Though Halloween 2006 has passed, it will haunt in the bicycle industry for years to come. The producers of Eurobike announced their decision to enter the U.S. Market with a trade show to compete with Interbike, which has grown in its 25 years to more than 300,000 square feet. I attended it for the first time on a press credential; definitely a sign of the changing times, the presence of bloggers made headlines in the show’s daily newspaper.

The floor of NAHBS 2006. Small is the new big.

Portland, Oregon was ground zero for the announcement. BikePortland carried the news. The producer of a small, niche-show called The North American Handmade Bicycle Show, decided to pull the plug on his plans to site its show in Portland in 2008, because Eurobike had also named Portland as the home of its initial U.S. show.

This morning, the producers of Interbike reacted with an official statement. Their response was noteworthy. They welcomed Eurobike to the U.S., but they also made a plea to the industry to continue its support for Interbike, and reminded them of the ills of supporting more than one show.

“We welcome competition,” said Lance Camisasca, Interbike’s group show director, “as it will help us do a better job. However, we are also greatly concerned about the dividing effect Eurobike’s announcement may have on the industry.”

Central to their case for continuing support were statistics from the recent show in Las Vegas (see coverage here on R2R). Numbers – total square footage, total attendance – are their greatest strengths. But numbers are also their greatest weakness. Interbike is Big. And Big is unnatural at a time when consumer markets are fragmenting. For example, I was struck by the fact that a high-end racing bike would be on the same floor with BMX bikes. The rider markets, their cultures, and their channels of distribution are nearly exclusive. A BMX rider wouldn’t be caught dead in a store where customers wear spandex shorts and $300 sun glasses.

NAHBS, on the other hand, has a huge advantage in the Post-Lance, high-end bicycle marketplace. (See our coverage of the March show here on R2R and our special report at Roadbikerider.) NAHBS serves a serious rider who will pay $5,000 and wait 18 months for a custom, hand-made bicycle, that is forged by a craftsman using steel tubes and a blow torch. NAHBS understands that advantage and they are taking their show elsewhere. Small is the new Big, as marketing wizard Seth Godin likes to say.

This is but one more example of how mass marketing is failing. It gets worse. As mass markets crumble, the bisons left on the plains are vulnerable to attack from other parts of the globe, where the Big Dogs are hungry and willing to roam farther for their food.

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