It's the bicycle, stupid!

Sure, the economy sucks. It's sucked since last June, when something called "subprime" apparently exploded, and took a few shingles off of almost every home in the country.

But bike sales were actually up for 2007 -- a full 4 percent in revenue growth. As an industry, that's huge. And it would be the envy of Wall Street.. if there were a bike lane on Wall Street.

William F. Buckley Jr. would have wanted one there.

The big winners within the industry? I wouldn't want to read too much into these tea leaves, but it looks like dirt bags and commuters are on the rise, and roadies are sitting in.

• Full-suspension mountain bike sales soared to new levels in 2007. They were up 9 percent in unit sales and 20 percent in dollars.

• Road bikes saw about a 3 percent decline in unit sales and in wholesale dollars. But suppliers maintained their average wholesale unit selling price at $794, almost unchanged from $798 in 2006.

• Hybrid sales were a major bright spot—up 6 percent in units and 12 percent in average wholesale price from $229 to $241 per unit.