OPINION
Taichung Bike Week 2026: Big Wheels, Bigger Motors and an Industry Still Searching for Its Next Gear
An anonymous industry insider’s view from Taichung T
he annual migration to Taiwan for Taichung Bike Week remains a highlight for catching up with friends in the bike industry over rumours, gossip, and news.
And that, perhaps, is still the best way to
describe Taichung Bike Week. TBW isn’t a conventional trade show. Without grand consumer halls or dramatic product launches, it focuses on closed doors, hotel rooms, samples, and confidential conversations. And walking between those three hotels in 2026, six subjects kept coming back into the conversation.
32 Inches: The Question Is No Longer “If” If one subject dominated meetings this year, it was 32-inch wheels. The question has moved from whether 32-inch wheels are coming to when, where, and how quickly they will be adopted.
Experimentation is already happening in gravel, with Schwalbe announcing 32-inch G-One tyres for 2027 and Scott testing prototype bikes. Mountain biking is where the argument gets even more interesting: Andreas Seewald recently won the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championship aboard a prototype KTM Scarp Evo with 32-inch wheels, the first World Championship title on the format. Trek has since shown its own 32-inch XC prototype with a RockShox SID Flight Attendant fork, and Scott is publicly
www.bikebiz.com October 2026 | 21
testing a 32-inch Spark. This raises technical questions around frame geometry, fork availability, packaging, small frame sizes, and inventory management for an already over-inventoried industry. In Taichung, the consensus is that 32-inch wheels are
here to stay. The main question is whether they remain restricted to gravel and XC/marathon racing or expand into trail bikes and beyond.
The e-CVT Road Map Isn’t Really a Road Map Yet If 32-inch wheels dominated the mechanical conversation, e-CVT dominated the electric one.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
