November 22, 2000

Messe Frankfurt has announced the cancellation of the Bike-On exhibition scheduled for February 2001 because "the total number of exhibitor registrations was too low to ensure a successful international event for all concerned in accordance with the standards of Messe Frankfurt."

Bike-On was billed as the first OEM show in Europe for the bike industry, modeled on the Taipei Cycle Show.

Bike Europe magazine, in a report on its web site, quoted one of the organizers of the show, Bernd Musing, as saying that about 50 companies had signed up for the show, including most of the key players in the industry. Musing said he believes the number of exhibitors could have grown to 75-100 before the opening of the show, but Messe Frankfurt judged that the current commitment of 50 companies "was too small to debut Bike-On."

Trade Winds, in cooperation with the Taipei branch of Messe Frankfurt, had signed up eight manufacturers to take part in the show. Some Taiwan companies had been concerned that a successful Bike-On would reduce the importance of the Taipei Show, but others welcomed the chance to meet more European manufacturers than normally attend the Taipei event.

Large Taiwan groups typically exhibit at the autumn European shows - IFMA in Cologne, Eurobike in Friedrichshafen and EICMA in Milan - but as Taiwan' s industry is primarily OEM-oriented, most of the visitors at those shows are not relevant to their business.

Bernd Musing said Bike-On fell victim to the indecisiveness of the bicycle industry. According to the Bike Europe report, Musing said that dozens of companies liked the Bike-On concept but preferred to stay on the sidelines for the first show to check it out and then exhibit in the second year."That attitude killed Bike-On," he said.

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