The evolution of the bicycle was a major focus at a press conference organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), at the Eurobike trade fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Attended by representatives of the world’s bicycle industry’s media, the TAITRA-hosted conference shed light on this year’s Taipei Cycle show, which will be taking place from October 31 to November 2.
Four Taiwanese manufacturers unveiled their latest innovations – and despite their divergent business alignments, they had one common ground: ‘when it comes to developing new, breaking bikes and components, they all set their hope in smart technologies.’
Based on this mindset, Taipei Cycle is preparing to become a leading platform for exhibitors of intelligent cycling products – in terms of both importance and calendar setting. Integrating smart innovations into the traditional bicycle-manufacturing process is expected to assist development times and reshape manufacturing timetables.
Correspondingly, TAITRA made use of the press conference to announce the rescheduling of Taipei Cycle starting from 2019. Next year’s show will be taking place from March 27-30 in Nangang Exhibition Halls 1 and 2, Taipei.
The 2019 edition will be the same size as this year. Andrea Wu, TAITRA Senior Project Manager for Taipei Cycle, emphasized that only exhibitors taking part this year will be prioritized for space at Taipei Cycle 2019.
Ching-Yun Huang, Director of Economic Division, Frankfurt/M Office, Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Gina Chang, Secretary General of the Taiwan Bicycle Association (TBA) opened the event by highlighting the importance and growing popularity of the Taipei Cycle show.
Andrea Wu, Senior Project Manager of TAITRA, took the stage next to further highlight the special features of the 2018 edition of the show, which will be held this year in the autumn/faull instead of spring. Moreover, unlike in previous years, the trade event will not only occupy Nangang Exhibition Hall 1, but wil also stretch over Hall 3 of the Taipei World Trade Center, which can be reached via a 15 minute shuttle ride.
This new venue is labelled Taipei Cycle Plus and offers visitors a chance to explore a new Start-up Pavilion and IoT Zone, which aims to demonstrate how IoT technology and young emerging, innovative companies are transforming the bike industry.
In illustrating the SwiCity project – which will also be featured at the Taipei Cycle Show – speaker Dr Kuan-Jiuh Lin, Professor at National Chung-Hsing University, demonstrated the important role that bicycles will play in the near future. SwiCity was realized by a multidisciplinary research team founded in 2015. Their common goal was to make cities smart, sustainable and liveable.
With support of the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan, SwiCity provides multiple services including PM2.5-sensing, heart-monitoring and a cycling-related project, which enables users to digitally rent bikes and to communicate with fellow cyclists. The project makes use of the long-distance, low-power transmission technology LoRa (LongRange), which is suitable for long-term sensing and data collection.
In order to retain Taiwan’s competitiveness across the international bicycle market, a technical-expert committee used ISO 4210 as their investigation basis to develop the further-reaching Taiwan Bicycle Industry Standard (TBIS) – which was elucidated by Jason Hsu, Assistant Engineer of Cycling & Health Tech Industry R&D Center, at the conference.
The press conference also featured four prominent Taiwanese players in the global bicycle industry, who presented their new products and provided information about the future direction and vision of their companies.
Founder and CEO of Soaring Technologies Bruce Wei presented for his firm’s daughter company, CyberMotions. Harnessing some three decades of manufacturing experience, the brand introduced its CM-P01 power-meter hub, which gathers cycling data in real time. Wei also unveiled the new CMTS-01 cassette torque sensor. Both of these devices benefit from interaction and support from ANT+ and BLE-enabled devices and apps, which allow the cyclist to receive instant systems updates via the cloud.
TranzX, a brand of JD Components, exhibited its Mavis F15 e-bike that was first unveiled to the public at Eurobike 2017. Touting its front and rear hub motors and attractive roadster design optimized for urban commutes, the brand also emphasized the highly interconnected features of its signature product at the show.
Curties Wu, Vice President of TBS Group, presented the Arofly family of Bluetooth-compatible smart bike products. The Arofly sensor screws onto standard Presta or Schrader tyre valves and is billed as the smallest waterproof and dustproof power meter in the cycling world.
The final product presentation was delivered by Pei-Shan Chiang, Sales Representative of Bryton. His company’s suite of bike computers includes the Rider 410 – an entry-level device that offers relevant features for the casual enthusiast. The ultra-aerodynamic Aero 60 is optimized for road bikes and is fully compatible with Di2 (Shimano), eTap (SRAM), and EPS (Campagnolo) electronic shifting systems for longer commutes and paved excursions.
