Does Eurobikes Shift Predict A Cycling Industry Reset, At Least For Trade Shows? Its been a week since Eurobike, and Im left thinking about takeaways from this years show.Weve written only a handful of pure Eurobike new product stories this year. And thats not because there wasnt interesting tech to discover at Europes largest and, realistically, the western cycling industrys last remaining trade show. There have been plenty of cool new bike tech stories and a decent amount of our signature bike rumors. And well keep sharing more of both in the coming days.For me, it was still very much a productive show. I had several days packed with meetings, and got sneak peeks of some interesting new products, both from exhibitors and non-exhibiting show visitors.But, Im left wondering if the heyday of big bike industry trade shows like Interbike and Eurobike is truly now a thing of the past? Why was there a big cycling industry trade show to start with?(All photos/Cory Benson)Ive covered Eurobike personally for the past 13 years, before that, having first been to Interbike in my shop rat days more than a decade earlier. My Bikerumor colleagues had reported on Eurobike for 5 years before me, since the early days of the site, in fact. Yet, the 2026 Eurobike just looked different.This years show was less about established bike & component brands, which had formed the base of these types of shows for decades. Those big brands were what had always ensured a high number of commercial visitors the product managers, distributors, shop owners, and manufacturers who came together to make real business deals. That, in turn, also made it valuable for smaller often more nimble, sometimes more innovative brands to show off their next new tech on a big stage, to a ready audience. Everyone across the cycling industry would coalesce in one place for a week, see what each other were working on, and simply have a common place to meet and catch up.Plus, for us, it had the tangible benefit of tons of new bicycle products on hand and on display in one place. Perfect for cycling media to see it all, take pictures of the next best products for the coming year, and then share it with our rapt audience around the world. It was the one week each year when we would see the most new product all in one convenient location.2026 Eurobike show was kind of dominated by outsidersBut this year, the avalanche of new product launches simply wasnt at the show. More of it was actually piling up in our inboxes back at the office.2026 was more a show of a few key players looking to disrupt the cycling world, while industry stalwarts waited in the shadows to see what might happen next. Avinox and Canyon were undeniably the busiest exhibitors in Frankfurt this year, even though they were far from the only ones showing off new tech.Avinox made waves teasing their MG Concept, a combined ebike motor and gearbox. But its not really very close to being ready for consumers, or even the press, to ride. And the rumor in the halls was they only decided to show it off relatively last minute, once they heard that in the booth opposite them, fellow Chinese ebike motor maker (for brands like Aventon, for example) Gobao would be showing of their own combined motor & gearbox, quite a bit further along in development. But Avinox still had plenty to show off to the industry, as virtually every premium eMTB maker has been clamoring to get bikes with their wildly-powerful new 1500W, 150Nm M2S powertrain.As for Canyon, why did a consumer-direct brand show up to a Business-To-Business (B2B) event? Clearly, Canyon was flexing, too. While pretty much every conventional flagship bike brand stayed away, Canyon showed off how they have built their brand into a global leader in innovation with exciting road, commuter, cross-country & eMTB concept bikes on display, plus a tease of multiple unreleased bikes soon to launch. No other exhibitor at Eurobike had anywhere close to the volume of new product innovation on display. And Canyon isnt even selling to bike shops or distributors. Total power move.Who was at this years show, who wasnt, and why?Plenty of other long-running Eurobike exhibitors were still at the show, too. TRP celebrated their 20th anniversary. Rotwild celebrated 30 years. Plus brands like FFWD, Hope, Intend, Nukeproof, Prologo, Ridley, and Rohloff all had cool new stuff to share.But notably absent (or mostly so) were the entire SRAM family, Shimano, Campagnolo, DT Swiss, all of big tire makers, the main German distributors, and critically, the two big German cycling industry groups who are putting together a competing trade show next summer.Does a B2B trade show even make sense anymore?At the show the general consensus, from those in the industry who make buying decisions, sounds like any commercial trade show is less and less relevant, as major bike brands arent making component or manufacturing decisions at a midsummer show. And bike shops & distributors simply dont place orders for the next year at one big show where they can compare options side-by-side.Yet, brands still want to be visible. They need consumers to know that they have new products, and get excited about buying new stuff. So, while B2B matters less for bike brands, they do want to be seen at more local B2C (Business-To-Consumer) shows. Thats why consumer Festival Days at Eurobike have been a