Bike sales secrets, Taipei insights & more in new Cycling Industry News magazine

Bike sales secrets, techniques and strategies for bike shops, insights from industry heartland Taiwan & the cutting edge tech being used in cycle manufacturing… it’s all within the latest issue of Cycling Industry News magazine.

Issue #4 2025 features include:

• The long way back into the saddle: Reports from the Taipei Cycle Show floor, gathering intel from industry heartland Taiwan on the prospects for 2025 and beyond
• Do shops need a shop front? Bell’s Bicycles shares how it is eschewing some traditional bike retail conventions
• Bike trade sales secrets: Cycle sales veteran John Styles kicks off a new series with CIN – first are some straightforward pointers on body language and breaking down barriers with bike shop customers
• Are you missing a trick? Small changes could increase your female customer base, according to some unique cycle consumer research shared in this issue
• Trading challenges: Excerpts from CIN’s unique Market Data report shine light on the bike retail front line
• Welding is out, adhesives are in: Non-traditional ways to construct frames are in development
• Picking up the picnic pace: Brooks does things its own way with its new tour programme alongside bike shops
• With more manufacturers harnessing 3D printing tech in the design and manufacture of saddles, CIN speaks with additive manufacturing specialist Carbon
• The electric bike conversion kits market is examined
• CIN Live makes its debut this September. We start sharing some of the brands, exhibitors and attractions heading its way
• What’s next for the global bike industry? We speak with a cross-border collaboration specialist about investor briefings, emerging tech alliances and why dialogue is the true engine of change in the global bike industry…

Don’t get a copy of Cycling Industry News magazine through the post? You can subscribe for free (presuming you are a member of the cycle trade). You can also subscribe to our similarly FOC email newsletter.

Comment, queries and complaints can be filed to our Editor [email protected].

Editor’s message:

SALES ARE UP? NOW THE PRESSURE IS REALLY ON

Pinch yourself, grasp the smelling salts and rub your eyes in the style of a Tex Avery cartoon. There has been “a significant improvement to the whole [UK cycling] market”. That’s according to the latest statistics from the Bicycle Association, which notes total sales are up 12% and – you may need to sit down – there has been a value rise of 13% for mechanical bikes.” Proof positive that the channel is finally clearing overstocks and is firmly “on the mend”? It would appear so.

We sincerely hope that your till receipts, bookings and orders numbers reflect these findings from the BA. Maybe they will also mean money is more forthcoming when you’re chasing invoices and payments.

These positive market results coincide – and are doubtless partially at least due to – a significant upturn in the UK’s meteorological fortunes, with large swathes of the UK enjoying a warm and dry spring so far. It’s perhaps helpful to be reminded that last year was pretty wet (particularly in England’s populous South) and that damp weather came (in ’24) as the industry was direly in need of tailwinds to help it get through tricky times.

Back to those BA stats: Sales were up 14% for eBikes, 9% for PAC and 14% for services, in March 2025. Positive signs indeed and while many of us will be watching them with caution, there’s a fair chance they are a genuine sign of the recovery. It would be remiss not to at least mention that many market challenges remain, but let’s have our moment.

However, if recent years have taught us anything, it is that the market (and weather) changes. Just like the lockdown boom, these things do not last forever. If we are in line for a long-awaited upturn in fortunes, we can’t squander this opportunity to make the industry, and the businesses within it, more robust, nimble and – wherever possible – not put all our eggs in one basket. The industry needs to be sustainable, in all senses of the word. We all want to be able to pay our mortgages and rent not just when things are looking up, but also when things inevitably get a bit leaner again at some point further in the future. It is now that the pressure is really on the business leaders, owners and CEOs: to ensure a robust future for themselves, their brands, employees and local business ecosystems.