Taipei International Cycle Show 2005

Introduction

We had a chance to take a look at the Taipei International Cycle Show 2005 and bring back some juicy tidbits for everyone here in Togoparts. First, allow us to briefly describe the Taiwan bicycle-manufacturing scene before touching on the show itself.

Taiwan?s bicycle-manufacturing industry

Taiwan-made sporting goods are increasingly recognized as among the best in the world. In recent years, the Taiwan sporting good manufacturing industry has gradually moved upmarket, while close to completely phasing out low-end production. Products churned out on the island are now acknowledged and widely received by the mid and high-end market segments.

The Taiwanese have proven themselves to be world-class bike producers with a strong background in contract services. A number have also established brand names that are well received in many advanced markets. The key to the success of the Taiwanese bicycle industry is that it has the full backing of the government in R&D of advanced bike models and key components. Currently, its main focus is on the development of ?3N?s ? New products, New functions and New uses.

About the show

This year, the 18th Taipei International Cycle Show, organized by TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) and the TBEA (Taiwan Bicycle Exporters? Association), opened its doors at the Taipei World Trade Center from 4th to 7th March. The overwhelming response led TAITRA to extend the indoor areas of the show grounds to 40,259 square metres, allowing a total of 620 participating companies from 27 countries to occupy 2019 booths.

On the opening day of the Cycle Show, President Chen ShuiBian attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He stated that the Taiwan government is ready to give full support to the bicycle industry as a model industrial case. Yoshizo Shimano, chairman of the Bicycle Association (Japan) and Shimano Inc. also mentioned, ??moves made by the Taiwan bicycle industry is the right one? fits beautifully with global needs.?

So what was in the show?

The show comprised of products from both Taiwan and other countries such as Europe and Japan. There were many bicycle components, clothing and accessories, including anything we could think of to do with wheels ? mountain bikes, road bikes, tandem bikes, hybrids, unicycles, trials bikes, recumbent bikes, cruisers, folding bikes, trailers, and even a Ducati motorbike!

The more known companies for complete bikes in the show included Giant, Merida, Wheeler and Pacific Cycles, while the companies of bigger brand parts included SRAM, Shimano, KMC, Michelin, RST, Hutchinson, Kenda, Maxxis, Wellgo and lots of others. There were also other brands making themselves more apparent, like Hasa, Spinner, and Fireeye, which showcased a wide range of promising products.

Most of the booths featured their 2005 products, and some others even showcased their prototypes. There were fantastic bikes to bikes to drool at, interesting designs and technology to ponder over and even cute bikes to gawk at. It would be quite hard to describe and explain the countless things we saw at the show, so we decided to compensate it with a whole load of photos for the eyes to feast on. Isn?t there some saying about a picture speaking a thousand words? These pictures here speak much more than this article so here you go?