The US cycling industry is facing “devastating consequences” due to tariffs and wider business uncertainty and does not want to recover by the end of the decade, the boss of lobby group Peopleforbikes said this week on the world’s largest cycling trade show.
Jen Diess, the CEO of the US Group, told the Frankfurt Eurobike journalist, “I’m pretty calm about the next four or five years.” PeopleBikes is predicting a “headwind” forecast for a stagnation in US bicycle sales until 2029, she added. “Many of our CEOs say they have never experienced the time they have today in their decades of experience.”
The industry was already fighting for a four-year decline in sales after a massive boom during the pandemic, when the US came to be considered a key growth market due to the size and low levels of bicycle ownership.
“We were happy that at the time we didn’t exist in the US, but now we’re very pleased with this,” said Jonas Nilsson, CEO of Accell Group, the largest bicycle manufacturer in Europe, which owns brands such as Koga, Raleigh and Babboe.
Others, such as German consumer brand Canyon bikes and British folding bike maker Brompton, have scaled down plans to expand in the US. “There’s too much uncertainty in that market,” Will Butler Adams, CEO of Brompton, told the Financial Times. He plans to open two flagship stores in the United States. “If tariffs could change from one month to the next, this is not the time to sign a five-year lease in a new shop with 12 staff.”
CEO Jonas Nilsson said that Europe’s largest bicycle manufacturer Accell Group was “very happy” that it didn’t exist in the US © Accell Group
Approximately 12.5 million bicycles are sold in the United States every year. About 90% of them are imported, mainly from Asia. The US has not determined the final tariff levels in many countries, but general economic uncertainty and consumer attention have led to demand, Dice said. “Many Americans love bikes, but they haven’t replaced them with the clips we wanted.”
Canyon, sponsored by one of Europe’s largest bicycle brands and star cyclist Matthew Van der Puel, has already “sees demand in the US,” Nicholas de Rose Wallace’s chief executive told the Financial Times. “We reviewed our growth plans (in the US),” he said. “We looked at our orders and moved our products to other regions for the US.”
The US market is in a recession, but the situation in Europe is more diverse. Birkhard Stoke, ZIV boss of the Cycling Industry Association, said bike sales in Europe’s largest economy had increased by 5% in the first five months of 2025 compared to the same period last year. “I’m sure we’re really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel right now,” he said.
Butler Adams described 2025 as the “transition year” for Europe. It was hoping to come out in 2026.
Accell Group owns brands including Raleigh©Accell Group
Brompton has increased its revenues by about 10% this year, and is on track for improvements in profits that have all been wiped out last year. Butler-Adams said the 20-inch model launched last year already accounted for 20% of revenue, and the higher-priced electric bikes are selling much better than the company wanted.
Nilsson isn’t that bright. Sales of new bikes remained stable and overstockings accumulated as the industry expected the pandemic sales boom to continue, but overall demand in Europe remains gradual. “For us, Germany is still a low light,” he said, adding that sales in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg picked up more strongly.
For Accell, some of the best performance in the business was Spare Parts Division XLC, with about a third of the group’s total sales accounting for 12.9 billion euros in 2023. “People avoid buying new bikes, but they need to maintain the old ones,” Nilsson said. “In a few years, I’ll need to replace the tires, chains and saddles.”
Canyon boss Roz Wallace said his business will “moves carefully” over the next few years after his losses increased to 38 million euros last year. Its major shareholder group Burgsel Lambert acquired a majority stake in a deal worthy of 800 million euros Canyon in 2020, and last year it wrote down 43% of its shares.
Approximately 12.5 million bicycles are sold in the United States every year. About 90% of them are imported, mainly from Asia. ©Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
He added that the 2024 loss was partly caused by the “sacrifice” made by the “sacrifice” Canyon, offering discounted prices to clear unsold bikes and costly recalls of failed e-bike batteries.
“We’re looking forward to it and we’re not going to chase revenue, but we’ll focus on profitable growth,” he said, and was expected to double in 2025 after GBL won after sales of 792 million euros in 2024. Starting in 2026, Canyon aims for “single digits of growth” compared to annual growth of around 20% before the crisis.
Alex Soubas, CEO of German e-bike maker Hefa, founded in 2021, said industry problems were “completely self-intrusioned” by “silly overproduction” during a boom year that brought unsold bicycles and the need for expensive discounts.
“We were lucky and never had too much stock,” Bass said, adding that he believes the long-term outlook for European electric bikes is bright. The new lightweight yet powerful Hefa bike has won the Eurobike Award for its new product.
Therefore, Bass is worried that in the near future the industry could be hit again by supply and demand discrepancies. “Inventory is declining, but suppliers are not currently increasing production,” he said.
