|
|
|
|
It’s been well over a year since we stopped posting regular Latz Report newsletters for the Australian bicycle trade. But as we did in 2025, I’m still planning to post up to two special editions… this one that you’re reading now and possibly a Eurobike report later this year. Plus there may be a sponsored EDM on rare occasions.
|
There’s undoubtedly a part of me that would love to still be posting regular newsletters… so much to write about! Oil shortages and potential bike booms, big ownership changes at a range of wholesalers and more. If you miss my reporting on bicycle trade issues, please Google “Stats with Latz” and you’ll find a series, 18 articles so far, that I’ve been writing at Flow Mountain Bike.
|
In this newsletter, you can read my full 2026 Taipei Cycle show coverage, see our always popular “Aussies at the Show”, the latest on e-bike and fat bike regulations, an interview with “Father of the Mountain Bike” Gary Fisher and detailed photos of what’s arguably the world’s first true mountain bike.
|
I’ll finish with an urgent call to action…
|
If you’re either a wholesaler or retailer, please read our short Yearbook article. We’re currently finalising our 2026 Latz Report Yearbook and need you to update your listing if you’re a wholesaler and update your mailing address if you’re a retailer who either moved, added a shop or didn’t receive last year’s print version of the Yearbook.
|
We’d also love for you to bookmark our online flipbook Yearbook edition.
|
All these actions are completely free of charge!
|
Until next time, keep cycling!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We’re currently working on the 2026 Latz Report Yearbook trade directory for the Australian Bicycle trade. This will be the 31st edition of the Yearbook since we launched it in 1996. Over the decades the Yearbook has become a much loved and used resource, particularly for its main intended end users, bicycle shop owners and their teams throughout Australia. You …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It’s been another tough year for the Taiwanese bike manufacturing industry. With things starting to get desperate, they’re piling their chips onto black 32 and crossing their fingers… Times have been tough for the Taiwanese bicycle industry, which for the past 30 years has been a key supplier of high end bicycles and components to Australia and the rest of …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Taipei Cycle was noticeably quieter this year.Unlike most previous years, show organisers did not publish attendance data immediately after the show and, two weeks later, have still not responded to my direct request for information. But for many years Australia has been a top 10 country customer for the Taiwanese bicycle industry in terms of dollar value of exports so …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the messy, piecemeal and sometimes contradictory labyrinth of rules and regulations that currently “govern” the importation, sale and use of e-bikes in Australia. There are a lot of unhappy Australians at the moment when it comes to regulations for e-bikes in general and fat bikes in particular. The bicycle industry is not happy that New South Wales has …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At age 75, Gary Fisher is still fighting fit, riding regularly and spinning yarns. Although the prestigious Smithsonian Magazine named Gary Fisher the “Father of the Mountain Bike”, and Fisher was certainly a key player at its birthplace, in reality there was no single inventor of the mountain bike. It was gradually developed by a bunch of Marin County, California …
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
