In this special "best-of" episode, we revisit some of the most compelling conversations on branding from the past year. Featuring clips from Claire Deschamps (Assos), Hugo Davidson (Knog), Greg Shapleigh (Giro/Highbar), and Nikki Hawes (Whyte Bikes), this roundup dives into what actually makes a cycling brand resonate — from turning community into your most authentic storyteller, to standing out in a commoditized category through bold positioning, to the discipline of knowing whether an idea is a genuine strategy or just a fleeting opportunity. A recurring thread ties it all together: authenticity, focus, and staying true to your brand's core values are what separate brands that fade from brands that endure.


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I sat down with Chris Sugai, General Manager of Gates Corporation's Mobility Unit — and the founder of Niner Bikes, where he championed 29" wheels back when they were less than 1% of the market. Now he's doing it again, this time with belt drives.

We talked about:

• The uncanny parallel between the resistance he faced pushing 29ers in the early 2000s and the skepticism belt drives face today — almost all of it from people who've never actually ridden
• What it's like being an "ingredient brand" inside OEM partnerships, and why the real work happens in the trenches with frame and drivetrain manufacturers, not in front of the end consumer
• Selling Niner after 20 years, the capital strain of growing a company at double-digit rates, and what it taught him
• The transition from 40 years as an entrepreneur to being an employee at a 115-year-old, $3.5B public company — and why he actually prefers it

There's something great about hearing a founder talk candidly about giving up control, and what he gained in return.




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If you've ridden a mountain bike in the last 25 years, chances are you've rolled on Kenda — whether you knew it or not. The Taiwanese tire maker produces close to 70% of the aftermarket tubes sold in the US.

This week I'm joined by Eric Yang, VP of Business Development at Kenda USA and grandson of the company's founder. Born and raised in Ohio after his father moved to open Kenda's US headquarters, Eric spent five years in the family business before walking away for a decade — Silicon Valley startups, a Wharton MBA, and angel investing — until he decided it was time to come home.

We dig into Kenda's 64-year history, the humility baked into Taiwanese manufacturing culture, the tightrope walk between being a B2B powerhouse and a consumer brand, and what it really means to step into a company with nine board members, a global footprint, and a DNA rooted firmly in the factory floor.


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Nikki Hawyes is one of the most private-equity-experienced executives in cycling. Across three PE-backed businesses—Fisher, Zyro Fisher, and now Whyte Bikes—she's lived through every phase of the cycle: rapid growth, near-administration crisis, secondary buyouts, and exits. In this episode she shares a refreshingly candid view of what actually works when private equity meets the bike business: why realistic growth beats hockey-stick projections, how focus drives turnarounds, and why she set the terms before signing on.


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Joe Benedict, Vice President of Category Management at Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), pulls back the curtain on America's largest cycling distributor.

With 5,500 retailers served nationwide and over 45,000 products in their portfolio, QBP sits at the center of the US cycling supply chain — yet remains largely invisible to the outside world. 

Joe breaks down how QBP actually operates, from their category-based business model to their four-warehouse logistics network, and explains why landing a distribution deal with QBP is just the starting line, not the finish.

For European brands eyeing the US market, this one is essential listening. We also get into the current state of the aftermarket parts business, what the industry looks like post-pandemic inventory crisis, and why QBP sees 2026 as a year to take control and move forward.


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Recorded live at Performance Days 2026 in Munich, this panel brought together three of the most influential ingredient brands in performance apparel — Polartec (Eric Yung), Elastic Interface (Gianluca Pellicciari), and Polygiene (Eva Doll) — alongside the design leads at Albion (Graham Raeburn) and Santini (Fergus Niland) to unpack a relationship the cycling industry rarely talks about openly: the strategic relationship between ingredient partners and brands. The conversation moved past the hangtag.

The panel dug into what real co-development looks like (hint: it starts with trust and a shared problem, not a logo), why so many brands fail to communicate the value their ingredient partners create, and how cycling still lags behind the outdoor industry in maturing this conversation.

