Updated October 15, 2023
“Taichung Bike Week . . . hmm . . . should I go?” you ask yourself.
“Isn’t Taipei Cycle the #1 OEM/ODM trade show to target each year?” you muse.
In this post we cover all you need to know plus a whole lot that you won’t find anywhere else, including the answer to those questions.
Bookmark this page since we’ll be updating and improving the reports, images and videos every year going forward.
Make this your go-to resource for Taichung Bike Week—click here for the latest news on Taichung Bike Week 2024.
Table of Contents
TAICHUNG BIKE WEEK OVERVIEW (Dispelling the Myths)
This is a unique trade show in the bike industry, possibly in any industry, for two reasons:
1. the venues
2. the rationale
First let’s get an idea of what TBW is and what it isn’t.
Is Taichung Bike Week the MOST Important Show?
For many in the industry, yes.
For many, no, it is not.
The original concept was for product managers to meet directly with their key suppliers.
This is—and largely remains—a strictly OE sourcing show.
Meetings were held (and still are) in hotel rooms by appointment only where participants talked turkey—what do you want, how many, and by what date?
As participants in the “show” grew year-on-year, so did the opportunity to connect with a number of suppliers, often in the same hotel.
If your target companies were not in your own hotel, then many others were available in the other nearby venues.
The advantages of being able to sit down in a unique context and talk business in a unique way was quickly multiplying with the show’s increasing profile.
Another unique advantage was that many companies have factories or “Technology Workshops” mostly within an hour’s drive.
Onsite visits to explore more technical aspects of potential or confirmed orders are easily accomplished. Many, if not most, visitors to the show avail themselves of a factory, workshop, or R & D facility visit.
This aspect of the event continues to provide a good advantage. If you visit the Taipei Show and then elect to do some factory visits, you’ll have a little more hassle getting down to Taichung.
But that alone is not enough of a hassle to make a Taichung Bike Week visit a reasonable substitute for the Taipei Show. The High Speed Rail gets you from Taipei to Taichung in around 50 minutes.
And now the MRT rail system that began operating in the Covid-19 affected years following the 2019 edition of the show has made connecting to the venues from Taichung’s High Speed Rail station much easier.
Getting off at the Taichung City Hall station delivers you right on Taiwan Boulevard.
There is a bus stop where the Taiwan Boulevard express busses stop: #300 and #310 pass up and down at intervals of no more than 10 minutes and stop near the Evergreen and Tempus Hotels and a little further down near the Splendor Hotel.
Booths were quick to appear alongside the room-based meeting spaces as the show developed over the years.
You now can’t enter any venue without encountering thickets of booths on most of the floors set aside for the Show in each hotel venue.
You can’t help but notice the smaller brands or companies, many of which are startups—often backed by much larger companies as silent partners—maximizing their physical visibility on the floor in order to come to the attention of the considerable volume of browsing visitors and participants.
TBW is beginning to resemble a normal trade show. Superficially anyway.
The trend in recent years is the increase in startup or small brand participation leading to a a degree of overlap between Taichung Bike Week and Taipei Cycle.
For European companies the OE aspect is important for them to get the year-after-next product year organized (eg. 2024 TBW for 2026 products).
For US companies it has tended to come a bit late.
In short, the most important show is the one your company cannot afford to miss, a definition which will, thus, vary with each company.
Taichung Bike Week offers a range of advantages that many companies will assess as worthy taking advantage of.
What’s All This About a New (Single) Venue for the Show?
As of June 2023, the new Taichung International Convention and Exhibition Center (TICEC) was about 60% complete.
The massive new complex is located some 3 km to the north of Taichung’s Taiwan Boulevard where the hotels are located.
Taichung’s Mayor has stated that she would like to see Taipei Cycle move to TICEC in the future, since most of Taiwan’s attendees are within an hour’s journey of Taichung (the reason for the establishment of Taichung Bike Week of course).
This means that the likelihood of Taichung Bike Week moving out of the hotels and into TICEC is high.
Those against the move point out that their costs will likely skyrocket. Setting up in a hotel room is very economical.
Setting up a booth in one of the hotels is also cost-effective: the main expense is in booth design, which only needs to be basic in what is a no-frills show context.
Taichung Bike Week Background
Why Taichung?
