This article is part of the Brixen Bike Papers – a 41 Publishing initiative from our 2025 Think Tank in Brixen with the goal of building a better bike world. A series of industry analysis and essays diving deep into the uncomfortable truths, hidden opportunities, and real changes our industry needs. Click here for the overview of all released stories.
Table of Contents
Eurobike Wasn’t The Problem — It Was The Warning
Industries don’t collapse because they change too fast — they collapse because they change too late.
Eurobike’s fall isn’t the crisis. It’s the warning light on a dashboard we ignored for far too long.
The structure cracked. The road back doesn’t exist.
Eurobike used to feel safe — but safety was an illusion. Long before Frankfurt, Eurobike was caught in an identity crisis: trying to reinvent itself without changing anything that mattered. Polishing the façade while the foundation eroded. What kept it alive wasn’t belief — it was FOMO. A “correct on paper, wrong in spirit” pilgrimage brands attended out of fear, not conviction.
When ZIV and ZF walked away in October 2025, the mask finally dropped. It became obvious: the problem was never Eurobike — it was everything around it. And maybe that’s the best thing that could have happened. Because once the old breaks, the space for the new finally opens.
So let’s be clear: this isn’t another Eurobike analysis. Brixen Paper #02 isn’t about Eurobike at all. Trade shows didn’t create the cracks — they simply made the fractures impossible to ignore. This is about the industry itself. About a desperately needed sabbatical. About turning collapse into momentum. The right move isn’t scrambling for a quick 2026 replacement — it’s stepping back long enough to stop repeating the same script.
Why We Need A Sabbatical — Stop Defending The Old, Start Building The New
If there’s one thing we must understand right now, it’s this: defending the old will keep us from building the new. Nothing is more dangerous than clinging to structures that have already collapsed. Yes, a sabbatical feels scary. Yes, uncertainty is uncomfortable. But stagnation is fatal. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. And at this crossroads, we must decide whether we choose courage over fear, progress over stagnation, momentum over nostalgia.
We keep hearing calls for a quick replacement: a “new Eurobike” in Munich, Düsseldorf, Kortrijk. But let’s be honest — this is not a location problem.
A new postcode won’t fix a broken operating system.
Peter Drucker said it best: “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” And yesterday’s logic is exactly what dragged us into this mess.
Our task now is NOT to rush another mega-format onto the calendar. Our task is to prepare the field — not obsess over the harvest. The right actions, in the right direction, create the right results. But only if we stop defending and reacting. And start rebuilding.
This means: the answer isn’t a new fairground — it’s a new foundation. A sabbatical gives us the one thing this industry has never allowed itself: the space and clarity to stop repeating the past and start designing the future.
7 Questions We Must Answer Before We Rebuild Anything
Before we talk about events or formats, we need to confront 7 foundational questions — the ones that decide whether cycling becomes a cultural force or stays a niche hobby with high ideals and low impact:
1. Who represents us — and why isn’t it our associations?
What does it say about our power structures when Dr. Sandra Wolf — CEO of Riese & Müller — is more visible, more influential and more politically relevant than all German cycling associations combined?
Is that a failure of leadership, a failure of communication, or a failure of relevance?
And more importantly: Who should speak for the industry? Who must?
2. Are entrepreneurs the better industry representatives?
Entrepreneurs build, act, decide, and take risks.
Associations manage, moderate, and try to please everyone.
So we must ask:
Do we want representatives who preserve consensus — or leaders who create momentum?
Are we willing to replace “pleasing everyone” with “leading someone”?
Leadership requires choosing a direction — and the courage to take people there. Do we have that courage?
Maybe the future of representation is not bureaucratic at all. Maybe it’s entrepreneurial alignment in an overarching way?
3. Where must cycling show up to gain societal influence?
Real visibility isn’t Instagram. It’s politics, culture, mobility, economics.
So: Where must cycling show up to shape society?
What stages, conferences, arenas, ministries, and audiences actually matter?
And who has the credibility to stand there?
We know the answer isn’t in the same old rooms speaking the same old language to the same old people. A new advisory board for Eurobike won’t bring the change. It will preserve old thinking.
