I went to the Eurobike trade show for the first time in thirty years and came away with mixed impressions on the state of the bike industry halfway through 2025.
Eurobike has been the biggest trade show in Europe for as long as I remember and in its heyday every brand from the global superpowers to the smallest startups would be there. That included a whole load of European brands I’d never heard of outside occasional sightings at Belgian cyclo cross races or World Cup MTB races, and then an even larger host of Asian brands I’d never heard of at all.
The bit about the European and Asian brands I’d never heard of hasn’t changed one bit, but the only giant bike brand at the show this year was literally Giant. Shimano were there too to celebrate the launch of XTR but there was no SRAM / RockShox stand, Fox or even Manitou and friends. In fact, the only other bike brand with a sizeable stand presence were German heavy metal specialists Nicolai who were celebrating both their 30th birthday and their collaboration with Gates Belt Drive a cutting edge Chinese battery brand and their own EV power brand.
EV? Electric Vehicle, and don’t worry I’ve only become aware of bikes being described as 2 wheel EV’s in the past few weeks. It’s a phrasing that’s apparently well established in Europe though where personal mobility - rather than just cycling - is now the buzzword. And as Elmar from Nicolai explained it, describing anything between a pedal assisted E-bike and a Tesla that’s designed for moving people and stuff about as an ‘EV’ actually makes a ton of sense. Not least from the point of view of avoiding a lot of the ‘them and us’ hostility that’s increasingly surrounding cycling. Anyway, whatever you call them, urban EV’s from conventional shopping bikes to cargo bikes and all sorts of bizarre beasts of burden were everywhere in the vast show halls and the demo laps outside them. And that’s great not only in terms of reducing pollution and making our towns and cities safer and more pleasant. It also gets more normal people pedalling as part of their weekly routine and then potentially doing it on the weekend for fun too. So, in terms of the bigger picture of people zipping about not on cars, then Eurobike was a very positive experience.
Don’t believe the half year hype
Halfway through 2025 it’s clear that the specialist cycling industry is still in a lot of trouble. But hang on, what about all those ‘Quality not quantity’, ‘lots to build on’, and ‘upbeat mood’ headlines that you’ll see in show reports? Those are about as true as the brave face/gritted teeth statements you hear from football managers or parents after a disastrous match or school report.
There are various reasons why most of the big brands weren't there, such as wanting a captured audience at a dealer camp - Trek directly clashed theirs with Eurobike - rather than easily distracted passing trade. One of the biggest reasons is that most of them are either skint, or at least massively reigning in spending. Because the people from the non-stand brands were still there in force, having meetings and sniffing around to see who had turned up, but not actually investing in the show beyond a sandwich or two.
I collared enough of the covert attendees to get a good gauge on the behind the scenes gossip too. And most of that revolved around the fact that not only are many brands absolutely on the ropes financially, but a lot of them still have a massive stockpile of old product to shift. Want proof, look at the ‘new’ bikes popping up with new Shimano on them. Now check the frame closely. Has it got a UDH hanger? Is it an alloy version of a bike that came out in carbon in 2000 or vice versa? Is it a gravel bike with 45mm clearance or less when everyone has been going on about 50mm tyre clearance for the past couple of years? New colours and rebrand on fundamentally the same frame? That’s because in many cases what you’re seeing as ‘new’ is a design that was made - or at least designed - four years ago or more.
While 40% reductions in sale prices are so common now we barely blink, those same numbers are now appearing in company accounts. Canyon, Giant, and Merida have all announced massive hits or ‘adjustments’ recently and in the latter case it was mostly related to shortfalls in their Specialized investment. Several other brands are currently for sale as vulture capitalists cut and run from the losses they’ve incurred after greedily swooping onto bike brands at peak covid profits only to see them collapse almost immediately. It’s not just the mega and mid brands either. Feather and Coal bikes are shutting up shop, I know that several names that you’d probably consider household in MTB literally have their houses on the line too and many shops are in a similar situation.
And even if your company is currently OK, those money birds squawk very loudly to their finance bro friends so it makes getting future investment harder for anyone in the bike business. And if people aren’t investing in them, then they’re unlikely to invest in other areas of their business either. Eurobike showed that shows aren’t getting cut from the budget, but on the media side advertising, ambassador deals, team sponsorship etc. are all getting heavily sliced or just frozen entirely. It’s really hard to even get test bikes out of companies that used to hand them out like candy. Because selling one bike today to keep the lights on tomorrow is more important than putting faith in your designers to get a good review and selling tens, hundreds or even thousands of them over the next year. And this short termism - while understandable if you’re dumping inventory at a loss and laying off staff - is probably the most damaging trend of all. Because if companies don’t invest in media, advocacy, and advertising then they won’t attract new customers or help create a rich environment to feel part of.
So yes, while there was indeed an ‘upbeat mood’ among people at the show, that was mainly because if they could afford a stand, they were probably doing a lot better than their competitors. And before you ask, no, Polaris didn’t have a stand. But the great news is that we’ve got some cracking samples on test now and as soon as the production versions arrive you’ll be seeing us everywhere. Because we do believe in investing in the events and fun stuff that makes riding even better as that’s the whole reason we’ve resurrected a brand that’s always stood for experiences and enjoyment over profits and payouts.
