There has been much talk about cycling fairs, whether or not they make sense for brands, especially for large manufacturers.
In this post we will try to reach a cliplusion, after commenting on the highlight of the last of these fairs held in our country: the
Festibike 2019, which took place at the Las Rozas Fairgrounds last September 14 to 16, 2019.
Festibike collects the 2017 Unibike witness, which was held in IFEMA, and that it was a hard blow to the cycling sector after announcing that the 2018 edition was canceled due to lack of interest from the main brands of the sector.
What we observed in our visit to Unibike was not a lack of interest, but
The profitability of participation in the event, for an average brand, is too low.
Participating in such a fair is a high cost for exposing, in addition to a reduction in average consumer investment. That is to say,
It means spending a lot of money so that Libers Take photos. More or less, this was the
feedback of the exhibitors with whom we had the opportunity to comment on this fair.
Festibike was not like that. It was a participatory event, with many brands with bikes for test, and with a good handful of activities around the event, such as exhibitions, BTT marches, cycling, and others.
This is what gives value to a fair, and not the fact that the big brands expose their expensive news. The models were missed
outlet, but for that there are always local stores, and the websites of the manufacturers. In these events, immediate sale is not sought.
Showcase for novelties
Within the sector of the manufacture and marketing of bicycles, the main brands that presented their novelties and supervants in Festibike 2019 were:
Scott
The American brand took advantage of its
stand In Festibike to give relevance to his new
Addict RC Ultimate with internal wiring, and to the
Spark RC (Yes, Nino Schurter's).
>> See Scott Addict bicycles
>> See scott spark bicycles
BMC
Swiss had one of the
stands Beautiful, although the huge speakers of their commencal neighbor stun the curious. It is worth noting the beauty of their machines, especially the models of the Teammachine and Timemachine road.
>> See BMC Teammachine bicycles
>> See bmc bmiclets Timemachine
We also caught his Serla Alpenchllenge Amp Eroad model, with a most interesting rear suspension system.
Canyon Bicycles
Without a
stand To use, they decided to invest in tent with bike for test. The German brand needs its customers to see and try their bikes, so events of this type, in addition to those who organize, come great.
Visitors were able to try some supervent models such as the Canyon Aerad, Ultimate, Lux and Neuron: ON.
>> See Canyon Aerad bicycles
>> See Canyon Ultimate Bicycles
>> See Canyon Lux bicycles
Cannondale
This case especially called us attention to the relevance that the Americans gave to their mountain models, especially the most aggressive, with several Jekyll and inhabitants exhibited in the front of the
stand.
>> See Cannondale Bicycles
Bh
Singular
stand The Hernani's, with a kind of Paddock recreation of the World Cup, where Carlos Coloma himself invited coffee while showing his bikes and other novelties of the Basque manufacturer.
It is worth highlighting its Lynx models for BTT and G8 for road. BH is doing a good job lately.
>> See bh bicycles
Other important brands that presented their news in Festibike were Kym, Merida, Haibike and Felt, among others.
Great absences
One of the great criticisms that, once again, receive these events is
The lack of leading brands. In this case, Trek, Specialized and Orbea were missing. The public criticized it without regard to social networks, and derived from it I will comment at the end of this post about my conclusions in relation to whether or not interesting are interesting for manufacturers.
The oddities that were seen in Festibike
Leaving the restoration zone without protection against rain (yes, it rained Friday and Saturday), the strangest thing we could find was:
-
Haibike Saduro Harline, an aluminum BTT e-btt, with a weight close to 30kg. Ungovernable!
- Trust front suspension mounted on a Santa Cruz Nomad 2018. Not even the representative of Santa Cruz Bikes knew how to explain why this fork.
-
BTT Moustache electric tandem. They wanted to try it, there is no doubt.
- Bicycles without external road wiring. The lines are very beautiful. Aesthetically there is no doubt, but we find a serious problem: the steering tube is much thicker, and this It gives a really strange and decompensated aspect to the bicycle. It is something that can be seen live, not so much in photographs.
[capt
The strange trust suspension of Santacruz. Are we facing new innovation like Cannondale's Lefty fork?[/caption]
Another type of exhibitors
Not only of bikes live these events, and therefore leading brands in the sector such as Nutrisports, Bkool, Garmin or Cofidis did not hesitate to bet on festibike when promoting their products with spectacular assemblies, such as Bkool in the very entry of the enclosure Ferial, with
Around 30 bikes mounted on many roller models, and a huge screen where the interested parties could try their simulator
Indoor.
The future of cycling fairs
The bike sector is still booming, and this is undeniable. What we cannot ignore either is that,
Although the user practices more cycling, he invests less money in his passion.
This is derived from the large disbursement of cyclists in recent years by changing the Mountain Bicycle Park of 26 ”for new 29 models.
Currently it is perceived that the traditional mountain cyclist invests in a second bike, in this case of road, or that the road cyclist changes his machine for one with disc brakes, but still does not reach the disbursement levels by cyclist years ago.
How do you harm this directly to the fairs? Well very simple:
Brands have observed these last years that it is more convenient to organize their own events than invest in fairS, especially if we talk about an event that takes place just two weeks from the largest bicycle fair in Europe, Eurobike (in Germany).
On the other hand, the great growth of an event that we could almost consider the most important fair of cycling in Spain: Seaotter could be highlighted.
However, the mood of this event is to create an leisure space, instead of exposure. There are many sub-evidence around them, such as BTT, cyclist and grave marches of a certain level, professionals everywhere in the stands of their brands and, most importantly, a date and location guarantee of success: Girona and beginning of summer.
We will see if reflection and observations are correct, but what can be clear is that there are more and more passionate of cycling, and we will have events, whether or not they are exclusive, to bore.
More oddities of #Festibike2019 in
this video.