4. What story do we tell the world — and who cares?
We claim to be “the bike industry.”
But to politics, culture, and the mainstream public, we are too often:
- too technical
- too internal
- too niche
- too scattered
- too self-referential
So the key question is: How do we translate our expertise into narratives the world actually understands? What story does the bike industry tell about itself — and who cares? If we want to gain relevance, do we really want to keep talking about 32”? Another technical innovation that won’t change anything… ?
5. What power do we want — and how do we earn it?
If we truly believe cycling is essential for mobility, health, climate, and culture, then:
What is our plan to gain political influence equal to our societal importance?
Who are our alliances outside the bike bubble?
What coalitions with mobility, health, tech, urban development, and culture must we build?
6. What actually grows the market — and what just decorates it?
Events? Education? Local infrastructure? National campaigns? Digital onboarding?
What really turns non-riders into riders?
And which rituals have we mistaken for impact?
What is our innovation roadmap as a collective industry?
Everyone innovates in isolation, chasing micro-gains while ignoring macro-opportunity.
What would happen if we aligned innovation with societal impact, new riders, new markets, and cultural adoption?
7. Where must we collaborate — and where must we compete?
Right now, we confuse both.
We collaborate where we should differentiate.
We compete where we should unite.
Clarity here changes everything.
These 7 questions are not cosmetic questions. These are the questions that determine whether cycling becomes a cultural force or stays a fragmented hobby with high ideals and low impact.
Coup de grâce – And the Question: Who Leads Now?
When ZIV and ZF withdrew from Eurobike and ended their collaboration, they delivered the coup de grâce — and with it, the responsibility to propose strong alternatives. Like it or not, Eurobike’s collapse leaves a vacuum. The industry still needs a global meeting point with gravity, clarity, and purpose.
But the real question is uncomfortable:
Are ZIV and ZF the right architects for a future-proof, forward-thinking platform? Are they the right ones for a neutral international meeting point where solutions are decided and action is formed? Or are they themselves caught in transformation processes and organizational lag that brought us here in the first place?
While we hope the German associations deliver meaningful solutions, we won’t simply finger-point, raise questions or wait. We take responsibility. And we take action.
We need to build the Cycling Operating System (OS) — an architecture that creates momentum, grows riders, shapes culture, builds political weight, and aligns the industry around outcomes instead of routines.
Bike Industry Architects Wanted — We Don’t Need Better Bikes. We Need A Better System.
Vision is cheap. Systems are priceless. And right now, the bike industry doesn’t need another innovation cycle – it needs an industrial operating system. One that creates demand, not waits for it. One that grows markets, not just optimizes products.
Cycling isn’t competing with other bike brands; it’s competing with TikTok, gaming, cars, and every other system that captures attention and shapes habits.
Prof. Dr. Jens Südekum, chief advisor to the German Minister of Finance.
After the 41 Think Tank Brixen we spoke with Prof. Dr. Jens Südekum, one of Germany’s leading economists and chief advisor to the Minister of Finance. His message was clear: if there are no external growth factors left, industries must design internal ones. And that’s exactly where the bike world is failing. The bike world has no leadership structure. No market-shaping strategy. No market-shaping communication agency and culture builders. No demand engine. We optimise for head angles, torque outputs and watt savings while ignoring the only thing that matters: who will ride tomorrow? And why?
We are world-class at selling bikes to people who already love bikes.
And absolutely terrible at building systems that create new riders.
No onboarding. No cultural infrastructure. No political leverage.
Just product. Product. Product.
We keep building better bikes for the same old audience — instead of building a system that grows the audience.
So the real strategic question isn’t what’s the next bike we should build?
The real questions we should be asking are painfully simple:
How do we build a system that automatically brings new riders in, educates them, and turns them into ambassadors? How do we create a bike culture that is open, magnetic, and welcoming — not exclusive and self-referential? How do we design an operating system that gives this industry real market intelligence, anticipates problems instead of firefighting them, and finally gives cycling the political weight it deserves? And above all: how do we build a system that invests in its future and its culture, not just its next product cycle?
Because the truth is simple: we’ve optimised the product.
Now we need to architect the system.
Because living off luck, hype and booms isn’t enough anymore.
