If gas price hikes, bet on bikes: Dorel Industries

Gas prices have got all swoll and drivers takin the toll. But Trademaster J has something that might help insure your portfolio against the woes of gassy foes...

My hedge fo you, my loyal readers, is the bike industry. Let me lay down some good rizzons why:

1. Demand for bikes increase as consumers look for more economical commuting solutions.
2. Bikes require less petrol to manufacture than other goodz cause dey got less plasticz.
3. I seein mo "Want-To-Buy" ads fo bikes on craigies.

My stock pick fo you is Dorel Inc. Dorel hedged their own product portfo against the oil and gas hike by diversifying with bike company acquisitions over the past couple of years. Typically, bike companies be all indie and shit and are privately owned. Lucky fo tradin fools like you and me, Dorel, a publicly traded bizness, bought up a whole bunch of deez indie bike companies. Tippy wicked, yo. Dorel is operated from Canada, but a good bag of dey bike brands be marketed mostly to da States. Their brands include Cannondale, Schwinn, GT Bicycle, Mongoose, SUGOi, Pacific, PTI, Dyno, Murray, RoadMaster, PowerLite and InSTEP. This gives us a company backed by a solid currency and a customer base hungry to escape the plump pump.

There are three wayz you might consider tradin this thing:

• DII.A on the Toronto Stock Exchange
• DII.B on the Toronto Stock Exchange <- the one I'd recommend
• DIIB on the States' Pink Sheets exchange

You might be askin what the difference between the A shares and the B shares... well I was too, but I ring-ranged up Dorel's office and popped the quizzy. Turns out the A shares give shareholders 10 times the votin rights of the B shareholders. Also, I don't think the Pink-Sheets traded shares grant the holder ''any'' votin privz. Basically, if you tradin fo the sake of tradin and dont need to be meddlin in company affairs, stick with DII.B.

There are some risks with Dorel that I should fill you in on. In addition to bikes, Dorel's got hands in the home furnishingz bidness; this is not an industry I see doing well for them in the "housing crisis" we are experiencing. Also, while bikes are an ok hedge against rising gas prices, they could be susceptible to the badness of global warming; peepz wont be ridin when temperatures risin. Dorel's Class B stock is being exchanged over pink sheets in the U.S. after Dorel voluntarily de-listed from NASDAQ SmallCaps a few months ago to avoid the high maintenance costs. Dorel mentions the intention to terminate the American shares as mentioned in this communique. Upon termination of DIIB, the stock would most likely be converted to rights to recieve cash, but this isn't set in stone therefore I have worries about liquidiy of DIIB on the Pink Sheets. I will try to find mo info from their investor relations representatives and pass it along to you by commenting to this post.

One other company I'll mention is Shimano up in Japan. Shimano is like the street-standard fo bike components like derailers. They aint traded here in the U.S. but you can grab em on the Tokyo Stock Exchange or the Osaka Securities Exchange with identifier 7309.

As of this postin, I gotz a long position in TSX:DII.B up in my portfolio, but I aint about to start bikin when I be packin this wicky whip: