Jan-Willem van Schaik
Editor in Chief

Editor in Chief
MILAN, Italy - The combination of increasing e-bike sales and the cancellation of the Italian CosmoBike show in September results in a growing interest for participating in the e-bike section of the upcoming EICMA motorcycle and bike show. "The Italian e-bike market is recording a straing growth.
TAICHUNG, Taiwan - The Taichung Bike Week is paying the price for the international trade show shuffle. After several years of double digit growth, the 2018 event which will take place from 26 - 28 September, is seeing a decrease in the number of exhibitors and participating hotels.
COLOGNE, Germany - Enabling cyclists to find the best IBD nearby and make booking appointments online easily 24/7; that's what Flexini.com is about. Bicycle dealers can use the management tool of flexini.com to organize their appointments efficiently. This is the concept behind the new online platform flexini.com.
In addition to the e-MTB drive units E8000 and E7000 as well as the E6100 city/trekking e-bike groupset, Shimano now introduces the E5000 for city/comfort bikes. With these four systems Shimano offers a complete range in the main e-bike categories. But how is the performance in real-life?
ST. JEAN DE MOIRANS, France - The Rossignol Group, owner of Felt, Rossignol and Time, announce the departure of co-founder and President of Felt Inc, Bill Duehring. The Rossignol Group has appointed Scott Rittschof as Senior Vice President of the company's Global Bike Division.
HELSINKI, Finland - Mavic and Enve no longer fit in Amer Sports' strategy to pursue sustainable, profitable growth. "We prioritize acceleration in soft goods, B2C, China, United States, and digitalization," said Amer Sports President and CEO Heikki Takala this morning while he announced the company's updated strategy.
Merida's e-bike shipments reached 93,300 units in the first seven months on this year up 63 percent or 57,000 units on the 2017 total for the same period. Financial analysists report that the company could see e-bike revenue contributions to rise to 30 percent of its total sales.
TAIPEI, Taiwan - The latest Taiwan Bicycle Association (TBA) statistics show a major improvement of the country's bicycle and e-bike industry's performance. According to the TBA e-bike exports increased 44.9 percent to 155,910 units between January and July this year.
LILLE, France - French Decathlon has acquired Swiss sports store chain Athleticum from Maus Frères for an undisclosed amount. So far, Decathlon had only two stores and a webshop in Switzerland but now the store count jumped to 23 locations.
BERLIN, Germany - E-bike sales in Germany continues to outperform this year. According to the latest estimates of the German industry association 'Zweirad Industrie Verband' (ZIV) around 670,000 units were sold