News
NSW Abandons E-scooter Trial – Minister ‘Not in the Mood’
Uncertainty Around E-Scooter and Throttle Controlled Ebike Legalities
How’s Business? March 2021
Welcome to our monthly chat with bicycle store owners and managers across Australia and New Zealand. Recently we’ve seen a proliferation of electric scooters on the roads, bike paths and footpaths across both countries. Many are part of newly emerging hire schemes, but many more are privately owned. It appears that most of these are…
Latest Import Data Reflects Covid Bike Boom Import Surge
As we all know, dealers and wholesalers have been short of bikes since not long after the pandemic broke out. But the latest data is strongly suggesting that this shortage is not due to a reduction of supply. In fact, imports have surged to record levels. It’s just that even these record imports have not…
Bianchi ANZ Launches, Announces Manager
We announced here back in October that Bianchi was changing its distribution structure for Australia. Previously Bianchi was distributed via SOLA Sport. Now the newly formed Bianchi Australia will be taking over. On 28th January, Bianchi announced that Luca Calcaterra had been appointed Area Manager for Australia and New Zealand. Luca will report to Zoe…
Cycling’s Friends Speak Up in Federal Parliament
On Tuesday 16th February the second ever Parliamentary Friends of Cycling event was held within Australia’s parliament house in Canberra. There are over 100 Parliamentary Friendship Groups (PFG’s) covering a huge range of interests mainly across environmental, health and social issues. Although these groups do not hold any formal legislative power, they provide an important…
Bike Industry Share Prices Surge in 2020
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the huge covid induced increase in demand for bicycles and related products, 2020 was a banner year for share prices of those bike companies who are listed on stock exchanges. Here is a summary of some of the better performers: Company Stock Exchange Main Product/Activity Change in Share Price Bafang Electric Shanghai…
SRAM Buys Time
SRAM has completed the purchase of the Time Sport pedal business from Rossignol Group. The acquisition adds another brand to SRAM’s portfolio of RockShox, Avid, Quarq, Zipp, and Truvativ and gives it a distinct pedal brand and technology should it choose to re-enter the growing market for pedal-based power meters. Other than some Truvativ flat…
Team Changes at The Latz Report and Micromobility Report
Effective from today, Ed Price is taking over from Mel Doyle as Media Sales Manager for The Latz Report, The Latz Report Yearbook and the Micromobility Report. Publisher Phil Latz said, “I’d like to thank Mel Doyle for the outstanding job she’s done through a difficult Covid affected year. Catie, Linda and I all wish…
BBC Produces Documentary on the Bike Boom
In December 2020 the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) released an interesting new 23 minute documentary about the global bicycle market and its covid induced boom. The program is one of an eight part series entitled Made on Earth: Road to Recovery. As you would expect from the BBC, this is a very well-produced program that…