The threat from the Far East materialises in an unadorned side street in Breisgau. It is raining, and not far from the State Viticulture Institute in Freiburg, the navigation system guides the visitor to a functional building between all kinds of commercial buildings. Above the mirrored entrance door are signs with the names and logos of well-known brands from the world of cycling - but in the centre are the white letters of a brand that has no exhibition space anywhere else in Germany. It says "Elves", "Carbon frames | wheels". Never heard of it? So in you go.
Chinese bicycle production: More and more Chinese brands
Anyone who buys bicycle products in this country usually goes for Asian goods. Traditionally, however, consumers almost never buy products from brands whose owners are recognisable as Chinese. Western brands with illustrious names collect prestige, while the actual production often takes place in the People's Republic at companies that are not allowed to talk about it. And although it is no longer uncommon for consumers in other sectors to buy directly from China - for example from Temu or Shein - this is still a taboo subject for many amateur athletes in the cycling market.
Joe Whittingham, an insider in the Chinese bicycle industry, is familiar with this mood: "In the Western media, the rhetoric is generally quite anti-China, and consumers still associate 'Made in China' with inferior quality." At the same time, however, something else is happening away from the mainstream, and not just in Freiburg: Chinese manufacturers are focussing on their own brands, their own products and a direct line to customers in the West. They have already come a long way with this. Wasn't it the same with Japanese cars?
A tarnished image of Chinese suppliers?
The image of semi-shady suppliers still dominates the perception of manufacturers who send out PDF catalogues with carbon products from strange email addresses. When you enter the bike outlet in Freiburg with this image in mind, you are in for a big surprise. On the modern display, this shop presents the products of the Chinese manufacturer Elves: frames, wheels of the sub-brand Orome, fully assembled bikes.
"Demand has risen noticeably, the number of units sold is significant," says Marc Hanisch, who also has Basso and Simplon in his range. Price plays an important role, says Hanisch, but Elves has another advantage: "The brand offers an online configurator with completely customised paintwork in super quality," which is something you won't find anywhere else in this price-performance combination.
He is not a dealer, but a service partner of the Chinese company, which solves one of the most important issues: customers are more likely to trust a German contact for queries and complaints than a number in faraway Asia. "The contacts are available six, sometimes seven days a week, and you get prompt feedback," says the Freiburg entrepreneur.
Brands from the shadows
Heiko Wild in Munich blurts out on the phone: "You didn't expect us to have the coolest stuff, did you?" His bike shop "Bikedress" has a particularly good reputation and is the place to go for discerning cyclists who reach for the upper price segment and attach great importance to personal customisation. Pinarello, Open, Trek - these are the names that insiders associate with the Bavarian shop. And now "Bikedress" is the first sales partner of the Chinese brand Seka in Germany.
"No other brand has such good packaging, they really think about how they deliver the goods," says Wild, "and the mechanics in my shop are delighted with the impeccable quality of the carbon frames." Wild tested the brand himself after a customer from Singapore came to him with a Seka for a bike fitting. That's when Wild saw the brand for the first time, organised himself a frame that fitted his measurements perfectly and rode around 10,000 kilometres on it last year.
Aggressively calculated prices
Since then, Wild has been convinced, he has cultivated contacts in China, had himself listed as a dealer and sold the first four units in the past few months. "Seka has now introduced a very exciting bike with the Spear, and enquiries have been piling up ever since," says Wild. However, there is still a catch for him: the Chinese manufacturers' prices are aggressively calculated in order to score points against the competition. The retailer still lacks the right margin. This is a dilemma for the future. After all, Chinese goods that cost more might be less interesting for pioneer customers.
In both cases, Freiburg and Munich, the contacts between dealers and manufacturers came about by chance. Wild saw the customer's interesting bike, Hanisch heard the story of a colleague from the UK who was already doing good business with Elves. Nevertheless, it is no coincidence that these two brands have a presence in Europe. They are part of a growing list of companies that are emerging from the shadows of the value chain of Western companies. Europe offers opportunities for these companies.
Chinese bicycle production: from horror stories to positive reports
Andrea Jeschke was a completely different story. It was the time when people searched for insider information in forums to find trustworthy frame and wheel factories in the Far East. About ten years ago, the engineer from northern Germany started looking into the matter for the first time, she wanted to build her own bike, experiment and not save so much. She lay on the sofa with the flu and scrolled through the TOUR forum. She read horror stories and positive reports, soaked up information and finally contacted a few companies in China, which had no reputation at the time.
She soon built her first cross bike. Numerous other projects followed, for which she tapped into various sources in China. She now has a regular supplier, Tantan, which still operates in the niche market. In response to a press enquiry, Tantan only sends a link to its website. They don't seem to have any more image building in their plans. Meanwhile, Andrea Jeschke has driven the cause forward herself. The success of her YouTube channel surprised her herself. People watched a video in which Jeschke describes her experiences with Chinese frames more than 60,000 times.