The throughline: ingredient brands are an under-leveraged R&D arm sitting right there, waiting to be used better.


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In this episode, Sam Nicols returns to The Business of Cycling to break down one of the most consequential — and arguably under-reported — stories in the industry right now: the unraveling of Accell. Sam, who serves on the board of Propain Bikes and previously led YT Industries through the post-COVID downturn, brings a rare combination of operator experience and acquisition insight to the conversation.

We trace Accell's path from a steady, publicly-traded European conglomerate of brands like Haibike, Raleigh, and Lapierre, to its 2022 take-private deal by KKR at a $1.4 billion valuation — closed at the absolute peak of the post-COVID cycling boom. From there, we unpack the perfect storm that followed: collapsing demand in the entry-to-mid segment where Accell was strongest, the Babboe cargo bike recall, a hollowing-out of the middle of the market, and the brutal mechanics of a leveraged buyout when revenue drops 40%.

We also get into KKR walking away from roughly $1.1 billion in equity earlier this year, what restructuring is underway, and what it would actually take for Accell to find stable ground again. A candid, sober look at how a company can go from looking like the perfect investment target to a cautionary tale in less than three years.


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Herrmans Bike Components is a 67-year-old Finnish manufacturer most cyclists have never heard of — even though their grips, lights, and rim tape are quietly riding on bikes across Europe. Built on decades of OEM work for some of the biggest e-bike brands, Hermans operates a highly automated factory on Finland's west coast that competes head-on with Asian suppliers on price, lead time, and service.

In this conversation, CEO Dan Liljeqvist walks me through the company's arc: from a privately-held family business, through a 2019 private equity transition that split off its industrial lighting arm, into the post-COVID correction that forced the cycling industry to reckon with itself. And now, the hardest move of all — stepping out of the shadows to build a consumer-facing brand in the European aftermarket.

We talk about why automation only works when you have the volume to justify it, what the Nordic entrepreneurial spirit has to do with surviving as a European manufacturer, and why going from anonymous supplier to recognized brand might be the toughest leap a company in this industry can make.


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Hugo Davidson didn't set out to build a bike accessories brand. Trained as an industrial designer in Melbourne, he spent years contracting at London design firms before co-founding his own consultancy back in Australia.

Then came the dot-com crash — a failed retail technology startup (one that held the iPod trademark before Apple), $2 million in debt, and a stark question: what now? The answer came from one of his last remaining designers, a former bike shop employee who saw an opening in cycling accessories. Armed with frequent flyer points and a portfolio of quirky, design-forward prototypes, Hugo showed up at the 2002 Taipei Bike Show and walked away with 16 distributors in 16 countries. 

Twenty-five years later, KNOG has sold over 7 million of its iconic frog lights, navigated the rise of Chinese competition and e-commerce, and remains stubbornly optimistic about the future of cycling. In this conversation, Hugo and I talk about entrepreneurial resilience, the evolution of bike retail, and why — as his German distributor likes to remind him — people will always ride bikes.


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Danny Segers has spent 18 years quietly building Bioracer into one of Europe's largest custom cycling apparel manufacturers, growing the Belgian company from €7 million to €35 million in revenue, with 85% of the business focused on custom team wear. With a background in finance and auditing, Danny brings a distinctly analytical lens to the cycling industry, one that favors sustainable reinvestment over aggressive expansion and steady progress over flashy ambition.

In this conversation, we dig into how Bio Racer mastered the incredibly complex world of custom clothing, processing 15,000 unique designs annually across factories in Czech Republic, Romania, Macedonia, and Colombia. 

Danny also shares the moment that changed everything — when World Champion Tony Martin crossed the finish line in a competitor's skin suit — and how that painful wake-up call pushed Bio Racer to embrace wind tunnel testing and redefine themselves as the most tested brand in cycling.

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