February 2, 2026
Let’s not mince words: Eurobike is in serious trouble. In just the past few months, Bosch eBike Systems withdrew its support, Germany’s two most influential trade associations (ZIV and Zukunft Fahrrad) ended their cooperation with the show, and now—in perhaps the most significant blow yet—Shimano has announced it will not exhibit at Eurobike 2026.
When the world’s largest component manufacturer, a company that has been synonymous with Eurobike since the show’s early days, decides to walk away, it’s not just another exhibitor cutting costs. It’s a seismic event that raises legitimate questions about whether Eurobike can survive in any meaningful form.
The industry is watching nervously. Some are already writing obituaries. But here’s what I believe: despite the extraordinary pain ahead, Eurobike will not only survive but will emerge from this crisis as a more focused, more relevant, and ultimately stronger platform for the cycling industry.
Yes, that sounds optimistic to the point of delusion given recent events. But there are fundamental reasons why Eurobike’s demise is not inevitable.
First, we need to be honest about what’s happening. This isn’t just a normal market downturn affecting exhibitor budgets. This is a crisis of confidence in the trade show model itself, combined with specific failures by Eurobike’s organizers to adapt to changing industry needs.
Shimano cited “shifting visitor patterns, rising exhibition costs, and changes in how brands and riders connect” Pinkbike as reasons for exploring different approaches. The company plans to focus on customer and consumer-focused events where it can have more personalized conversations. This echoes what we’ve been hearing from other major brands: the traditional mega-trade show format no longer delivers the ROI that justifies six-figure all-in costs for booth space, logistics, and personnel.
The criticism from German trade associations has been even more pointed. ZIV and Zukunft Fahrrad criticized a lack of ordering opportunities, high stand rental fees, and the trade fair’s lack of political relevance. heise online When your home market’s industry bodies publicly withdraw support, you have fundamental problems beyond just market conditions.
Riese & Müller’s decision to schedule their own “Campus Days” in Mühltal at the exact same time as Eurobike 2026 is particularly telling. They’re not just skipping the show—they’re actively competing with it for dealer and media attention.
The numbers tell a grim story. Trade visitor attendance has plummeted from over 43,000 in 2013 to significantly lower levels today. Major brands like Specialized, Scott, and SRAM had already pulled out before this latest exodus. The show has contracted from five halls to just three for 2026, and has been shortened by a day.
This is a crisis. Anyone pretending otherwise is delusional.
Yet despite all this, I’m convinced Eurobike’s fundamental position in the industry remains defensible. Here’s why:
Eurobike is now owned and operated by Fairnamic, backed by Messe Frankfurt, one of the world’s largest and most established trade fair organizations. This isn’t some cycling industry startup trying to run a trade show on enthusiasm and a prayer. Messe Frankfurt has deep institutional experience navigating industry downturns across multiple sectors, the financial resources to absorb difficult years, and the organizational sophistication to execute meaningful restructuring.
When facing an existential crisis, having that kind of backing matters enormously. Fairnamic can make strategic investments and absorb short-term losses while working through the painful process of fundamental reform. They won’t panic, won’t make desperate reactive decisions, and won’t fold after one bad year. They’re playing a long game because they have the resources to do so.
This is precisely the kind of organizational stability the industry needs during a period of chaos and uncertainty.
Germany remains Europe’s largest and most stable cycling market, with deeply embedded cycling culture, robust retail infrastructure, and continued government investment in cycling infrastructure regardless of economic conditions. The German market isn’t driven by boom-and-bust recreational trends—it’s fundamentally about transportation, urban planning, and lifestyle integration.
This matters because Eurobike’s location in Frankfurt provides direct access to this critical market. Even in the current crisis, German retailers, distributors, and industry players will continue attending because the show serves their domestic market needs. Major German brands and the vast network of specialized cycling retailers across Germany represent a core attendance base that other shows simply cannot replicate.
