News
How’s Business? – October 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. If you read what our participating bike shop owners had to say this month, you’ll see that their answers range from “Worst ever!” to “Best ever!” with the rest mainly towards…
Retail Briefs – October
Off Course As we reported here earlier this year, after 16 years trading as Commuter Cycles, the inner city Melbourne store rebranded as Off Course to reflect the much wider range of bikes that it now sells and services, including to gravel and adventure riding markets. After a long gap between visits, I recently dropped…
World News Briefs – October 2024
16,500 Non-Compliant Fat Bikes Seized in the Netherlands Many Australian bicycle dealers are concerned about the impact upon their businesses of the sale through online and other channels of fatbikes that greatly exceed the legal 250 watt power limit (500 watt in NSW). These dealers would probably like to see Australian government authorities take actions…
Trade News Briefs – October 2024
NICA Launches Youth Mountain Bike Program in Australia The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) is a USA founded and based youth development organisation dedicated to building strong mind, body, character and communities through mountain biking. Founded in 2009 as a non-profit organisation, NICA currently has 32 state and regional leagues and 14,000+ registered volunteer coaches…
Australian Designed Rickshaw Debuts
Morisset, NSW Rickshaws date back 150 years and evoke images of hand-drawn or cycle-powered small vehicles in traditional Asian settings. According to Wikipedia there were four million rickshaws in operation during the late 1980’s. But in Australia, rickshaw style bicycles have been virtually non-existent until more recently when they’ve found demand for two main uses…
Bosch Launches New Motor and ABS Braking Options
Stuttgart, Germany As we recently reported here, Bosch did not launch any new hardware at their annual media event at Eurobike on Tuesday 2nd July instead focusing upon software. But on 1st October they launched several new products. According to their latest media release, Bosch employs a staggering 428,000 people worldwide (as at 31st December…
How’s Business? – September 2024
Global Active Transport Pioneer Enlightens Audiences Australia-Wide
Canberra, ACT Wales is a small country, whether you measure it by land area or population. It’s part of the United Kingdom, but usually overshadowed by its much larger neighbour, England. But over recent years one politician in Wales has been making global news in relation to two “radical” policies in particular. Lee Waters has…
Trade News Briefs – September 2024
Industry Veteran Ed Lancaster Picks Up Three New Roles Those of you with long industry backgrounds might remember the Lancaster brothers, Wally and Edward, from bicycle racing days in the 1980’s and 90’s. After partnering in a bicycle apparel distribution business, Wally left the industry and now runs gyms in Stanthorpe and Tenterfield through his…
World News Briefs – September 2024
Mixed Financial Results for Global Bike Companies Everyone in the Australian bicycle industry knows that times have been tough for over two years now since the end of the covid boom. But exactly how tough has it been on a global scale? We don’t often report upon the financial results of global bicycle companies, but…