Look around any bike shop in Jakarta and you’ll find that the bikes are out of stock or the shop rep is too busy to answer you, either because they have too much on their plates answering orders or they’re too busy repairing bikes. If you’re wondering why that is, it’s because Indonesians are ditching the malls and embracing cycling as their new hobby.

In 2020, data compiled by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy indicated that the rate of bicycle use increased by 1000%, as quoted in the Star news. Interestingly, not too long ago, in early 2019, the Journalists expressed disappointment at how little attention was being paid to the cycling community and how Jakarta and its municipalities were not a bike- and pedestrian-friendly city. Channel News Asia’s Pichayada Promchertchoo explicitly expressed his concern about it. However, in 2020 the attention towards cycling has taken a 180 degree turn, as almost every household in Indonesia now owns a bicycle and actively uses it. More and more people are slowly turning their hobbies over to cycling, and the root cause might be a bit more abstract.

Cycling has been in Indonesia before it was a country

To understand the cycling craze in Indonesia, it is important to briefly understand the history of cycling in Indonesia and the role it played before independence.

In Tetske T. Van der Wal’s novel, “I thought you should know” he documented the life of his grandparents in the Dutch East Indies and partly praised the Dutch for their insights. She posited how influential the Dutch were in introducing first world inventions to the East Indies. Clever Dutch engineers, as Van der Wal describes, introduced roads, bridges, railways, and of course bicycles and, later, velodromes.

The bicycle was first used in Indonesia by the Indian Army, but was quickly used for other activities as a means of getting from point A to point B. However, there was a catch.

One caveat about cycling for Indonesians was that it was limited to wealthy Dutch aristocrats. Bicycles were expensive and prestigious items and were a symbol of wealth and power that could only be enjoyed by a small minority of rulers. Fast-forward to the 1950s, the Dutch had already withdrawn from Indonesia, but they left their technology behind. Due to the political climate at the time, Sukarno had banned Western products from entering Indonesia, including European and American-made bicycles. But that, in turn, left a void, and the market for locally made bikes was filled with Chinese-Indonesians, as the ‘Bike for Dad’ website of Chungkalong University, Thailand, claims.

Bicycles began to decline in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, with the introduction of motorcycles and automobiles. They began to go out of fashion and were no longer a convenient means of transportation. What was once a state-of-the-art invention was no longer. in fashion. The problem is that Van der Wal’s grandparents didn’t realize how big the cycling craze would be 80 years later.

In Syaiful Afif’s research paper “The Rise of the Middle Class in Indonesia: Opportunity and Challenge,” he predicted in 1998 that there would be 85 million people in the consuming class by 2020. He was right. Indonesia’s middle class has more money to spend than ever before and this has arguably helped fuel at least one industry: bicycles.

despite no more days without a car at the moment, more people ride bicycles than ever before. The answer to this phenomenon: the coronavirus. With new restrictions on how many people can sit in a car and shopping malls closed, people have started to come up with new ideas on how to tackle boredom and spend their money. In addition, the roads are also quieter. There is also a consensus that cycling more will keep you fit, and being fit is a good way to combat coronavirus, even though research shows otherwise. Pollution levels have also dropped to an all-time low, according to data from IQAir. Recent data showed that Jakarta’s air had an Air Quality Index (AQI) of just 74 on average (July 2020). All of these factors combined very well and thus resulted in the new fashion of bicycle riding.

Cycling has now seen a surge and is fast becoming Indonesia’s favorite pastime. But the reasons go beyond a simple “hobby” to do when teenagers are bored or when office workers are idle at home.

What is different then and now? Cycling has changed to become a form of identity: it is a way for people to feel part of a community and have a sense of belonging. The uniforms some groups wear when riding are comparable to that of Harley Davidson groups, or even more extreme groups such as America’s West Coast mobsters and the punk subculture. It symbolizes a form of camaraderie, like any other sports team. It is an unwritten agreement to travel together and be friends.

Just as cycling became associated with status, wealth and power during the Dutch colonial period, it has re-emerged to have its own brand, not necessarily about wealth, but about health, fitness, camaraderie and solidarity. , which are important values. to the Indonesians. The filter known as social media has helped spread these values ​​among Indonesian youth, which in turn spread to other groups and this is where we are today, and just like everyone has a different Harley, everyone has their own unique bike, they can tell a story about the person himself.

That’s why cycling has had a more powerful presence, because we live in a time where we lean on each other to support each other instead of being individualistic. Helping each other has mattered much more recently and cycling acts as a channel to express these ideas of solidarity. It is also an activity that appeals to all, something that is not only for the rich aristocrats, however today we take bicycles for granted, but we must remember that bicycles were perceived at one point as first world technology that was was entering the new world. What we think of today as a primitive form of transportation was once considered a marvelous feat of engineering. At this point, it’s unclear whether or not this hype will continue, or if it will once again be a remnant of history, a mere fad that was “fun at the time” but never taken seriously.