By J.P. Partland
Not many retailer events send out a flurry of emails reminding you to come. Fewer acknowledge weather challenges, like torrential thunderstorms, and send a reminder a few hours before the event starts stressing umbrella storage and coat check, and then send another reminder an hour before the doors open.
But this was no low-key dealer event, and XDS is no ordinary bike company. The event, called X-Lab House of Motion: NYC, was an excuse for the startup Chinese brand to meet up with their dealers from across the country and inspire them.
XDS claims they're the largest bike producer in the world, shipping 8 million bikes in 2025, which appears to make them the size of their next two competitors combined. They were largely unknown until recently because most of those bikes sold outside of China were manufactured for others under contract. But XDS was doing this event to promote their house bike brand, X-Lab, which first started appearing on American shores in April of this year, with their only marketing seemingly a booth at 2026 Sea Otter. Think of them like Giant, but with more bike components produced under their own roof. Their accessory brand, Branta, produces carbon fiber rims, seatposts, saddles, stems, tires, tubes, bars, and cranksets, as well as electronics like power meters and motors, and hubs and spokes.
It didn't seem that their dealers needed much in the way of inspiration. According to dealers at the event, the biggest problem they are finding with XDS is supply. Ozzie Perez of Tread Bike Shop in upper Manhattan reported, "as soon as a bike gets the shop, yeah I start texting ... I say, 'hey, I got that bike you were looking for. If you haven't found, it it's here.' Guys show up the same day. (If they ask), 'why can't we get to the weekend?' I'm like, 'well I can't hold it so I can send you a payment link you could pay for it and come get it.' This industry kicked my ass the past three years and X-Lab gave me a huge adjustment."
April Beltran of Pottsville Cyclery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, said she loves that the brand will work with her small shop. "With X-Lab, we can buy one bike or a few bikes and it's within the price of our city."
Part of the enthusiasm from the dealers seemed to be a reflection of frustrations of dealing with established companies. "It's like Specialized: They come into our store. They want us to sell their bikes. But 'we don't like those kids bike,.'" said Bicycle Jim Curwood of San Juan Capistrano, California's BuyMyBikes.com.
Patty Woodworth, owner of Action Bikes in Wenonah, New Jersey, spoke to the crowd as an ecstatic retailer. She gushed, "it's as if they our heard litany of complaints and our list of demands before we even offered it."
Responsiveness was a regular thread. Compass Bike Lab's Adrian Ong came from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to put faces to the names he's been seeing in email. When meeting an X-Lab person, he was telling them, "your rate of response had me questioning if you were AI."
The company wasn't sitting back. They brought much of their executive team. Patrick Pan, their global head of marketing, was the host and MC; he introduced, among others, XDS China CEO Kendrick Tan, XDS international CE, Edwin Tan (yes, brothers; it's a family business started by their father), and the company's creative director, Youenn Colin. All attested to the size, speed, and thoughtfulness of the company and how they were deploying all their tools to not only make great bikes, but "grow the pie," and "put more butts on bikes," as Pan said several times.
Pan claims that the company's strategy in China is based on heavy reliance of their IBD network there, 3,000 strong, which sells everything from XDS kids bikes up to pro-level bikes. He said, "I don't see how someone so new to the sport is going to do anything with it until they go to a shop and sit there and talk to people. It's such a tactile sport." Apparently, their dealer network in China is responsible for 80% of their business. In the US, it's 98% dealer, and the company says its website only shows bikes in stock after dealer demand has been met.
Their bike line for the U.S. market is limited — or "curated," if you prefer. But X-Labs announced that in the coming months and next year, their bike line will grow dramatically, to 20 models, covering road, gravel, MTB, urban, and e-bikes. An accessory line should be coming to United States shores as well.
XDS portrayed itself as a disruptor that can bring prices down and help shops both stay in business and increase their customer base. At least among those assembled in New York last week, it was a narrative that had a welcome audience.
J.P. Partland is a bike industry veteran and contributor to BRAIN.
