Rescheduled 2021 Cycle Show to host opening trade day

The 2021 Cycle Show and London eBike Festival will be preceded by a trade day, taking place on June 24th, with three consumer days following.

Set for Alexandra Palace, the Immediate Media owned and Upper Street Events managed event will be the first to build in the London eBike Festival, with coronavirus halting progress for the separate event earlier in the year. The merged event had been scheduled originally to run in April.

The Cycle Show Trade Day will be free to attend, but strictly for cycle retailers, plus members of the press only. Previous incarnations of the Trade Day at the NEC allowed other members of the trade to attend, but this will not be extended for the Alexandra Palace show. All trade registrations will be subject to approval in the same way as the annual house shows operate. Trade applications open in early 2021, though you can register your interest in attending here.

Today’s announcement comes in tandem with a new body of research by the group, which delivers a blueprint of 4,600 people’s cycling habits. This research will be handed to participants in this year’s exhibition as an additional incentive.

Research highlights include:

• Close to 8.5% of respondents said they were considering buying an electric bike in the next 12 months and 77% of those were non-enthusiast cyclists looking for a multi-purpose/leisure style bike.
• While price was the key factor when first considering buying an electric bike, that was overtaken by weight of the bike and battery capacity becoming the most important considerations at time of purchase. The majority of buyers spent more than they’d planned to, but price was still a big factor in deciding to buy a traditional bike instead.
• Demos of electric bikes are key to the buying process with 64% of buyers having a test ride before purchasing.
• There was good news for IBDs with 75% of potential customers saying their local bike shop was the first choice for them when considering buying an electric bike. Less than 0.5% felt that bike shops were intimidating places to go into to find information about buying.

Show organiser Chris Holman commented on the decision to add a trade day: “Given the cancellation of the early year trade events in 2021, we consulted with the confirmed exhibitors to get their views on reinstating a trade day at the Cycle Show. The consensus to do so was very positive so we will be opening the show a day early for the trade on Thursday 24th June.

“Next year is going to see a major resetting period with stocks arriving at different times than usually scheduled. Even if products have been launched digitally to the trade there will have been few opportunities for dealers to see them first-hand and to meet with brand experts.

“Currently there are no plans to offer a trade day beyond next year, but we will survey exhibitors and visitors after the show to see if there is a need to offer it again in some capacity.

“One of the USPs of the venue is the exterior parkland and the opportunity to properly demo bikes on the hill, so there will be further discussions with exhibitors to gauge the levels of interest in opening the tracks a day earlier. An additional charge to brands wishing to participate may be levied to do that, but we don’t anticipate any other costs for taking part in the trade day.”

As it stands, the London eBike Festival floorplan is fully booked, but the organisers are extending an invitation to e-Bike brands to exhibit within the main Cycle Show floor space.

Exhibitors already confirmed to attend include: Shimano Steps, Bosch e-Bike Systems, Trek, Lezyne, Specialized, Canyon, Ribble, Raleigh, Lapierre, Haibike, Kinesis, Cannondale, Riese & Muller, VanMoof, Surly, Swift Carbon, Ridgeback, SRAM, and GoCycle amongst others.