Big changes are planned for Eurobike in 2018: The date will be brought forward to July; until now, the industry get-together at Lake Constance has always taken place at the end of August. The trade fair management has also decided to organize the trade fair exclusively as a B2B event, and the well-attended public day will be cancelled without replacement.

In November, the Hamburg-based bike manufacturer announced that it would no longer be exhibiting at Eurobike 2018. One of the reasons cited by Stevens for not taking part in the trade fair was that the bike season was still in full swing at specialist retailers in July - and therefore serious pre-order planning was not possible. The decision to cancel the public day was also unfortunate.Following Stevens, Storck has now also canceled, Markus Storck says: "The early timing of Eurobike 2018 and the lack of end consumer contact were decisive for our decision. For a small, medium-sized company, the trade fairs and therefore the order dates as well as the dates of the new product launches in 2017 and 2018 are so close together that it is not possible to operate sensibly. This does not mean that we are turning our backs on Eurobike in general. We have always enjoyed exhibiting in Friedrichshafen and will of course be happy to return if the conditions are right."

At both Stevens and Storck Bicycle, the resources freed up will be used to expand in-house exhibitions and intensify dealer support, among other things.