Because the greater Taichung Municipality is—famously—home to a complete supply chain for the industry.
It starts with the Dajia district, home to the biggest bicycle company in the world, Giant.
Many companies are concentrated in nearby Dajia Industrial Park—frame and component makers such as Trigon, Caribou, Apro and First Components, makers of TRETLAGER, KURBELSÄTZE and STEUERSÄTZE for many of the world’s top bike brands.
Outside the Park, many more produce frames and components in unassuming premises on the maze of country lanes—Taiwan’s bicycle-industrial complex leaves very few bicycles made in the world today untouched.
The (large) majority include components designed (ODM) and/or sourced or perhaps finished in Taiwan.
Taiwanese companies which manufactured wholly in China often elect to have carbon finishing processes such as painting, for example, carried out in Taiwan since the quality is a lot higher.
Some companies, like SRAM, are located in Taichung City proper; many can be found a little further south—FSA and Lezyne in the semi-rural/industiral Wufeng district, for example,
Neighboring Changhua County, a 30 min expressway drive southwest from Taichung is home to another concentration of component makers, one of the biggest being Merida.
Taichung is, furthermore, growing in importance due to the recent, and ongoing, mass exodus of companies from China.
Taiwanese companies invested heavily in China factories from the early 1990s. With 2019’s USA trade war escalation and the EU anti-dumping law implementation, many opted to move production to Vietnam or back to Taiwan.
The main force behind TBW’s development over the last decade has been Pro-Lite’s owner and CEO, Steve Fenton, in partnership with the Taichung City government.
Steve started working towards the event in 2004, getting a group together finally getting a critical mass of exhibitors for the first edition in 2007.
TBW has grown every year until last year when the Taipei Cycle Show moved from March to November, forcing the organizers to shift to October.
Steve has recently stepped down from his key organizing role due to business and health reasons.
Getting to Taichung
You’ll arrive in Taiwan in either the Taoyuan International Airport (95% of arrivals) Songshan, or Kaohsiung.
Via Taoyuan
Your destination is listed as “Taipei” (TPE on your baggage ticket). Taoyuan is the International Airport’s actual location, 45km due west of Taipei.
Taichung is a 30min bullet train journey south from the airport.
Just follow the HSR (High Speed Rail) signs. You’ll firstly take the MRT for the short transfer to the HSR station 5 stops south (A18).
The Taichung HSR station is located outside the city, a little removed from the venues. As of writing the local Metro rail, which passes close to all three Taichung Bike Week venues, is not yet operating but will most likely open to the public by the 2020 edition.
If you don’t have a hotel transfer arranged, once you descend from the platform and exit the ticket barrier, head down the escalator/stairs to the taxi rank.
Free HSR shuttles taking various routes through the city are also available. Follow the “Busses” sign to access the stairs leading to this area, which is in the opposite direction to the Taxi ranks.
Note that when returning to Taoyuan Airport from the Taoyuan HSR station, the MRT stops at both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
Via Songshan
Songshan is located in Taipei City proper. Some flights from Japan, Korea, and China land here.
You can take the MRT (follow the signs) to the Taipei HSR (High Speed Rail) terminal. But that requires one transfer to the Blue Line, getting off at Taipei Main Station, then following the signs to the HSR terminal..
You may find it easier to take a cab directly to Taipei Main Station however.
Via Kaohsiung
Take a cab to the HSR (High Speed Rail) Terminal at Zuoying, outside Kaohsiung city. Taichung is a 50-60 minute journey north. Refer to the Via Taoyuan section above for getting from Taichung HSR to Taichung city.
Venues
There is no central venue where companies set up to be visited by current or potential clients.
Instead companies hire out hotel rooms, suites or conference rooms to conduct meetings.
The hotels, amongst Taichung’s largest, are the Evergreen, Tempus, and the Splendor.
The Covid pandemic caused the Tempus to close temporarily. Under new management in 2023, it is set to resume its place in the event.
The Evergreen and Tempus hotels are a 5 minute walk away from each other. The Splendor is around a 10-15 minute walk down Taiwan Boulevard. Or a 2 minute bus ride on one of the express busses.
Taxis are immediately available if you’re looking to move from one venue to the other quickly, though.
Bookmark this page now since we will be updating it each year throughout the year.
