Mountain biking on trails is soaring in popularity in the United State

Question

Mountain biking on trails is soaring in popularity in the United States. The number of mountain bikes sold in the United States has increased 133 percent over the past four years. In addition, bike stores in the United States last year reported that mountain bikes accounted for more than 65 percent of their total sales, far more than in previous years, even though sales of other bikes have been strong.

The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions?

A. Mountain biking on trails is getting popular.
B. stores are selling more mountain bikes and mountain bikes are a greater proportion of their overall bike sales.
C. The people who are buying bikes must be using them on trails.
D. Most of the people who are driving the increase in mountain bike sales are involved in trail cycling.
E. People who buy mountain bikes tend to use them in urban or suburban settings, rather than on trails.

nishantd88 · Accepted Answer

Mountain biking on trails is soaring in popularity in the United States. The number of mountain bikes sold in the United States has increased 133 percent over the past four years. In addition, bike stores in the United States last year reported that mountain bikes accounted for more than 65 percent of their total sales, far more than in previous years, even though sales of other bikes have been strong.

The conclusion is Mountain biking on trails is soaring in popularity in the United States.
Quite a few assumptions are there.
1. The bikes that are sold are used in the US and not exported.
2. Those who are buying the bikes are using them on trails.
3. The increase in sales is driven by more people getting interested in mountain biking rather than existing bikers replacing their old bikes.

Let's see the options now.

The conclusion above is based on which of the following assumptions?
A. Mountain biking on trails is getting popular.  Just restates the conclusion. 
B. stores are selling more mountain bikes and mountain bikes are a greater proportion of their overall bike sales.  Just restates a premise mentioned in the passage. 
C. The people who are buying bikes must be using them on trails.  Correct option. 
D. Most of the people who are driving the increase in mountain bike sales are involved in trail cycling.  Might seem to be a good option. But consider other possibilities. For example, the people maybe buying mountain bikes, but using other bikes they own on the trails.  
E. People who buy mountain bikes tend to use them in urban or suburban settings, rather than on trails.  GOes against the conclusion. It implies the increase is sales is because mountain bikes are used in settings other than trails.

samparnatripathy · Answer

Will vote for D.

If we negate this statement (most people who are driving this increase in mountain bike sales are NOT involved in trail cycling), it invalidates the conclusion.

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bapism07 · Answer

C

A. Mountain biking on trails is getting popular. - It is the conclusion
B. stores are selling more mountain bikes and mountain bikes are a greater proportion of their overall bike sales. - It is not what is being the main point. It is the effect. 
C. The people who are buying bikes must be using them on trails. - By applying the negation technique, we will get nil motivation to buy the bikes. eg it hurts the most and hence it is the correct answer. 
D. Most of the people who are driving the increase in mountain bike sales are involved in trail cycling. - New information./ Shell answer: driving on trail and trail cycling are different. 
E. People who buy mountain bikes tend to use them in urban or suburban settings, rather than on trails. - New information.

arvind910619 · Answer

The answer is C

Mountain biking is soaring in popularity in the united states.
The no of bikes have increased 133 percent have shops sales have their largest share in mountain bikes .
Now we have to connect the soaring popularity with the increase in sales of the bikes C does that perfectly .

hellosanthosh2k2 · Answer

Only option C makes sense.

Conclusion: Mountain biking on trails is soaring in popularity in the United States

Premise: The number of mountain bikes sold in the United States has increased 133 percent over the past four years

There is leap from premise to conclusion. number of bike sales increase -> so mountain biking is soaring. What if, people buy mountain bikes for other purposes, such as exporting or currently hikers buy the bikes for backing up their existing bikes.

Only Option C, closes the gap by saying that people indeed used purchased bikes on trail.

chesstitans · Answer

D is a strengthener, while C is an assumption.

iamapoorva · Answer

I was confused between C and D. Marked D because C mentions about bikes, while I thought it should be mountain bikes -

The people who are buying     bikes must be using them on trails

chesstitans · Answer

the key word here is "Mountain biking  on trails "-> C fills the gap between mountain bikes and trails. -> C is the assumption.
The premise only supports the surge in sales of mountain bikes. The missing link here is "bikes for trails"

thangvietnam · Answer

very hard

choice D is typical of close answer, which look correct but is incorrect. we alway meet 1 close answer . this answer , if we think about it deeper , is actually incorrect. this answer is just different from correct answer a littile in a few words. so, this answer is wrong in one or a few words. 
in RC section, we meet similar incorrect answer choice, which is wrong in one or two words

the lession is JUSTIFY EVERY WORD IN ANSWER CHOICE.

Missyy · Answer

Can anyone explain option D a bit more?

chesstitans · Answer

the conclusion here is the mountain bike is increasing its popularity. Based on what? The main premise is the increase in sales of the mountain bike. In other words, people want to buy the mountain bike.
D is a strengthener b/c D talks about some people who are involved in the mountain bike. These people can be managers, or manufacturers. There is no clear connection showing the popularity of the mountain bikes.

Sankalp92 · Answer

In the premise it is given that mountain bikes accounted for more than 65 percent of their total sales. Then how can assumption C be true which says that
 people who are buying bikes must be using them on trails. Because 35% of total sales include non mountain bikes as well. Isn't D more specific??
please help me understand

chesstitans · Answer

As I have explained above, D just strengthens the argument, the real gap is between people who buy bikes and bikes are used on trails -> C must be the answer.

Kanika3agg · Answer

Option C should clarify which type of bike it is talking about? It can be other bikes too. What is the difference in the option when mountain bikes are mentioned and when they are not.
Option D says most of the people who are driving the sales of Mountain biking are related to trail cycling. What is the issue here? Even if the people are not related to trail cycling, it means that mountain biking is still soaring in trails.

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Hello expert, 
to me C and D are the same meaning, but C uses extreme word “must”, so I marked D. Can you shed some light? Much thanks

Vasavan · Answer

The main conclusion of the argument is that the  popularity  of mountain bike in trails is increasing. For this to happen, it is not necessary for most people who are buying the bikes to use the trails. As in, even if just 40% of the people buying the bikes use the trail, it is safe to say the poularity has increased. Hence, option D can be eliminated.
On the other hand, C says "The people who are buying bikes must be using them on trails". If this is negated, it would read ""The people who are buying bikes must  NOT  be using them on trails". In this case, the conclusion would not hold true. Hence, C is the correct option.

JuniqueLid · Answer

Dude it's amazing how you said a lot but said nothing. I laughed hard reading your post - you should write GMAT tests and all yours questions will be damn hard.

ajay0520 · Answer

C. The people who are buying bikes must be using them on trails.
D. Most of the people who are driving the increase in mountain bike sales are involved in trail cycling.

i was stuck with these two choice then i came up with this logic after negation. 
negation of 
c: people who are buying these bike are not using them on trail.( it'll destroy the argument which means argument falls apart)
d: Most of the people who are driving the increase in sales are not involved in trail cycling. but what if some of them are involved in trail cycling, still they are increasing overall trail cycling pattern.

akb2671996 · Answer

Can someone please explain why? B seems to be the most logical one to me. What am I missing?

Mountain biking on trails is soaring in popularity in the United State

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