Yes, the German trade associations have withdrawn their official support. But that doesn’t mean German companies will stop attending—it means the organizers need to earn back that support by delivering the show format the German market actually wants.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth that gets lost in all the doom-and-gloom coverage: there is no viable substitute for Eurobike as a global B2B cycling industry gathering.
Yes, brands are experimenting with private dealer events like ZEG’s Bike Show in Cologne and Riese & Müller’s Campus Days. Yes, regional shows like Velofollies in Belgium and Italian Bike Festival are growing. Yes, Taipei Cycle serves the Asian supply chain effectively.
But none of these alternatives—not one—can replicate what a reformed Eurobike could offer: the ability to see the entire global cycling industry under one roof, compare offerings across categories and price points, discover new suppliers and innovations, and conduct serious business negotiations with international buyers face-to-face.
Private dealer events serve existing customers but don’t generate new business relationships. Regional shows serve their local markets but lack international reach. Taipei focuses on OEM and manufacturing but misses the European retail and brand ecosystem. Digital showrooms proved woefully inadequate during the pandemic for actual product evaluation and relationship building.
The fundamental value proposition of an efficient, concentrated, international B2B platform hasn’t disappeared just because the current execution has failed. The industry still needs this. The question is whether Eurobike can deliver it.
Perhaps most critically, there are concrete signs that Fairnamic is finally—after years of tone-deaf resistance—beginning to listen to industry feedback and make meaningful changes.
Recent talks in Brussels showed “a shared interest in a strong, forward-looking Eurobike,” with managing director Philipp Ferger indicating that “Eurobike 2026 will be an important milestone in jointly laying the foundation for an enhanced trade fair concept from 2027 onwards.” Bicycle Retailer
The cancellation of the separate Mobifuture event was a significant concession. The industry had been vocal about not wanting e-mobility diluting the core cycling trade show, and Fairnamic listened. The reduction to three halls and four days addresses complaints about the show being too sprawling and expensive. The new hall layout splitting OEM producers from consumer-focused exhibitors shows responsiveness to feedback about organization and flow.
These aren’t cosmetic changes. They represent fundamental rethinking of the show’s structure and positioning. Yes, it took a full-blown crisis to force this evolution, but at least the evolution is happening.
The key question is whether these changes go far enough, fast enough.
There’s no sugarcoating what’s coming: Eurobike 2026 is going to be painful.
Without Shimano, without Bosch, without formal support from German trade associations, without Riese & Müller, and with numerous other brands still deciding whether to participate, the June 2026 show floor will look dramatically different from anything we’ve seen before. Entire sections that were once dominated by major exhibitors will sit empty or be filled with smaller brands that don’t drive significant buyer attendance.
Media coverage will focus relentlessly on the crisis narrative. Every additional brand that decides to skip will generate headlines questioning whether Eurobike can survive. Attending dealers and buyers will notice the gaps, will question the value of making the trip, and will wonder if this is the last real Eurobike.
The economics are brutal. One industry source estimated all-in costs of €200,000-300,000 for major exhibitors when factoring in booth space, logistics, transportation, accommodation, and personnel costs for multi-day presence. When brands like Shimano can bring press and key dealers to their own facility, give them undivided attention, and potentially spend less, the traditional trade show model struggles to compete on pure ROI.
Some brands that skip 2026 will discover they don’t actually need Eurobike as much as they thought. Some dealer networks will find that regional shows and direct brand events meet their needs adequately. Some media will shift their coverage elsewhere.
This year will hurt. Badly.
But here’s where I diverge from the obituary-writers: the cycling industry’s memory is shockingly short when it comes to downturns, and the fundamental drivers of Eurobike’s relevance haven’t actually disappeared.
Remember 2008-2009? Industry veterans proclaimed the end of cycling as we knew it. Shows struggled, brands folded, doom and gloom dominated every conversation. Yet within a few years, the industry entered one of its strongest growth periods ever, and guess what? Trade shows came roaring back because the underlying need for efficient B2B platforms never went away.