The obvious advantage to having a trade show spread across a number of hotels is accommodation convenience.
You can stay in one of the exhibition hotels. Or there are many other hotels in the immediate area.
The Fulwon Hotel is one to keep in mind. It has reasonable prices, friendly and efficient staff and is directly across the road from the Taichung City Hall MRT station.
They’re currently renovating the place, so it’s definitely one to have on your list.
Two new reasonably priced hotels a stone’s through from The Splendor, the Airline Inn and Hotel Elizabeth (50m away), are also ones to keep in mind.
Evergreen Hotel
The Evergreen has a spacious lobby with bar and dining area. There is good parking in the storied basement parking lots, and now includes EV charging stations.
You’ll also find a public car park a 5 minute walk north-west along Taiwan Boulevard, as well as storied basement parking in the building directly opposite (inbound to the train station side) if you’re commuting by car.
Evergreen has a relaxed ambiance and the booths are accessed through descending the stairs on the right. More booths are upstairs on the 2nd floor.
For those companies taking meetings in rooms, normally by appointment only, it is a little squeezy in the corridors.
The Tempus Hotel
The Tempus is located adjacent to the Evergreen (you can see it through the window in the photo of the Evergreen’s lounge bar above).
The hotel has space for 54 booths with lots of space in the upper floors as well as a broad basement area.
The Splendor Hotel
The Splendor is located around 600 m to the South East along Taiwan Boulevard from Evergreen.
A narrow lobby opens out into generous space on each of the floors allocated to the show, usually 10, 11, and 12.
That’s one reason why the largest concentration of companies can be found here.
They have space for 280 booths; accommodation is available in the venue’s 222 rooms. For accommodation, the nearby Park Lane Inn has several hundred room available.
Rationale
Taichung Bike Week is held on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in late Q3 or early to mid Q4 every year. The 2024 show is set to be held from September 24 to September 27.
The focus is on a no-frills display, with new products, and comfortable meeting facilities.
Steve Fenton of Pro-Lite, once mentioned that he spends only 3% of what it costs him to exhibit at Taipei Cycle.
The focus is on getting deals done for the product year-after-next. That is, companies attending the 2024 TBW will be doing deals for the 2026 and 2027 product years.
If you’ve booked a spot in Taichung Bike Week, that will probably mean your appointment schedule is solid, and is typically the case for companies opting for a room or suite.
If you don’t have appointments with existing clients or new clients with which a deal has already been done apart from some detail finalization, then you may question why you are at the event.
Having said that, the trend is for newer companies to put up a booth and take advantage of the highly concentrated B2B traffic on the venue floor and treat it as a mini Taipei Cycle. (The rationale is since attendance is a fraction of the cost, you’ve got nothing to lose by being there).
TAICHUNG BIKE WEEK 2024
Taichung Bike Week 2024 will be held from Tuesday September 24 to Friday September 27.
A very important piece of information to note if you attend in person is that The Show Daily, the official newspaper for Taipei Cycle and Eurobike, is now the official newspaper for Taichung Bike Week in 2024 and in all subsequent years.
You’ll find each day’s copies laid out near the entrance of each hotel.
Be sure to grab yours early in the day before other attendees snap them up!
TAICHUNG BIKE WEEK 2023—PRODUCT DISCOVERIES
For an in depth look at this year’s show, here are The Show Daily’s reports covering Day 1 to Day 3:
Although this year’s edition was held in the context of stubbornly high inventory stockpiles that will not see significant movement until Q2 2024, this trade show is not about the here and now.
This year’s event was focused on the more distant future, model years 2025 and 2026.
This unprecedented backlog of inventory will be significantly reduced during the 2024 summer, which means the industry will be back on more secure ground for 2025—exactly when the products being discussed during this year’s TBW will be launched into the market.
You would not know that the future belongs to e-bikes since although this show is beginning to heavily skew towards the E-cosystem, conventional components such as tools, rims, spokes, headsets, bottom brackets and hubs are required regardless of whether a bike is ‘acoustic’ or electric.
BestEnergy, based in Hsinchu, will enter this kid’s trike in the upcoming 2024 Taipei Cycle d&i awards.
The motor is situated under the seat with power activation on the steerer below the handlebars. It’s subject to a patent application so the device itself was not installed.