Trust in suppliers
"I now say: I buy everything made of carbon from China." Jeschke has confidence in her supplier - even though the relationships between brands and producers in China remain "a closed book" for her to this day. For the first time, the frames look and have the same dimensions as those of brand manufacturers. Is that a good sign? Is it cheap offcuts? We don't know.
Jeschke sometimes sees herself more as a consultant than a customer, especially when it comes to her suppliers: "They still have some catching up to do when it comes to marketing, but they are very quick and competent when it comes to personal dialogue." The fact is, firstly, that a whole series of new brands have emerged in the People's Republic of China in just a few years, which no longer operate incognito or take their first steps with amateurish brands, but instead appear under their own banner, pay influencers and equip their first teams.
Will the Chinese market soon overtake the European market?
Joe Whittingham has been in charge of international marketing for a Chinese company and has created Panda Podium, a portal designed to offer Western consumers safe products from China. Chinese manufacturers know that the European market in particular offers scope for value-for-money packages, and Whittingham creates the link with his site. He does not want consumers to order via AliExpress, but instead works with his team to ensure that the goods are tested as thoroughly as possible before being shipped to Europe. "Almost every brand in China has sent me their wheelsets and we've tested them all," says the Brit.
This is just as new as the presence of Chinese brands in European shops. "The in-house brands have to be fast. The bosses of these factories know that their production will no longer be in China in 10 or 20 years and that they may no longer have a factory at all - so they need their own brand." The second fact, however, is that when Chinese producers establish real brands, they are guided by market conditions. "The market in China is on the rise, it could be bigger than the European market in two or three years," says Jean-Paul Ballard, whose company Swiss Side is also a sought-after partner for innovative companies.
Chinese bicycle production: Battle for production capacity
In fact, he has already received enquiries from Chinese companies regarding collaboration. A few years ago, that would have been unthinkable. But now, with China's domestic market in mind, momentum seems to be building. "There's a big battle for production capacity right now and only a limited number of quality producers that are close to Chinese customers," says Ballard. The Chinese sports bike boom is having an impact in other corners of the world. High-priced bikes and components in particular are selling out more frequently in Europe. According to those in the know, a consumer class has grown in China that values bikes with illustrious Western names and is prepared to pay dearly.
This also means opportunities for new brands. China already has its own electronic groupsets, which are entering the price war. Joe Whittingham reports that the industry benefited greatly from the coronavirus bike boom in Europe, with many changing their focus from China to the West after 2019. He expects these brands to focus more on China again. On the other hand, Western brands have been building up massive production capacities in Europe for several years now, in Poland, Portugal, Italy and even Switzerland. "We are already producing here to a large extent and are therefore competitive," says Swiss Side boss Ballard about the cooperation with DT Swiss, "which will also help us to keep prices stable in Europe."
Seals bring trust
Many aspects of direct business with China remain mysterious to this day. How exactly does it work with customs, import rules and shipping costs? What happens when EU and German legislation focussing on Chinese trading platforms and their aggressive practices make these models more expensive? Who will take care if there is a problem with the bike from China? Which brands can be trusted at all? Joe Whittingham says that you run the risk of getting into a "rabbit hole", i.e. digging deeper and deeper when you start researching as a private customer.
But one thing is clear: if there is a brand name on the frame, then the manufacturer has something to lose. If seals are added, such as the UCI seal, then trustworthiness also increases, says Jean-Paul Ballard. And individual players like Petr Minarik want to create a better overview of the market. He runs CyclistsHub.com, a website that aims to provide reliable information on Chinese brands. Minarik tries to document which companies comply with which quality level and which certifications. He rides the bikes himself. "I have to say: I've never had a really dangerous problem."
Chinese bicycle production: the future of the industry remains speculative
What he has observed is interesting: Contrary to preconceptions, technical innovations such as integrated cockpits could be found in series production at Chinese manufacturers much earlier. For a number of reasons, Western companies still provided the older, semi-integrated cockpits; he speculates about stock levels in connection with development delays, cost-cutting measures and the inability to accelerate production quickly. "It looks to me like the Chinese have moved faster here and had more courage to push through full integration," he says.
On the other side is developer Ballard, who works for European industry giants and is constantly accelerating in competition: "We simply have to be more innovative, and we will always be two or three steps ahead of other manufacturers in the future, including those in China. But we have to protect that." Much speculation remains. While the well-known brands are building up capacities in Europe again, production in Vietnam is also growing, which in turn threatens China as a favourable location. Especially as the government in China is also taking a critical look at the environmental impact of carbon production and wages are rising.
Can Chinese brands be so much cheaper in the long term if they also have better customer service and perhaps even sponsorship on their cost list in order to grow even further? So while the first retailers in Germany are cautiously emphasising the appeal of the new brands from the Far East, other players in the industry are reacting allergically to requests for talks. Key companies in the already ailing German bicycle industry prefer to disappear. Behind closed doors, they say: "Don't talk about the Chinese now, when our old business is already collapsing. And in faraway China, where the e-mail enquiries for this story are likely to have been received, all this is met with silence.
