ARGENBUEHL, Germany (BRAIN)—Stefan Reisinger was all smiles at the entrance to the Eurobike Demo Day yesterday morning. Reisinger, Eurobike’s project manager, was pleased with the warm and sunny weather and the strong turnout of dealers who showed up to test-ride bikes.
Reisinger said around 100 companies exhibited at Eurobike’s second annual demo day, held at a new location in Argenbuehl, Germany. Set in the countryside, surrounded by corn fields and apple orchards, the demo site was located about 40 minutes away from the Messe Friedrichshafen, where the indoor trade show kicks off today.
Exhibitors liked the flat exhibition area, which was laid out on a football pitch. And most seemed happy with the venue and the weather.
Marin Bikes returned for the second year to Outdoor Demo with a small presence. Steve Glazer, sales and marketing manager for Marin, said the experience this year, the first year with decent weather, convinced him the company could expand its demo booth next year.
“Marin is a small player in Germany. Our demo fleet is on the smaller side. With the good venue and the good weather, we see it needs to be more significant,” Glazer said.
The location featured two road routes and three off-road routes of varying difficulty. Some attendees felt the mountain bike trails did not offer enough challenge for testing bikes.
“The venue here is great; the trails are not,” said Andrew Juskaitis, Giant’s global product marketing manager.
Juskaitis said most of the off-road trails were gravel paths, which is common in Europe where singletrack is rare. “You could ride a road bike on 80 percent of them; a cyclocross bike on 100 percent of them,” Juskaitis said.
“You can’t get a perspective of how our suspension performs,” he added. “We’re trying to showcase our suspension and you can’t distinguish between ours and our competitors’.”
Although attendance figures weren’t yet available, dealer traffic appeared steady throughout the day. Exhibitors said most attendees were German-speaking dealers.
“It seems to be primarily a German dealer show,” Glazer said of the demo. “The inside location is super international, outside is very local.”
—Megan Tompkins