A product like this is less about the product itself than the innovative technology used: the demonstrated ability to provide a variety of innovative solutions in the e-bike space is what a potential business partner is looking for.
And indeed, a design engineer from Specialized did drop by to admire the design and find out more about the technology—and that’s one of the most important functions of any trade show.
With the increasing substitution of belt drives for chains on a wide range of e-bikes, you would think there would be more providers and thus more innovation in the space.
Landon displayed their latest chain ring designed for greater efficiency.
They produce a complete drive train assembly that can be adapted to any bike.
Giant Goal Leather Manufacturing Inc. supply a range of grip products to bicycle brands, bar tape being the most important.
Persistence pays off and after nine long years, this year they finally include Trek amongst a number of high profile brands for which they produce bar tape.
Darfon rarely (ever?) attend a trade show without new kit . . . and even when the kit is new they’re looking ahead—as well as actively promoting—the next iteration.
They gave show goers a sneak preview of one new battery model to be launched at the 2024 Taipei Cycle.
It’s a more powerful yet more compact version of an existing model that will accommodate charging peripheral devices via USB C connection.
Everything will be integrated snugly into the one unit, a value-added battery ensuring you can charge any device on the go and still have power to make it home.
TAICHUNG BIKE WEEK ’22—PRODUCT DISCOVERIES
Here’s a few interesting items that turned up on the floor of the Evergreen and Splendor at the 2022 edition of the show.
Bicyclecluster.comAt every venue, as soon as you enter you’ll see the instructions for how to use Bicycle Cluster to find what you are looking for.
Better still, search in advance so you know exactly where you’re going. No need to search for the official printed guide at your first venue—it did not exist for last year anyway, and may not next year.
Porta Power first exhibited in 2019. This year they had a range of products on display including batteries to fit in-frame, the down tube, on a carrier, for the seat post, water bottle and just about anywhere else.
A battery recharging unit that is itself recharged bia solar panels certainly fills a need in the off-road advanture niche.
Opportunities aplenty exist in this niche so you can expect to see more of these initiatives in future editions of the show.
Zeno specialized in producing innovative quick release hydraulic host connectors and had their latest innovation on display—reusable and olive-free compression nuts.
No need to use an air compressor to rapidly seat tubeless tires on the rim using Legion’s new Vmax valve.
Lock the pump’s valve adaptor onto the value and with one stroke of the pump the tire is immediately sealed.
You can also directly inject tire sealant through the valve—no need to remove the valve beforehand.
So, for example, the valve makes it possible to remove old sealant, reseat the tire and inject new sealant quickly and easily. Nifty!
TAICHUNG BIKE WEEK ’19—PRODUCT DISCOVERIES
Here’s a few interesting items found on the floor of the 2019 show prior to the Covid-19 shutdown.
H Many will since have disappeared, never to be seen again. I’ll leave this section for the time being anyhow to give you a sense of the sort of kit that can be discovered at this unique trade show event.
The video shows many of these products. The coverage in the section below, however, provides
- greater detail
- thoughts, evaluations
- some products not covered in the video
Drivetrain Tech Solutions Articulated Derailleur Cage
The problem of a dropped chain can be reduced through installing a derailleur with a clutch and/or a narrow-wide chainring.
A clutch, however
- inhibits a chain’s smooth flow over the cassette and through the pulleys
- introduces extra resistance in the shifter, making for stiffer gear changes
The DTS derailleur cage is hinged a little way above the lower jockey wheel. It curves to the rear holding around a 45° angle to the ground, the angle maintained in tension by a spring.
The extra tension on the chain between the lower jockey wheel and the chainring coupled with the drivetrain tension between chainring and cassette holds the chain more closely to the chainring, thus preventing chain drops.
Prowheel Chain Snatcher
Now, if a narrow-wide chainring and the new DTS derailleur don’t do the job and your chain is still prone to the odd derail, then perhaps this innovation from Prowheel is what you need.
A “catcher” sits on the crank, snug against the chainring. When the chain dislodges from the chainring, it drops into the catcher.
The catcher’s lip prevents the chain from sliding away further; the chain momentarily rests in this as the crank rotates. Lugs projecting from the catcher slip into the links as chainring teeth proxies to steady the chain.
