November 17, 2025
Just got back from Rouleur Live in London, and the feedback from brands was cautiously optimistic, with a heavy dose of caveats. After years of watching brands navigate the post-COVID hangover, this year’s show gave me real data points that we’re moving forward, not just treading water.
First off – credit where it’s due. Matteo Cassina and the Rouleur crew absolutely nailed it again. The production value, the curation, the flow of the event – it’s become the template for what a modern cycling show should be. And the numbers backed it up. Attendance was noticeably up.
Plus, London in November just hits different. Nothing beats hashing out distribution strategies over proper fish and chips. The cycling industry might be global, but sometimes you need that British atmosphere to get to the real conversations.
Here’s what kept coming up in conversation after conversation: OEM sales are still soft, but the aftermarket is cooking. Every P&A brand I talked to confirmed the same pattern. Consumers aren’t dropping €5,000 on a new bike, but they’ll happily spend €500 upgrading their current ride.
This isn’t just anecdotal anymore – it’s an ongoing shift. Brands that were traditionally OEM-dependent are now pushing to build aftermarket channels, while the smart ones who saw this coming are crushing it. As of right now this seems like the new normal.
On the complete bike side, enthusiast products are holding their own. But the amount of discounting happening is frankly unsustainable. We continue to see premium brands offering 20-30% off current model year products. That’s not a sale; that’s desperation.
We are still feeling the effects of the inventory glut from 2021-2022, where we were stuck in this race to the bottom. The brands maintaining price discipline are getting killed on volume, while the ones discounting are destroying their brand equity. Pick your poison.
The absolute highlight was the panel with Derek Bouchard-Hall from POC, Eric Min from Zwift, and Roman Arnold from Canyon. Getting these three on one stage discussing the state of play in a post-COVID world? Wow.
What struck me wasn’t their individual perspectives – it was the convergence. All three essentially agreed: the pandemic pulled forward 5-10 years of demand, and now we’re paying for it. But they also agreed the fundamentals haven’t changed. More people are riding, cities are investing in infrastructure, and the health/sustainability argument only gets stronger.
Another huge thank you to Matteo Cassina for putting together this amazing panel.
Look, I do this show every year. It’s part reunion, part intelligence gathering, part temperature check on where we’re headed. This year felt different – more grounded, less delusional optimism, more real talk about sustainable business models.
The brands that are winning right now aren’t the ones with the deepest pockets or the flashiest booths. They’re the ones who understood that 2021 was an anomaly, not the new normal, and adjusted accordingly. The aftermarket opportunity is real, the discounting has to stop, and we need to get back to building sustainable businesses instead of chasing growth at any cost.
See you all next November. Same place, same exceptional fish and chips, hopefully with even better news to share.
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