The US bike industry may not recover from the “devastating consequences” of Donald Trump’s controversial tariffs until 2030, a lobby group has warned. 

In an at-length piece published in the Financial Times, senior figures from Canyon, Brompton and Europe’s largest bicycle manufacturer Accell Group joined lobby group PeopleForBikes in highlighting the “uncertainty” and financial stress facing brands in the US.

PeopleForBikes’ chief executive Jenn Dice suggested the US bike industry does not have much hope of recovering until the end of the decade at the earliest, the lobby group admitting it is “pretty sober about the next four to five years”.

Citing “plenty of headwinds”, Dice explained the industry was facing “devastating consequences” of Trump’s tariffs and the wider challenges that have troubled bike brands since the Covid boom.

“Many of our CEOs say in their many decades of experience, they’ve never experienced a time like today,” she said.

Canyon’s chief executive Nicolas de Ros Wallace told the finance newspaper that demand in the US was “slowing down” and that the company had reviewed its growth plans as a result, with some product meant to be shipped to the US now diverted to other regions.

2025 Canyon Endurace Allroad.jpg
2025 Canyon Endurace Allroad (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Likewise, Accell Group CEO Jonas Nilsson said during the pandemic the company was “envious that we were not present in the US”.

“But now we are actually very happy about this,” he said. Accell is Europe’s largest bike manufacturer and includes brands such as Raleigh, Lapierre, Ghost and Babboe. The group reported huge losses of €390 million in 2023, the financial hit largely a result of the other big challenge facing the bike industry in recent years – inventory woes and overstocking from the Covid boom. Both Accell and Canyon’s bosses were cautious about the picture away from the US too, the latter saying it “won’t chase revenue” in the coming years and will instead “focus on profitable growth”.

Those comments come just weeks after it was revealed Canyon’s value had dropped 43 per cent, the direct-to-consumer brand posting a £32m loss last year.

Accell’s challenges were largely to do with slowing sales and the impact of inventory overstocking as a result of the boom in demand during the Covid pandemic. Put simply, Covid happened and demand soared. To meet the demand, brands over-produced and over-ordered, leaving them with huge amounts of unsold stock when demand cooled.

Alex Thusbass, CEO of German e-Bike maker Hepha, a new company founded in 2021, called the industry inventory woes and knock-on financial hit “entirely self-inflicted” and the result of “foolish overproduction”.

While Thusbass is happy his company never ended up with excess stock, he did express concern about a different kind of supply and demand problem.

“Inventories are falling, but suppliers currently aren’t increasing production,” he said. “We are already seeing the first signs of shortages. Years of overproduction could suddenly swing into a new period of too little production.”

Brompton boss Will Butler-Adams recently said the folding bike manufacturer would be putting plans to open two US stores on hold, a statement he added to last week by explaining: “There is just too much uncertainty in that market.”

2025 Brompton C Line
2025 Brompton C Line (Image Credit: Brompton)

Trump’s controversial economic policy remains a source of frustration for many across the bike industry, with the situation remaining unpredictable. In June, Lauf Cycles became the latest bike brand to add a Trump surcharge due to “extraordinary tariffs” on imported components.

In May, reports suggested that BMC is set to slash a quarter of its workforce, the brand blaming tariff uncertainty for having influenced the decision. Likewise, high-end bike component brand Rotor recently closed its US office.

The impact of Trump’s tariffs on business has been the big talking point in the bike industry this year, numerous brands such as Trek, Specialized and Giant raising prices in the US as a result.

> Giant “inevitably forced to reflect cost” of Trump tariffs, as manufacturers warn US bike prices could rise by 50% amid “existential threat” to cycling industry

In April, Brompton boss Butler-Adams called the tariffs “naive”, with the folding bike brand’s US prices also likely to rise.

Silca sold out of its new electric pumps almost instantly, the brand blaming the “global tariff issues” for the product being “not currently economically viable” in the US, meaning that just 100 would be available to its American market.

Meanwhile, a trade association representing the cycling industry in the United States has also claimed that the tariff trade war could lead to bike helmets becoming less affordable, leaving children “unprotected from potential injury”.