The lugs continue to hold the chain as a bridge between the crankarm and the chainring rotates under the chain, lifting it back into position on the chainring.
This all happens rapidly. If you’re on the trail, your chain will be back in place in the blink of an eye.
You might be advised to use a chain guard though since the chain sometimes fell to the inside on the demo machine, although that seemed to be due to the machine setup.
Zeno Q-Connector Universal Hydraulic Connector with Tool-Free Quick Release
That’s quite a mouthful. It’s still a nifty product though.
When it comes to flexible assembly and dis-assembly of a bike for storage, short or long distance transport, derailleur and brake cables are easily sorted.
Not if you’ve got a hydraulic hose though—you need to keep that connected, from master cylinder through to the brake caliper. Not convenient.
The Q-Connector allows you to decide exactly where you’d like to be able to disconnect the hose whenever you need to. Cut the hose, install the connector. Done!
You connect both ends of the hose by screwing one part of the Q-Connector into the other—no tool required.
The fluid flows unimpeded. There is also a Fluid Volume adjustment mechanism to regulate fluid flow.
When you need to separate the hose, unscrewing the connector uncouples one side from the other. Each side seals preventing any fluid flow out of the hose.
The Astrol RS-16 Kids Electric Balance Bike
Brizon is not the first to come out with a kids e-balance bike. But their Astrol RS-16 is possibly the coolest.
This unit is not for the tiny tots though. A child needs to have developed sound skills on a non-electric balance bike before they can graduate to this one.
And that’s the central point—graduating from simple to advanced. The Astrol RS-16 is conceived as the bridge to an eMTB, for children between the ages of 6 and 8 years.
“Starting off on a balance bike, then perhaps spending time on a kids pedal bike, a 6 year-old moves to the RS-16 to get used to riding under power. That experience paves the way to move to an eMTB”, said Eric Kuo, Brizon’s Sporting Goods Deputy Manager.
Riderever’s Heat Dissipating Caliper
Riderever (pronounced Ride Reveere) is a brand offshoot of Jagwire, makers of a range of brake-related products.
This brake caliper sports a wide face consisting of deep grooves resulting in heat dissipating ribs, like the cylinder head of a small, air cooled motorbike cylinder head.
VisionTech Battery Display Stem & TT Bike Handlebar Pads
Expect a surge in e-road products over the next couple of years.
The recent Turbo Creo SL by Specialized promises to be the tip of the iceberg for the rapid development of the e-road sports category.
The RGX model with the almost invisible Fazua mid-drive motor VisionTech had on display incorporating this stem was mighty impressive.
A battery and e-system monitoring unit can be fitted inside this this carbon stem, rather than added as an external fixture on the bars or integrated into the top tube, which sets it back out of a cyclists line of sight.
Given that the ideal stem length is for the dropout to more or less align with the end of the stem from the rider’s viewpoint, the display will be conveniently in view all of the time.
A new design of TT handlebar pads within a new TT handlebar design.
Comfortably accommodating a competitor’s forearms, the pads also provide excellent grip whilst allowing sweat to evaporate quickly.
Alligator Cables Adjustable Pedal & Adjustable Crank
Alligator had two interesting products on display.
This adjustable pedal allows a rider to fit the pedal angle to the most appropriate angle in relation to their pedaling style.
Our feet don’t naturally point directly forward; there’s a range of natural physiological variation to the left and right amongst cyclists. What’s comfortable for one rider, is not necessarily so for another.
By loosening the 2mm allen bolts (center top and center middle of the photo), a rider can rotate the central platform a maximum of 20° to the left or right, allowing his or her foot to rest more naturally on the pedal.
As an added thought, a slide-out tray large enough to carry a basic multitool fits neatly beneath, although you could carry a whole range of things there.
Possibly the most appropriate use for this would be on a City Bike or Trekking Bike, preferably a pedelec since these are weighty pedals.
The second item, an adjustable crank, addresses the issue of crank length.
The most common range of crank lengths range from 160mm to 175mm.
This length is a “center-to-center” measurement, from the center of the spindle to the center of the pedal.
The mechanism works through fitting the blocks into different configurations which are then secured in position by a bolt.
If crank length is of particular concern to a rider, particularly a competitive cyclist, then this device offers possibilities despite the weight penalty incurred.
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