Bikes, tech, and the road not taken at the Taipei Cycle Show

I have no idea why, but just as I have never driven a car since I arrived in Taiwan over thirty years ago, I have not ridden a bicycle either, even though squadrons of YouBikes are widely available throughout Taipei and easy and cheap to use.

I was, however, briefly tempted to consider reevaluating my mobility options when I paid my first visit to the Taipei Cycle Show at the Nankang Exhibition Center last week. Given the huge variety of pedal-powered and electric models from major industry players like Giant and Merida, who wouldn’t? Maybe, just maybe, it would be a great idea to buy a gravel bike to hit Taiwan’s myriad mountain trails on. Unless, of course, as would be much more likely, I ended up crumpled on the ground nursing a broken leg and even worse.

With my flights of fancy grounded before they had time to take off, I returned to safer and more familiar ground by looking at how bicycle manufacturers are utilizing IoT, cloud, AI, battery, and powertrain technologies to make their products safer and more convenient to ride.

Interesting innovations I came across ranged from intelligent helmets equipped with automated turn signals and collision detection sensors to cloud-based fleet management systems capable of tracking rider and package locations in real-time.

Adoption of these new rider safety and monitoring technologies was particularly noticeable in e-cargo bikes, which promise to lower operational costs and reduce the environmental impact for operators of last-mile delivery services in urban areas. Some manufacturers such as Keego Mobility are going as far incorporating front and rear AI-enabled cameras into their bikes to make sure couriers are riding more safely. As the cost and complexity of installing smart cameras go down, more companies are sure to follow.

Even as the bike industry weathers a short-term slowdown in global sales following its post-Covid slump, there were enough encouraging signs at the event bike to indicate that it is making the right investments in product design and technology innovation to ensure a return to long-term growth.