Ride-On rides on and Others Try to Link in

TAICHUNG, Taiwan - Over the last two weekends (beginning of December) the majority of the product managers and product developers of the international bicycle industry gathered in Taichung, meanwhile the place to be for manufacturing of mid to high-end bicycles.

For the sixth time in a row the Ride-On OEM presentations were held and after last year’s success of the presentations in Taichung (instead of in Spain), this year’s Taichung presentations by Crank Brothers, Hayes / Manitou, Hutchinson, Fizik, Fox, FSA, Magura, Mavic and Vittoria were even a bigger success in many ways.

Need of product managers

Ride-On OEM-presentations perfectly satisfy the need of the majority of product managers to have detailed information and rideable samples of mid and high-end components for next year’s product range and line-up in a much earlier stage of their development process than Taipei Show.

Last week discussions started between the Ride-On organization and the participants of the other OEM-events in Taichung (Surf-On, FirstInPerformance and Taichung Bike Week) in order to see whether a combined bigger event is the better way to go.

However finally the Ride-On people decided to keep the format of their event as it is now, no change for next year, otherwise the time and attention which can be given to inform potential customers in detail will be too much compromised. Also the organizers of the other events have stated that they will continue in the same way next year in Taichung. Obviously also their presentations furnish a similar need like Ride-On.

Taipei Show?

The big Taiwanese OEM-supplier Ideal Bike took this opportunity to organize a big banquet and product presentations for their customers on the last day of the Ride-On in Taichung at the Freshfields hotel. This justifies the question: what will happen to Taipei Show?