It was cold and grey for this year’s Taipei Cycle. This is the original exhibition hall, shot from the top level of the newer Hall 2.
Taipei, Taiwan
I will admit to living six decades before learning of the game, ‘Spotto!’ But my four year old grandson is helping me make up for lost time by taking huge pleasure in spotting yellow cars and motorbikes before I do and enthusiastically telling me how much he’s winning by.
I decided to take his inspiration with me to this year’s Taipei Cycle and spot as many Aussies in the aisles as possible.
According to the official attendance figures that the organisers kindly provided at my request, 107 Aussies and Kiwis attended Taipei Cycle this year. You might think that’s a surprisingly high number, but in pre-covid years they reported totals as high as the 180’s. The reduced Australian attendance was in line with overall reduced attendance of buyers from Western markets.
In the photos below you’ll see only 25 smiling Aussie faces, therefore my Spotto strike rate was only 23%! Even this paltry result was hard to achieve when there were three separate halls totalling about 60,000 square metres. I’m not sure whether to play another round of Spotto at Eurobike this July, which will be more than twice the size, spread across about eight halls.
It will largely depend upon the number of reads this article receives and any other feedback. Over to you…
Adam Flannagan from Bicycler Peddler.Dan Willis and Simon Burke from GPI Apollo.Chris Langdon from Echelon Sports with one of his key suppliers, Josh Poertner, President of former Italian brand Silca, which is now based in Indianapolis, USA.John Dunnachie and Neil Watson from BikecorpHarvey Crabtree from MC Cyclery in inner Sydney.Geoff Wood who manages Asia Pacific sales & marketing for Leatt from his hometown of Bungendore, NSW.Alex Noon from CPE Capital in Sydney with Michael Rabbetts from Adventure Online (Pushys, Bikebug etc)Chris Ting from VMG bikes was displaying his new police bike specifically designed for search and rescue in off road terrain.Dave Evans on the SRAM booth where they were trumpeting their supply of road components to the winners of all three Grand Tours in 2023.John Tsekouris of New Black Consulting and Matt Whitmore of Cycle The Net, who collaborate on importing and distributing Chapter2 in AustraliaDes Flynn from Big RingSimon Hayes and Joel Fitzgerald from KWTLisa Cotton has developed this Headlokt combined helmet and locking system from scratch through the long Melbourne lockdown. Her irrepressible enthusiasm persuaded Jayco caravan and cycling team owner Gerry Ryan to invest substantially into its development. Headlokt is now in production and looking for dealers. It will retail in Australia for $149.Darren Harper and Kieran Coulter from FE Sports.Andrew McEwin from BPW was visiting the show with his son Paul and team member Christian, (who both successfully managed to avoid my photo ambush, leaving Andrew to ride solo.)Not there in person, but this was one of several large promotional posters around the show, linked with Australia’s world tour team Jayco Alula. There are brownie points up for grabs for anyone who can successfully identify the riders shown here.Craig Kilpatrick from Go Easy AustraliaJean-Claude Pretorius from South Side Distribution has developed this brand himself. Inner Bikes will launch in Australia in September with road and gravel models. The bikes will be shipped to dealers unbuilt and they can specify bars / stems / forks etc from the BLKTEC range.Brent Richards from Ryuger Bikes has an interesting back story – please refer to the separate article headlined ‘Three Examples of Increasing Diversity at Taipei Cycle’ for more.
Be sure to come and see our biggest ever booth at Eurobike this year! Hall 9, D16.