The role of product awards at international trade fairs has evolved from a promotional tool to a benchmark. Is the industry integrating key trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability into product design? The number of submissions has become an indicator of the industry's performance and level of investment in innovations. All these elements come together in the fourteenth Taipei Cycle d&i Awards, which will be announced on the opening day of the Taipei Cycle Show. Bike Europe sat down with three jury members to discuss how they evaluated the entries.

Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer Merida Industry Co., Ltd. has entered 2026 under continued market pressure. The company reported a -44% year-on-year revenue drop in January, followed by a smaller, but still significant, -22% YoY decline in February compared to last year's Q1 figures.

More than ever before, the industry is awaiting the outcomes of the Taipei Cycle Show. Trade show visits are under pressure in general, and the challenges in the bicycle industry create significant market uncertainty.

As expected, the financial performance of leading industry companies shows that 2025 was a challenging year for the bicycle industry. Especially the leading bike manufacturers were down as they had to continue discounting to bring their inventory levels back to healthy levels. Component manufacturers reported stable sales as replacement parts remain in demand, and the OEM order books for 2026 show a moderate increase again.

German innovator Fidlock, known for its magnet-mechanical fastening systems, has entered into a strategic partnership with Twiceme Technology to boost bicycle helmet safety. By embedding Twiceme's NFC-based solution directly into a component which every helmet already requires, the collaboration enables OEM partners to integrate connected safety functionality without fundamental product redesign.

Astro Tech Co., Ltd., the Taiwanese frame builder specialising in lightweight aluminium alloy and high-rigidity carbon fibre frames, is using its 35th anniversary this year to chart a new strategic course.

Although the March Global Bicycle Purchasing Index (GBPI) data points to sustained improvements in new incoming order levels and the own purchasing levels of bicycles, the assessment of the current industry situation remains poor or average at best. Business sentiment has failed to recover from the drop following Eurobike 2025.

In the bicycle industry, trends rarely emerge from a single presentation or product launch. More often, they appear quietly, through conversations, prototypes, and unexpected encounters. That is why trade shows still matter. And few events illustrate this better than the Taipei Cycle Show, where the future of cycling often becomes visible long before it reaches the global market.

Widely considered a huge growth market, e-bike adoption in the United States has been slow — but this may have turned a corner. According to figures from an independent assessment, an estimated 2.2 million units were imported into the country in 2025, representing a significant increase amid numerous changes in domestic trade policies.

German bicycle supplier Rose Bikes GmbH, a family-owned company that started out as a D2C business and grew step-by-step into an omnichannel supplier, increased its total revenue for the 2024-2025 fiscal year by 2% to €215 million compared to 2023-2024.

For the first time since 2020, the United Kingdom's cycling market has returned to growth in 2025, reports the UK Bicycle Association (BA). Total market value rose 5% year-on-year to reach just under £1.9 billion (€2.2 billion) in 2025, returning close to 2022 levels after several years of decline.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has fined Shimano $11.5 million (€10 million) in civil penalties after accusing the company of "knowingly failing to immediately report" its defective bicycle cranksets to the CPSC. This comes weeks after Shimano North America Holding, Inc. settled a class action lawsuit brought by 14 consumer plaintiffs alleging a breach of warranties and misleading advertising related to the cranksets.

The trade show landscape is adrift and in uncertainty since German industry organisations announced that they will pull out of Eurobike. For decades, the show served as a stable base for the bicycle trade. It was the place to be for the industry and was its window to the rest of the world. Since the organisations ZIV and Zukunft Fahrrad turned their back on Eurobike, this seems to be history, especially for the German companies. Even more telling, newcomers are jumping at the opportunity to capture the audience's attention.

One week before the opening of the Taipei International Cycle Show, the financial reports of the country's three main bicycle manufacturers do not contribute to an upbeat business mood. The combined revenue of these three companies dropped by 13.4% from TWD 103.2 billion (€2.8 billion) in 2024 to TWD 89.4 billion (€2.4 billion) last year. The business mood at Taichung Bike Week six months ago was already a clear indicator of what these numbers confirm. The situation has not improved since September as Taiwan's industry continues to face headwinds.

All financial indicators in 2025 have already made it clear that Canyon is still unable to recover from the post-pandemic industry crisis. The full-year results from owner Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) showed a further 7% decline in Canyon's sales, resulting in a net loss of 34% across the whole year.

Compact and urban e-bikes are experiencing strong expansion, driven by the growing demand for practical urban mobility solutions that integrate easily with public transport and adapt to increasingly dense city environments. It is precisely within this context that OLI eBike Systems' PICO system has found its place.

Singapore-based DuTech Holding Ltd. is rapidly snapping up a series of companies in the bicycle industry. As a global player in cash-handling machines (ATMs), the company is now also eyeing the bicycle industry, particularly in Europe. As the bicycle industry's financial position has remained weak since the aftermath of the pandemic, this strategic investor is a welcome guest for many companies.

For a brief moment during the pandemic boom of 2020-2021, the cycling industry appeared to enter the mainstream of global mobility investment. Venture capital flowed into direct-to-consumer e-bike brands, and private equity firms took significant stakes in several major European players.

A resolution of the United States' Withhold Release Order (WRO), which is affecting Giant Taiwan's manufacturing operations, can't come soon enough for the company, as it reports another month of steep revenue losses in February 2026.

At two million units, the German e-bike market held steady in 2025, after the volatile market during pandemic years. The sales volume has been around this level since 2023. The same goes for mechanical bicycles, whose sales volume has remained steady over the past three years at just under two million units. To grow the market, the industry should therefore focus on increasing the average retail price, but that continued to decline in 2025. No wonder the industry organisations emphasised the growing popularity of bike leasing and refurbishing at their joint presentation of the 2025 market results.