Asia Bike show shifts dates to September

NANJING, China (BRAIN)—Asia Bike will move out on its own next year after coupling with the Asia Outdoor show for its first two years.

The show will continue to be held in Nanjing, China, in its third year but will move from late July to Sept. 19 to 22, 2013. The much larger Asia Outdoor show will remain in July and is scheduled for 25 to 28 next year.

“The combination with Asia Outdoor was just a starting help,” said organizer Knut Jaeger. “The change after two or three years behind Eurobike was the planning from the beginning.”

Asia Bike is a partnership between Messe Friedrichshafen, which also owns part of Eurobike and Nanjing International Exhibition Centre. Organizers bill the show as China’s first exhibition for high-end bikes, apparel and accessories. In its second year, it attracted 238 exhibitors, 10,481 trade visitors and 3,751 consumers on the public day.

Exhibitors included Pinarello, BMC, Cervélo, Specialized, Time, Bergamont, Focus, Corratec and Smart. Asia Bike has had a slow and steady start, but exhibition space doubled between its first and second years—from 130,000 square feet to 260,000 square feet—and first-time exhibitors seemed pleased with the access it offers to the highly sought after Chinese mid to high-end dealers.

“I came to Nanjing without any high expectations and I have to say that I was surprised by the quality of the exhibition,” said Maik Geletneky from Bergamont. “We had only reserved a small booth in the European Pavilion to test out the tradeshow. We were impressed with the service at the exhibition and the professionalism of the trade visitors.

The performance part of the market is still developing in China, where bikes are most often used as a cheap form of transportation. As consumers start becoming interested in recreational cycling Western brands want to make sure they already have a foothold in China, and that will likely bode well for Asia Bike in the future.

More information: www.asiabike-show.com.