thing keeping the show going. And of course brands want the cycling press to show up at those shows to write about all their new products.But even though commercial sales arent happening so much at the trade show anymore, the face-to-face meetings we had in Frankfurt still felt very important. I spoke with several show attendees both exhibitors and brands just visiting who explained how vital it is for them to be able to meet with their suppliers and manufacturing partners in a single forum. Thats a service show organizers still need to figure out how to satisfy.B2B vs. B2C vs. separate media launches? And from a media perspective, historically, the big trade shows are our most efficient way to get lots of new product information in a short timeframe. We get the chance to speak with the people behind new product development, to hold those new products in-hand, to make our own determination of how interesting or worthwhile they are to write about, and we dont have to travel from brand to brand to do so. The trouble is, recreating that at a bunch of smaller shows makes much less sense.This year at Eurobike I saw unreleased gravel & commuter tires, glimpsed potentially game-changing gravel wheels, one of the first properly innovative bike racks I can remember, a resurgence of the combination of ebike motors with a gearbox, plus a few unreleased race bikes, and more Avinox-powered eMTBs than you could shake a stick at. No other forum can fit all that into just a few days.I also fondly remember a few years of Eurobike Media Days, which was only brands showcasing new products for the cycling press to test out. No B2B or B2C deals being made. But, apparently that wasnt commercially sustainable, either.Will Bikerumor be there to cover the next tradeshow?And with that, Ill admit that our team starts to feel a bit of trade show fatigue. As the big shows get smaller, smaller shows become more relevant for new product launches. And we feel pressure to be in many places at once to not miss the next best thing to share with you dear reader even if much of that is pressure we put on ourselves, to not miss anything. FOMO kinda is at the root of our MO.This year weve already been to Taipei Cycle in Taiwan, Sea Otter Classic in California, and Eurobike in Germany, so far. Well probably head at least to Sea Otter Europe in Spain, MADE in Oregon, and Bespoked in Germany before years end. And weve turned down a lot of shows in the past 12 months: CyclingWorld, Riva Bike, Roc dAzur, Roleur Live & Velofollies to name a few not to mention a few national shows you likely havent ever even heard of.Realistically, a good trade show takes us two weeks to cover in our nerdy tech style. And there are only so many weeks in the year to fit them in, amongst all our other new bike tech coverage product news & in-depth reviews.Where does Eurobike go next?This year, Eurobike was much smaller in physical size than in years past down to about half as many exhibition halls compared to last year, almost a third of what it was a few years before. Thats a clear trend showing the decline in the commercial viability of holding a single major trade show. But Eurobike hasnt quite given up yet.They will be back next year in 2027, but probably smaller again. And, back to the traditional Eurobike timing of the first week of September the 1st-3rd like it was for more than a decade.After that, there will not be a Eurobike show in 2028. The show organizers have just announced that they will move to a biannual schedule on one year, off the next. Their rationale seems to be that there is not enough interest to do it every year. But I cant imagine how the industry wont simply move on to the next platform if they disappear for even one year.And thats where Towards Tomorrow fits in or rather Twrds Tmrrw, because theres a premium on vowels, or something silly, like that. Is Twrds Tmrrw the next step forward?This is the independent trade show being organized in Cologne, DE next summer by the German Cycling Industry ZIV association. Its a direct reaction to Eurobike not taking into account the actual needs of the bike producers, distributors & retailers especially those in the German market, home to Eurobike for more than 3 decades. At the moment, as an outsider, it feels very much like the German market saying that they are not happy with Eurobike trying to cater to more of an international audience. But Germany is very much the biggest player in the cycling industry in Europe, with the greatest purchasing power, so it seems strange that Eurobike didnt bring their industry association to the table to figure out a way forward.So in 2027, just days after Eurobike ends in Frankfurt, Twrds Tmrrw will begin in Cologne, less than 200km away September 6-8th. While its close enough for attendees to visit both, and a weekend separates them, its too close for big brands to realistically exhibit at both. So the bike industry is going to have to decide: Do you stick with the old show you know? Or commit to a new, possibly more forward-looking tradeshow?I hope we dont have to cover both. But its looking like September 2027 is going to shake up how we cover the industrys new product showcase in Europe!The post Does Eurobikes Shift Predict A Cycling Industry Reset, At Least For Trade Shows? appeared first on Bikerumor.
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