You'd have to have been living under a rock to have missed the 'power-play' that Avinox has brought to the market in the last couple of years with its high-power motors. Until now, the motor manufacturer hadn't articulated its full stance on power and why it's pursuing maximum peak power with its systems. Today, it has pushed back on what it calls "misleading opinions" coming from within the industry.

Road and gravel bikes are among the categories that have started the year with positive momentum across Europe and the United States, while others, like the eMTB category, have seen a more challenging picture. This and more are reflected in the latest results from the Shift Leaderboard market and brand-tracking tool, which analyses search volume for over 25,000 different terms.

As China looks to cross the threshold from being 'big' to becoming 'strong,' China Cycle showed that that shift is already happening. Once a domestic event known for wacky products and cheap copies, 2026 marked a new evolution for the show as it looks to lead the global bicycle market. With a noticeable increase in the number of international visitors, many left wondering how long other nations will be able to compete with the nation's pace of innovation and manufacturing prowess.

A strong industry ecosystem thrived in Taiwan's bicycle industry for decades, enabling the successful launch of start-ups like Hyena. This ecosystem was damaged during the inventory crisis and Hyena CEO Charlie Chuang is calling for a rebuild of this system. Today, his company is one of the few Taiwan-based full e-drive system suppliers serving American and European customers.

Volatile trade policies, a challenging market environment, unfavourable currency effects and intensified competition shaped Bosch Group's 2025 financial results. Against this backdrop, their expectations for 2025 have not been met, and sales revenue rose slightly by 4.1% after adjusting for exchange-rate effects. Bosch eBike Systems CEO Claus Fleischer gives insight into what this means for the e-bike industry.

Contrary to almost all other European countries, the Belgian bicycle market is performing very well. After the 2022 peak, the market bounced back to a pre-pandemic level, and has not been affected by the sustained decline seen in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In 2025, the Belgian market even experienced a 7.1% increase to 578,737 units in total. What made this Belgian miracle?

Investors expect their investments to appreciate in value. Over the past decade, well-managed private equity funds have generally doubled the capital invested for their investors over the term of the investment, after deducting their own, usually very attractive, fees. However, this requires that the company's value also rise sharply during the investment period, more than doubling. These average times-two money multiples also include investments that perform poorly or even fail, for example, due to insolvency. What is the secret behind investment funds' value creation?

Basque bicycle manufacturer Orbea reported a limited 2.3% decline in revenue for 2025, a small reduction in revenue that the cooperative attributes to its continuous market monitoring and disciplined management of a "responsible sales plan." This contrasts with 2024, when Orbea reported an 8% year-over-year decline in turnover, suggesting that profitability and margin performance stabilised considerably in 2025.

High-precision gear and component manufacturer hGears AG started 2026 as expected: the publicly-traded company was aware in advance that it would not be able to achieve exceptional growth amid geopolitical uncertainties and the resulting strain on economic momentum. So even though first-quarter revenue for 2026, at €23.4 million, was 6.9% below the comparable period last year, it was still within the company's expected range.

Porsche AG has announced it will shut down its e-bike drive-system subsidiary, Porsche eBike Performance GmbH, as part of a broader restructuring for the renowned German manufacturer.

In response to industry requests, the Eurobike organiser, Fairnamic, has decided to move the show back to the first week of September, starting in 2027. This was announced after the Eurobike advisory board convened yesterday in Frankfurt to discuss the results of around 50 industry interviews and the feedback from a customer survey. And the new date is not the only change to the concept of the once-leading industry show.

Bike Leasing company JobRad is accelerating its international expansion strategy with the launch of dedicated refurbished bike webshops in Austria and the Netherlands, marking the company's first direct entry into the Dutch market through its JobRad Loop platform.

German trade organisation Zukunft Fahrrad and not-for-profit initiative DiBike (Digitise Bike Business) have launched a new infrastructure endeavour designed to simplify service verification workflows in the growing German bicycle leasing market.

German bicycle brand Cube has announced a product safety recall for selected 2026-model-year hybrid e-bikes fitted with ACID Carbon Hybrid crank arms after identifying a potential failure risk in the pedal insert area. A Cub representative confirmed to Bike Europe that 20,000 bikes are affected. The bikes were sold worldwide, with the majority going to German-speaking countries.

Taiwan is future-focused, that much was apparent to attendees of the Taipei Cycle Show 2026. But beneath the optimism, export declines and changing production chains show the nation's bicycle sector is in transition. Production value is increasingly generated beyond Taiwan's borders, as manufacturing shifts to neighbouring markets such as China, Vietnam and Europe through Taiwanese-led supply chains.

All indicators for the 2025 French market were negative. The total market volume decreased by 6%, while the revenue was down 4.8% year-on-year. The average retail price declined slightly, and the e-bike sales dropped 16%. This contraction comes amid a challenging economic environment but also reflects a more structural shift: the end of the post-Covid catch-up effect and the withdrawal of purchase incentives.

After several challenging years for the bicycle industry, the Austrian industry and market proved remarkably stable in 2025. It went back to normal. In 2025, Austria's bicycle and sporting goods retail sector sold approximately 389,000 units.

Taiwan exported fewer than 77,000 e-bike units in the first quarter of 2026. This marks a 15% year-on-year drop from 2025 and the lowest Q1 e-bike exports since 2018. This also signals that the world's bicycle manufacturer is still struggling to get a firm grip on the electrified bike market post-Covid. The export value of regular bicycles also continues to drop 17% in Q1, but little is heard about consolidations or bankruptcies in the Taiwanese bicycle industry. As the total export value dips under $10 billion for the last two consecutive quarters, could the value shift be taking place outside of Taiwan's borders?

Price dumping, retail distress, safety and cycling culture were frequently cited as key factors behind the current downturn in the Italian e-bike and bicycle market. But what is really holding back the Italian bicycle market? Massimo Panzeri, Atala CEO, former president of CONEBI and now a board member of European Cycling Industries, shared his shocking perspective with Bike Europe.

Cycling can still attract interest from both institutional buyers and non-institutional investors, as the heavily oversubscribed Dahon IPO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed last September. Amidst all the excitement on the exhibition floor of the Taipei Cycle Show, Bike Europe had the opportunity to speak with Dahon's owner, Dr David Hon, about his company's strategy.

Long associated with self-balancing devices and shared micromobility, Segway is accelerating its move into the global e-bike market. Speaking at CES, which took place this month in Las Vegas, Nick Howe, head of e-bike worldwide at Segway, made it clear that the company's ambition goes well beyond launching new models. Segway wants to transplant proven automotive and powered two-wheeler technologies into cycling.

HEERENVEEN, The Netherlands - The final Batavus bicycles have rolled off the assembly line in the Netherlands, marking the end of an era for the Accell Group as it opts for centralised production in Hungary. It also marks the end of 45 years in the bicycle industry for Accell stalwart Menno Visser, who is now retiring. Having started at Batavus on the assembly line, he worked his way up to commercial director and spent the past years as a project manager at Accell. In an exclusive interview, he reflects on industry changes and his vision for the future.