The Future: The Top100 Leadership Summit
First things first: the bike industry has enough conferences. Enough panels. Enough keynotes. What it doesn’t have is a room where leaders stop discussing problems and start solving them.
That’s why we’re launching the first Top100 Leadership Summit on April 22–24 2026 in Leonberg, Germany back in the legendary Staud Studios — a place where the industry’s most decisive minds tackle its most pressing problems and begin building the Cycling Operating System.
Our 41 Think Tank and the Brixen Papers have a different mission.
They are the strategic brain of the cycling world: a space for radical honesty, deep analysis, and industry-wide reflection. They define the problems. They frame the questions. They set the intellectual agenda. It’s demanding work — and we love it.
But the Top100 Leadership Summit serves a different purpose. It’s a different room that will attract different people to deliver different outcomes.
The 41 Think Tank creates clarity.
The Top100 Leadership Summit creates action.
This is where the future gets built — because every vision, no matter how strong, is only as powerful as the people who execute it.
And let’s be honest: the Summit is not for everyone.
It’s for entrepreneurs, CEOs, strategists, and innovators who are ready to build better — the ones who choose to be first movers, not followers.
Because those willing to set the rules now will define the next decade of cycling.
Top100 Leadership Summit – Build Momentum, Not Excuses
Let’s be clear about expectations. We’ve been here before. We won’t do the dirty work for the industry. We can lead, we can create the space, we can design the engine — but in the end, brands and stakeholders must show up with courage and act. That’s why the Top100 Leadership Summit is not a quick fix for success. Success depends on the brands and stakeholders in the room: on their willingness to show up, step up, and finally start doing things differently.
But make no mistake: it is the only place where building a better bike world can begin.
If the bike industry wants a new operating system, this is where it gets built.
We know the pitfalls. The excuses. The fear that paralyzes action. The daily business that kills long-term creation. We’ve seen how even the most inspiring meetings fade into nothing. We know these traps — and we’ll work to dismantle them. In fact, we’ll turn some of the industry’s greatest weaknesses into its greatest strength. How? That’s what the next Brixen Papers will reveal.
So let’s be explicit: in 2026, the bike world doesn’t need a new fair venue.
It needs a new system.
And the Top100 Leadership Summit is the industry’s new decision engine —
ready to start building it now.
A task force for root causes, not symptoms.
The only question left: Are you ready?
Join the Conversation
What’s your take on creating a new OS for the bike industry?
Reply to this email and share your thoughts.
We’re blown away by the feedback about the 41 Think Tank Brixen and the first Brixen Paper #01 — thank you! We promise: we’ll read every message, even if we can’t reply to all.
Overview – The Brixen Bike Papers
The Brixen Bike Papers – a 41 Publishing Think Tank initiative, building better one story at a time. Eleven essays diving deep into the uncomfortable truths, hidden opportunities, and real changes our industry needs. Here’s an overview of all papers:
| The Brixen Bike Papers | Release Date |
|---|---|
| 1. The Industry’s Next Innovation Isn’t a Bike – It’s Unity | 11.11.2025 |
| 2. The Eurobike Sabbatical – A Clear Answer for 2026 | 18.11.2025 |
| 3. Ingredient Marketing – The Bike World’s Marketing Fiasco | 25.11.2025 |
| 4. To be announced soon | 02.12.2025 |
| 5. To be announced soon | 09.12.2025 |
| 6. To be announced soon | 16.12.2025 |
| 7. To be announced soon | 23.12.2025 |
| 8. To be announced soon | 30.12.2025 |
| 9. To be announced soon | 06.01.2026 |
| 10. To be announced soon | 13.01.2026 |
| 11. To be announced soon | 20.01.2026 |
You want more than just to read along?
Got questions, ideas, or honest feedback about the Think Tank or the Brixen Bike Papers?
Then write to Robin at robin@41publishing.com
We might not be able to reply to everyone — but we’ll read every message carefully.
We’re looking forward to your thoughts!
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Words: Juansi Vivo, Robin Schmitt Photos: Jan Fock, Benedikt Schmidt, Peter Walker, ZIV Die Fahrradindustrie, Eurobike