Posts by Phil Latz
Bicycle Import Volumes Heading for Financial Year Record Low
Canberra, ACT The number of bicycles being imported to Australia is remaining at very low levels, as the “covid stock overhang” continues. When we last wrote about bicycle imports here, January and February 2024 data was showing signs of a rebound after 18 months of low imports. But now that we have data for March,…
Trade News Briefs: Things are on the Move in Melbourne!
World Trail Breaks Ground on Warburton MTB Destination After a decade of planning, extensive environmental studies, community opposition and setbacks, the huge Warburton MTB Destination is finally under construction. This mountain bike park will include a massive 160 kilometres of singletrack and is located only about 30 minutes from the eastern edge of Melbourne’s suburbs…
Inside London’s Bicycle Retail Scene
London, UK Recently I had the opportunity to spend a week in London and visited eight diverse bicycle businesses. This article, which is the first of two, gives an overview, then looks at four of them, with four more in depth visits to other stores documented in a separate article entitled “Ideas from Four Unique…
Software and Collaborations Headline Bosch Launch
Frankfurt, Germany When in comes to who has the biggest market share of mid-mount e-bike drivetrain systems few dispute that Bosch is the leader. According to one industry expert, for the European market Bosch has a 60% market share, followed by Shimano at 22%, Bafang at 8% and all others combined for the final 10%.…
Creativity On Show at Eurobike
Frankfurt, Germany There was plenty of creativity on show at Eurobike this year, not just in the new products but in some of the displays. Creatives Take on “Dull” Market Bicycle locks are big business. And only getting bigger with the explosion of high value e-bikes worldwide. But the lock industry has not been seen…
How’s Business? – July 2024
Welcome to How’s Business, brought to you by our sponsor Dirt Works Australia, where right now, you can get Sunringle wheelsets for HALF PRICE. We’ve been hearing stories of tough times from several different bike industry members, so for this month’s follow up question we asked, “How tough has this winter season been compared to…
Vast Array of New Products at Eurobike 2024
Frankfurt, Germany Welcome to Part One of our Eurobike coverage! By the numbers it was a record breaking show. There were 35,080 trade visitors from around the world, plus 33,090 public visitors. Both of these numbers were up slightly on last year. They came to see over 1,800 exhibits, which ranged from small booths up…
European Bike Sales Down, But Far from Out!
Frankfurt, Germany As you would expect, there was a lot of talk at Eurobike about the post-covid boom downturn in the bicycle industry, just as there has been in Australia. But rather than just base articles on subjective conversations I’m always keen to ask, “What does the data say?” The following article is based on…
Retail Briefs – Commuter Cycles Goes Off Course
Brunswick, Victoria In 2008 Huw Vellacott opened a one person workshop called Commuter Cycles. Based in inner city Melbourne, he was looking to serve the growing cohort of daily cycle commuters. But over the next 16 years as his team and product range expanded, the name no longer fitted the business. So from June 2024…
Lusty Helps Boost Your Store and Workshop Profitability
~ Sponsored Content ~ In these tough times for the complete bicycle market, the Lusty Industries team knows that dealers need to increase their workshop and P&A profitability and they’ve developed a great range to help their dealers achieve these goals. Lusty Industries is far more than a wholesaler that simply imports products and distributes…