How would you describe the current state of the bicycle industry? What are currently the main challenges?

I currently identify three main challenges:

· Inventory levels are still too high and the resulting discounting is eating into margins.

· Reserves are being depleted after three and half years of bad business, banks are unwilling to chip in additional funds and interest rates are higher, increasing the cost of existing loans.

· Consumer sentiment is still not back up, due to cost-of-living issues, ongoing conflicts and the uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s arbitrary tariffs.

One more challenge for Taiwan’s bicycle industry in particular: the tech industry is extracting a lot of talent, but also parts of the normal industrial workforce – so a sudden rise in demand would be hard to be covered due to a lack of manpower.

How do companies in your deal with these challenges? What are concrete steps, companies have taken?

· Restructuring and cost cutting: back to a lean business after the gold rush of the pandemic, trim off some lard. I still see a lot more people losing their jobs in the bicycle industry than taking on new ones within my network on LinkedIn.

· Reduce the number of SKUs and models, for easier and more flexible planning and better conditions when purchasing. Fitting examples would be Trek and Raymon.

· Less top specs for the MY26, as companies are trying to bring down the retail prices (the new gravel bikes of Stevens are a good example for this).

Are there any signals that the market might be stabilising or recovering? Which signals do you see?

· Wear and tear products are doing well as ridership is likely higher in 2025 than in 2019. Workshops of IBDs are also fully booked.

· 2026 forecasts seem to be better than the ones for 2024 and 2025, as plenty of exhibitors said at Taichung Bike Week.

· Road bikes and gravel bikes are doing pretty well while mountain bikes with or without electric support have been suffering the most.

How do you assess developments on the bicycle trade fair scene? Which trade shows are currently the winners? Which ones are struggling? What are the reasons for this?

· Consumer shows with a clear-cut focus are doing well, from Velofollies to Cyclingworld, Bike Festival Lake Garda and Girona’s Sea Otter Europe.

· Trade shows are suffering from the free-loader syndrome: from Accell and PON to Specialized, Trek and ZEG too many big companies are attending and making full use of the platform that shows like Eurobike offer without supporting it as exhibitors, serving as all-wrong role models.