 countries. Phoenix is exported to more than 50 countries. In India, Rollers India, a Ludhiana based company trading in high-performance bicycles, imports Phoenix bicycles.
Psynyde Bicycles
A Pune based brand, Psynyde is one of India’s first performance bicycle manufacturers, built by the cyclists and for the cyclists. They are yet to hit the mainstream audience, but their bikes are well designed and deliver the best performance. Recently, they launched their beautiful XC race bike model Furan.
Raleigh Bicycles
Built in 1885 in Nottingham, England, Raleigh is one of the oldest bicycle brands in the world. Raleigh is imported and distributed by Suncross International based in Ludhiana, Punjab. Raleigh makes some beautiful and innovative designs in MTB, road and hybrid bikes.
GT Bicycles
GT is a high-performance American bicycle brand founded by Gary Turner in 1979. It garnered huge respect with their BMX bicycles and then they spearheaded the market with their MTB bikes. GT also supports elite athletes and teams. The brand is distributed by TI Cycles of India though their Track and Trail stores.
Schnell Bicycles
Schnell literally means “fast and quick” in German. However, it is an Indian brand. Schnell Bicycles are value for money. They build beautiful bicycles with the best components available in the market. Their price with the quality provided is very attractive.
Bergamont Bicycles
Bergamont is a German brand that opened as a bicycle repair shop in 1993. Today, they are leading bicycle manufacturers in Germany. They make premium quality MTB, road and hybrid bicycles.
Schwinn Bicycles
Schwinn is an American bicycle brand built in 1895 in Chicago. Their 100 years of expertise produces some lightweight bicycles with improved specifications in the road and hybrid, majorly for urban riding. Schwinn is distributed by TI Cycles of India in their Track and Trail stores.
Best Low Budget Cycle Brands in India
Under Rs. 30,000 usually
Hercules Bicycles
Hercules bicycles come from the range of bicycle brands under TI Cycles of India, based in Chennai. They are available online and in almost all the cycle stores over the country. Hercules is known for being the first brand to introduce MTB bikes in India. Hercules’s sub-brand, Roadeo, is very popular among the teens of the country.
Avon Bicycles
Avon Bicycles manufactured their first bicycle in 1951. They are known for their simple design and availability. Avon makes a range of bicycles like MTB, kid bicycles, roadsters, hybrid bicycles, e-bikes, ladies bicycles, etc. Since 1948, Avon bicycles have emerged as one of the largest bicycles manufacturers in the country. Today, they have more than 200 bicycles brands across different age groups. They are based in Ludhiana, Punjab.
Cosmic Bicycles
Cosmic is an Indian bicycle brand that makes inexpensive MTB bikes, kids’ bicycles and city bicycles. They are known for attractive design and value for money. They entered the Indian bicycle market in 2013 and have become well known in the MTB and kid bicycles sector.
Hero Bicycles
Hero Bicycles is the unarguably the household name in India. Established in 1956 in Ludhiana, Punjab, they make about 19,000 bicycles every day as of now, making them the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world. Hero bicycles make MTB bikes, kids’ bicycles, hybrid and city bicycles. They have a huge supply network in India and exports to over 70 countries in the world.
Atlas Bicycles
Atlas bicycles is yet another household name in India. They stand true to their motto “to provide quality bicycles to his countrymen at reasonable prices”. Started in 1950 in Sonepat, Haryana, they have the capacity to produce 4 million bicycles a year. Their products range from MTB, city, kids’ cycles to roadsters.
Update – As of June 3, 2020, Atlas Cycles shut shop in India after 70 years. It may be reopened.
Mach City Bicycles
The Mach City bicycle brand was established in 2015 with a purpose to rediscover the joy of cycling. They are known to make city and hybrid cycles. Mach City falls under the aegis of Track and Trail by TI Cycles of India. They make pocket-friendly bicycles with attractive designs to tour around the city.
OMO Bicycles
The OMO bicycle brand was made in 2016. Geared towards building urban bicycles, they make colorful and attractively designed lightweight bicycles. Manali G1 Offroad is one of their best bicycles. Also, the OMO bicycle brand happens to be one of the first carbon negative firms in the world. They claim to plant five trees for every bicycle sold.
TATA Stryder Bicycles
TATA Stryder is aimed towards the youth of India. Owned wholly by TATA International, the brand was launched in 2009. TATA Stryder makes bicycles in the MTB, ladies, kids and roadsters segment. They use superior quality components on their bicycles. TATA Stryder has 4500+ retail outlets all over India and is well received in the UAE and SAARC countries.
Frog Bicycles
The Frog bicycles brand was founded in 2015 and has presence in over 250 cities in India and 600+ retail outlets. They are known for their after-sales service support. Frog Bicycles make affordable, comfortable and good quality bicycles targeted towards the middle-class. Their MTBs and all terrain bicycles are stylish and good for beginners.
Kross Bicycles
The Kross Bicycles brand is a sub-brand of the Hero group, unlike the Polish bicycle brand with the same name. Kross is targeted towards the youth and adults of the country. Their MTB, city, ladies and roadster bicycles use good quality components and are widely available across 500 dealers in India.
So there you have it. These are the best bicycle brands available in India. Share the article with anyone beginning their search for a bicycle in India, and let them know about all the options they have in all the budgets.
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