The current inventory and demand correction is severe, but it’s still fundamentally cyclical. Consumer interest in cycling isn’t disappearing—it’s normalizing after the pandemic bubble. Urban cycling infrastructure investment continues expanding across Europe. E-bikes remain in relatively early adoption phases in many markets. The long-term growth drivers are intact even as we work through painful short-term corrections.
More importantly, the very factors driving brands away from Eurobike 2026—rising costs, desire for more focused engagement, emphasis on direct relationships—are fixable problems, not fundamental structural flaws in the trade show model.
A reformed Eurobike that costs exhibitors 40% less, focuses exclusively on serious B2B transactions, provides better ordering infrastructure, delivers more concentrated buyer attendance, and creates genuine opportunities for political engagement with EU cycling policy makers would address virtually every complaint we’re hearing from Shimano, Bosch, and the German trade associations.
The question isn’t whether such a show would be valuable—it obviously would be. The question is whether Fairnamic can execute the transformation.
The path forward requires radical change, not incremental adjustment:
Cost restructuring must be aggressive. Cutting booth costs by 20% won’t cut it when brands are questioning six-figure total expenses. Eurobike needs to target 40-50% reductions in all-in costs through smaller footprint requirements, streamlined logistics, negotiated hotel rates, and elimination of unnecessary peripheral programming.
Focus must be absolute. This needs to be a pure B2B show for serious cycling industry professionals, period. Consumer day should be eliminated. Lifestyle brands that dilute the core cycling focus should be separated. Every square meter of floor space should serve serious business transactions.
German market reconciliation is essential. Without ZIV and Zukunft Fahrrad support, Eurobike loses credibility in its home market. Fairnamic needs to implement whatever the German industry bodies want for 2027—this isn’t negotiable for survival.
The 2026 show should be treated as a rebuilding year. Rather than pretending everything is fine, embrace the reality. Position 2026 as a transition event while working transparently with the industry on the 2027 vision. Smaller can be better if it’s more focused and valuable.
Will Eurobike look the same in 2027 as it did in 2019? Absolutely not. Should it? Probably not.
The industry has changed. The economics have changed. The way brands and retailers interact has changed. A show that worked for 2019’s booming market doesn’t work for 2026’s correction and consolidation.
But the need for an efficient, international, face-to-face B2B platform hasn’t disappeared. It’s just waiting for a show that delivers it properly.
Eurobike has the financial backing, the location, the market access, and—finally—the willingness to change. What it needs now is the courage to make changes radical enough to matter, the humility to genuinely partner with industry stakeholders rather than dictate terms, and the patience to rebuild trust that has been badly damaged.
The next 12 months will be brutal. Eurobike 2026 will likely be a shell of what the show once was. Media coverage will be overwhelmingly negative. More brands will question whether to participate.
But if Fairnamic uses this crisis as the catalyst for genuine transformation, if they deliver a 2027 show that addresses industry concerns comprehensively rather than cosmetically, if they rebuild credibility with German trade associations and demonstrate real change to brands like Shimano and Bosch, then Eurobike can emerge from this existential crisis as a different but still essential industry platform.
The show that emerges won’t be the bloated, unfocused, overpriced event that drove brands away. It will be leaner, sharper, cheaper, and more valuable to the professionals who actually need it.
That show—the reformed, focused, properly-priced Eurobike of 2027 and beyond—will survive because the industry still needs it, even if the industry doesn’t fully realize it yet in the chaos of this current crisis.
Betting against Eurobike today feels smart given recent events. But betting against the fundamental need for what a reformed Eurobike could deliver is betting against basic B2B dynamics that have driven trade shows for centuries.
The pain is real. The crisis is genuine. But reports of Eurobike’s death are premature—assuming the organizers finally deliver the radical transformation the industry has been demanding for years.
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