We wrote up an initial commentary about the Bike Europe editorial shake up, or “restructuring” as it has been labelled, on a recent edition of our bimonthly newsletter. On the surface a seemingly insignificant event (hardly so for the people on the receiving end of course) at a Bicycle Industry news publication may seem a little
Is Bike Industry Company Restructuring Accelerating? Read More »
FIRST Components is just about to release a new “damping” headset. We’ll put it in quotes for now because calling this type of headset a damping headset is perhaps not very accurate even as it is the standard practice in the industry. Let’s then dig deeper into the nitty gritty of damping headsets and then have a
What are “Damping” Headsets? Read More »
As the dust only just begins to settle from the collapse of Accell Group—yet another shock to the industry—this month we’re going to embark on a thought experiment of sorts. We combine an interesting new perspective on the possible shape and function of the future economy on the one hand with the bike industry on
The Agentic Economy & the Bike Industry Read More »
Bicycle brands and their component suppliers are shifting away from superficial digital additions toward deeply integrated, physics-grounded AI architectures If you’ve been following the AI bandwagon you’ll have noted who fronts the AI parade — the LLMs. Yet there’s a lot more to the AI ‘singularity’ than the frontier all-stars who hog the media spotlight.
The Bike Industry and Alternative AI Architectures Read More »
A framework from AI research puts the industry’s structural weaknesses in sharp diagnostic terms — and points to what needs to be built. The last few posts have focused on the nature of change and what the bike industry needs to take into account in responding. Here’s one more in the series in which we
Taiwan’s Bicycle Industry Has a Cognition Problem Read More »
Eleven miles from Trek headquarters in Wisconsin, Youtuber, the Bike Farmer closed his shop; after nine years, time to move on. Bike Farmer (henceforth BF), set out in detail why he’s taken the route of complete shutdown (well, almost complete…we’ll get to that). What’s the Problem? BF’s critique of the industry ranges across three areas:
The Wisconsin Shop vs the Supply Chain Read More »
Taiwan’s manufacturing ecosystem is deep and highly specialised. It is also poorly documented, inconsistently presented online, and largely inaccessible to buyers who don’t already know where to look. A factory making precision widgets to tolerances that would satisfy the most demanding European brand may have a website that hasn’t been updated in five years —
Taiwan’s Supply Chain Has a Data Problem. Someone Is Fixing It. Read More »
The modern company wasn’t designed. It was improvised — a series of workarounds for three problems that dominated business in the late 19th century: slow information, limited human cognitive bandwidth, and expensive coordination. Agentic AI eliminates all three. Which means the org chart that Taiwan’s bicycle industry has run on for the past 40 years
Why Taiwan’s Bicycle Companies Are Organized for a World That No Longer Exists Read More »
Internal cable routing has become the default on performance road and gravel frames. But “internal” covers a lot of ground. There’s a meaningful difference between a headset designed for frames where cables run fully enclosed from stem to fork crown, and one that solves the routing problem for frames that weren’t originally designed with internal
Three New Headsets and a Bottom Bracket for 2026 Read More »
In this final in our three part series (Part 1, Part 2), we look at the move to weight reduction, technical advances in safety, lighting and signaling, and the rise of belt drives. Ultra-Lightweight Materials – Déjà vu As we’ve mentioned more than a few times over the last year or so, the quest for
E-bike Innovation Part 3 – Design, Safety & Component Evolution Read More »
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