After wandering the halls for over 12 hours, Adam Sklar from Sklar Bikes and Daniel Yang from Neuhaus Metalworks still have no idea what happened at the Taipei Cycle Show 2024. The show fills three floors with almost 1000 booths and a million products of the BigBike sausage. Here are the vibes and products that SmallBike found interesting.

Adam and Daniel linked up with Matt from Crust Bikes at the Taipei Cycle Show…

Show Vibes

Taipei Cycle Show takes place each Spring. As we will explore in a future article, Taiwan is the world’s largest source for high-quality bicycles and components. The show is an opportunity for factories and manufacturers to show off their capabilities, find new brands to work with, and network work with existing clients. Unlike Sea Otter or Euro Bike, the Taipei Cycle Show is not consumer-facing. Most booths have products hanging to show to the public. However, the real business happens in tiny temporary meeting rooms, where product managers show 2025 products and talk MOQ (minimum order quantities) and OEM spec.

But for someone excited about bike tech or how things are made, it is a great place to walk around. Whole sections of the three event halls are filled with aluminum forgings to become fork crowns and stems. There is no shortage of hydro formed aluminum tube suppliers or screw manufacturers who make your bottle boss bolts and small suspension parts.

You can find the latest in batch painting frames and a machine shop to make your next chainring. While most of these manufacturers produce products of other people’s designs, they often bring designs of their own to show off their capabilities or provide examples of where they think the market is going. So that is interesting to see.

As Daniel and I (Adam) spent two days walking around the halls of the Taipei cycle show we absorbed a lot. Trying our best to seek out things that we thought were interesting for ourselves or the Radavist crowd. If I were to pick a general theme for the show it would be “E-bike mini velo”. Perhaps the mini velo part is due to the show’s location, but I have to admit I am heading home kind of wanting one. The E-bike part came as no surprise.

It seems like there are more and more good options out there for getting people out of cars. Overall though, there isn’t a ton going on. The post-COVID woes that are echoing across the bike industry seem to be present here too. Most people seem to be putting their heads down, feeling confident that things will pick up again, making things mostly the same way as they have for a while, and for now that seems pretty good. Here are some cool things we saw.

From Clubs to Ti Lugs: T&K Bike

I (Daniel) spy on, er… follow, the European and American metal bike scene closely, so few things catch me by surprise. However, I was shocked when I stumbled upon T&K’s innovative lugs and tubing. T&K is a Taiwanese bike brand using centrifugal investment casting to make titanium headtube, bottom bracket, and seat tube lugs. All made in Taiwan.

They also create custom 6AL-4V tubes using a spiral forming process. 6AL-4V is stronger than 3AL-2.5V but cannot be drawn into tubes. T&K overcomes this limitation by rolling a strip of titanium around a mandrel and welding it using robots.

Where does a small brand get access to such high-tech equipment and knowledge? High-end golf clubs. When asked why they build bikes, the answer was simple “Because we like riding bikes”.

It is cool to see the Asian cycling scene is thriving with innovation.

Taiwanese Craftsmanship, American Steel: Velospec

If you rode an American steel mountain bike the last few years, chances are it has a Velospec tube. Aside from datasheets and butting profiles of Velospec, I admit I didn’t know much about the brand and its parent company Fairing Industrial. I used my opportunity in Taiwan to sit down with the owner, Rita Chen, to debunk the mystery:

“Velospec is a Taiwanese-American product. It is made from American steel combined with Taiwanese knowledge, machinery, and craftsmanship. When True Temper stopped supporting bicycle tubing, our customers were concerned that they would not be able to find OX platinum tubing. […] we had to spend so much effort to locate the raw material, which was a trade secret.”

“The bicycle framebuilder’s contribution is the creativity. Without the material, you cannot fulfill the dream. We want to support the bicycle industry, with American material and Taiwan craftsmanship we are able to fulfill and enrich your creativity. That eventually will make the bicycle industry better”

Although the material science, tube bending, and forming at Fairing were exceptional, what impressed me, even more, was Rita’s open-mindedness, her support for framebuilders, and the youthful energy of the team.

Ultimate Beauty: Yasujiro

In order to showcase the pinnacle of the steel bicycle, Hank Lin, owner of Tange, created “Yasujiro,” named after Yasujiro Tange, the founder of Tange tubing. “Yasujiro” produces some of the most beautiful traditional road bikes I have seen.

“We developed the Tange Tubing, but people are wondering how beautiful it could be if it’s a bike. I designed the Yasujiro bikes, because I wanted to show them the potential. Otherwise, it is out of their limitation. They don’t understand.”

When I picked up the Svelte to photograph, I was shocked at how light it was. At only 11.5 lbs (5.2kg), this was an insanely low weight for a metal bike. The Tange Ultimate tubing requires a special heat treating and drawing process to create super light .65-.35-.65 butts. Only a master welder would be able to weld tubes that thin!

Save the Turtles: Clever Standard’s Tire Plug Kit, Made from Ocean Waste

After wandering the show for six hours, I stumbled upon several turtles showing Clever Standard’s new tire plug system. The repair kit is made from recycled ocean waste and comes in a fun, injection-molded model tree.

Here is why I loved it:

• Some Assembly Required: when you build something yourself, you build a connection with the object, and it becomes more meaningful. This is the same reason why I love building bikes.
• Eco Plastic: Machined aluminum is flashy, but it takes energy to refine and machine. If applied correctly, plastic can make lighter and more environmentally friendly products.
• Brilliant Design: This plug system combines the Dynaplug style and bacon strip, the best of both worlds. Bonus: the heads can be pressed into a hole with a 2mm Allen key.

The best ideas are obvious in hindsight, yet they are surprisingly difficult to conceive. For me, the Clever Standard plug kit is the most innovative product I saw at the show. Tomo and his team of turtles are clearly passionate about design, sustainability, and biking.

The anchors and bacon strips are available now, with the DIY kit landing in April. Clever is also seeking distributors for their products.

Style Award: Moon Helmet City Helmet

Finally, a solution to feel safe on the next ride with your casual no-helmet friends. I mean, do I even need to explain it?

Wrapup

In a show of a million different products, it was surprisingly difficult to find interesting or innovative things from our perspective as small bike brands. Regardless, the Taipei Cycle show was an eye-opening opportunity to see how the BigBike sausage is made, from forging, welding robots, testing machines, and battery connectors to backroom product launches and OEM/ODM wheeling and dealing. Although the Taipei Cycle Show is our first article from Taiwan, it was actually the final stop on our trip. Stay tuned for more…