What? Yes, this is the new reality - The secret masters of “Copy & Paste” do not wish themselves to be copied! Seen on Eurobike opposite of our booth in A 6. A nameless company from Thailand presented a very simple copy of an e-bike - coincidentally very similar to a model made by a larger brand from Holland. Even the stem shifter, the frame design and the chain protection were 1:1 copies of the original. But – and this is very self-ironic – they asked for not being “shot” by visitors..

Hey people from Thailand: This is an international fair..  people are coming to see new stuff and for sure they will take photos! But the emphasis is on the word “NEW”.. so don´t worry, no one – apart from some lawyers will be interested in your stuff and take unauthorized photos.

And.. one last word – my dear Thai Copy-cats:

No one never-ever will copy a bad copy.. you already did it so nice, for sure someone in Old Europe appreciates giving you the inspiration…

What else happened?

A lot of things, I nearly spent 2 weeks in Germany. I have not yet finished my “sort-out” process of checking out the new stuff from the very new stuff, the interesting and funny stuff from the boring stuff and so on… so please give me one more week and I will post my personalized overview of the Eurobike 2010. I promise to try not to be boring…

1. We finished our UrbanMobility Exhibition in the center of Porto. We received a lot of guests, we did show (hopefully) to some of them, that “UrbanMobility” is more than just a slogan. And last but not least we sold some bicycles. I know it is an ugly, business orientated world, but someone has to face it. Or in the words of our good friend Bruce W.: “It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it!”

2. We built up “The Transformer” Bullitt. The most outstanding music machine – made by KlaraGeist – that ever rolled on that part of the western hemisphere. This is not only a “superlative” – it is the truth, but please convince yourself. A 1.200 W stereo high-end mobile unit, that serves to entertain an area of a small football ground or up to 5.000 people. It is part of our mediabix.com advertising concept, that integrates bicycle based advertisement and spontaneous event sessions. As well mobile DJ´s or beach bars could be interested in such a tool. But independent from all this – it is just “cooooooooooooooooool” or in the words of a Portuguese bicycle magazine editor: “This is very beyond of everything I saw on a bicycle so far…” We leave these words without a comment..

3. We established our first retail bicycle brand, the Yuba Mundo. Why did we do this? Didn´t we have enough work with implementation of our own brands that we distribute? Yes we have a lot of work, but regarding that product there was no denying, we had to agree we with Dan + Bob from USED GmbH about the delivery of 3 test bikes. Meanwhile the first is sold and we realized that we were not wrong, when deciding to enlarge our range. The Yuba is an affordable way of using a transport bicycle in a not yet developed city area. It is stable, well designed and manufactured and it is a long tail cargo bike, a range that we so far didn´t recognized as a serious alternative. But we changed our mind and we must confess: Long tail bicycle transport is an option, even when you do not have the perfect structure regarding bicycle lanes etc. as f. ex in Copenhagen or Amsterdam.. and on top of all for a very interesting price. So here we ride our Yuba!

4. What else happened?

The world lost some great voices and characters, in the persons of Ronnie James Dio and Dennis Hopper. Both died of fu…ing cancer and too early for their families , their fans and their work. Let us remember Dennis and Ronnie with some samples of the greatest stuff that they left.

5. What´s new in bicycle biz?

A new city bike brand came up. Sports Nut went “nuts” and launched a new brand with interesting stuff, the CremeCycles. We were in touch with them already but now we will have a closer view on them, when we visit EuroBike in Friedrichshafen in September. Another great bicycle brand from Germany was seen on the horizon, Kalkhoff is entering business in Portugal seriously. We will come back to this after the summer.

6. Final news.

An American city prohibited bicycle circulation. What? Yes! Please read the whole story here.

Any questions so far? No! Nothing – concerning America – surprises me after that environment disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A nation of professional liars,  gamblers and stupid managers and ahead of all a president who is not able to fight for his targets, that brought him into the position that he actually has. What remains, are the words of our good friend  Colville Andersen: Gas pumps are so last century!

Recently published on major German newspaper and journals:

An image campaign supported by the association of German insurance companies. People were being interviewed on the street, what they like in their life and what they want to be taken care of… The target was, to draw a quick hand-out of the desired object. One guy draw a commuter bike.. with headlight, baggage carrier and obviously recognizable as a city bike. Then he called it “My Gazelle”  used as a synonym for a whole species of products…

Notes:

1. No, it was not “placed” by Gazelle

2. No, it was not meant as a “Guerilla-strategy”

3. No, Gazelle will not prosecute their brand´s use in foreign-to-species periphery..

[A small step into history]

In 1996 Bionicon founders Andi Fesl, Stefan Albrecht and Daniel Kohl bought their first full-suspension bike and only half a year later they started to think seriously about how to optimise their daily ride, as they were not satisfied with the uphill performance.

The rising front wheel on uphill sections and a hurting neck drove them insane. Lots of brainstorming, doubts over existing products and inspiration from nature showed the path towards suspension travel and geometry adjustment as a way to optimise the daily ride, apart from simply reducing weight.

Step by step theories were developed, the first basic model was created in 1998 and many versions followed. In 1999 the development was shifted to a pneumatic link system.

It was more logical to adjust the front and the rear of the chassis simultaneously as animals do. More then 20 different versions were created in their little work shop in Bavaria.

On May 1st 2000 this technology was presented for the first time to the world of Mountainbiking at the Lake Garda Bike Festival. This was the point of no return and they found themselves in the centre of attention with envious onlookers from within the bike industry.

Winning the ISPO DuPont Brand New Award 2000 for the most innovative sports product gavetons of PR and drove them to bring this system into the market.

In April 2002 this pioneering product was finally available for everybody and the company was created… [Source: www.bionicon.com]

Meanwhile Bionicon has an approx. turnover of 2 million Euros a year, 20 employees in Germany and another 10 abroad. The strategy diversifys for other areas as well. The frame adaption patents are used by renowned bicycle producers all over the world, the company invests in high quality bicycle wear and started recently to support MTB- Tourism projects…

Join a small tour through Bionicon headquarter:

[[Show as slideshow]]

Special thanks to Marco Toniolo, who authorized me to use his perfect pictures from an earlier visit a year ago. But they were so much better than my poor “drive-by-shootings” that it would be an offence to anyone’s eyes to use them in this article…

Alternatives? Do it with BAMBOO !

Anyway:

In April 2010 the brand new Bionicon TESLA will come to Portugal!

I met two exhausted heroes, dropping just in after one week of organisation and participation at Greifmasters Bikepolo.

Recep and Holger started their biz in 2004 and they did it right from “zero”. In the beginning they were the “bad boys” – being chased away from the fairground when promoting their bikes in a ”guerrilla-way” Meanwhile they are the proud holders of a Eurobike award and several design awards around the world. They turned their company from a garage story to an established brand in the bicycle market. When I was visiting them last week they proudly presented their new warehouse which sets up another milestone in logistic capability. We agreed upon an individual strategy for the Portuguese market, to allow the brand to grow as well in Southern Europe. Meanwhile we´ve got 4 dealers in the Lisbon area and we are looking for more enthusiastic entrepreneurs who are visionary enough to invest in UrbanMobility with style.. [*Marketing mode "OFF"]