How’s Business? November 2019

Welcome to our monthly chat with a diverse selection of bicycle shop owners from throughout Australia and New Zealand. We could not have had a much larger geographic spread this month, including store owners from Cairns, Darwin, Perth and Havelock North, which is on the east coast of New Zealand. As always, we start by…

How Fast Will Ebike Sales Grow?

Manuel Marsilio General Manager of the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) has predicted that the European ebike market will triple in the next five years. Last year 2.5 million ebikes were sold in Europe. Mr Marsilio is predicting annual sales of 7.5 million units by 2025. Latest sales figures show that 920,000 ebikes…

UCI Announces World Championships for Indoor Cycling

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recently announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Zwift, the global online training and racing platform for athletes, for the governance and development of cycling esports as a new cycling discipline. The inaugural UCI Cycling Esports World Championships in 2020, as well as qualification events for…

Giant’s Ebike Manufacturing Growing at 56% Year on Year

Giant expects to sell 600,000 ebikes in 2019, up from 385,000 in 2018. That’s a growth rate of 56% year on year. Giant recently announced that they had sold 290,000 ebikes for the first six months of 2019 and were aiming to sell more than 310,000 for the second half of this year. Giant is…

New Technology Will Mean Greater Range, Smaller Batteries for Ebikes

Bosch is investing approximately one billion Euros (A$1.63 billion) in new silicon carbide semiconductor technology that is due to enter production in the first half of 2020. In simple terms, the new semiconductors allow power to flow more efficiently from the ebike battery to the motor. Bosch says that semiconductors made of silicon carbide set…

Adventure Brands Goes Global

On 1st October Jamie Walsh, founder and owner of Adventure Brands announced the sale of his business to Global Fitness and Leisure. “We have experienced a significant increase in demand for our products,especially the iconic Rocky Mountain brand,” Jamie said in his official announcement. “To best enable the business to flourish, it was agreed that…

Australian Handlebar Dispute Makes US Trade News

You may not be aware that there is an Australian low volume, high technology carbon fibre handlebar brand named Eyropro. Based in Adelaide, South Australia Eyropro makes road racing bars that weigh just 200 grams. They have a unique upswept design that is now the subject of a patent dispute with USA brand Coefficient Cycling…

Wahoo Fitness Acquires Speedplay Pedals

On 24th September Wahoo Fitness announced that it had acquired Speedplay, the niche high end pedal manufacturer known for its unique colourful ‘lollypop’ shaped Zero pedals. In a joint press release Wahoo Fitness founder Chip Hawkins said, “Wahoo and Speedplay share a common approach of leveraging technology to develop products that enhance the performance of…

Bikesportz Takes Over as Bosch Service Centre

From 1st October Bikesportz has officially become the Australian Service and Warranty Centre for Bosch Ebike Systems. “It’s going very well so far,” Shannon Cramer told The Latz Report. “We’re working very closely with Bosch who are located nearby. Customer feedback so far has been very positive.’ In another new initiative, Bikesportz has taken over…

Over The Edge For Sale

Melrose is a historic town of just 400 residents, 2 ½ hours north of Adelaide. But this is not an ordinary country town. Tucked into the base of Mount Remarkable, Melrose gets over 100,000 tourist visitors per year of whom quite a few come for the great cycling on offer. Over The Edge in Melrose,…