How Should We Cyclists Engage with Chinese Brands?

Until now, we hadn’t drawn a clear editorial line on the question of “how to handle Chinese brands.” There were two reasons.
The first is aesthetic. We simply couldn’t picture ourselves riding a Chinese brand as our own machine.
The second is that we lacked the material — on quality, reliability, and so on — to judge them fairly. This isn’t just our problem; it’s a challenge the entire industry, from shops to distributors, is facing.

Meanwhile, Japan’s leading print outlet CycleSports has been covering Chinese brands from an early stage. In a column by cycling journalist Tsukasa Yoshimoto, we noticed a distinctly positive tone toward these brands.
And honestly, something about that didn’t quite sit right with us. As China’s influence on cycling — for better and worse — grows year after year, we invited Yoshimoto to sit down with us and map out where Chinese brands actually stand right now.

Speakers

Tsukasa Yoshimoto (@kop_2014) Former editor-in-chief of the monthly cycling magazine “Cycle Sports.” Today he works across a range of cycling-related projects. With over 35 years on sports bikes, his eye extends well beyond road — he enjoys choosing every kind of bicycle, and his knowledge spans equipment and apparel alike.	Tats Shimizu (@tats_lovecyclist) Editor-in-chief of Love Cyclist. He enjoys discussing the road-centric sports bike industry through a marketing lens, while maintaining a wide network with overseas apparel brands and proposing various styles through the media.

Photo & Edit / Tats

A Sense of Unease

Yoshimoto, hit by the misfortune of two punctures in a single day. His horoscope must have ranked dead last.

Both of us slammed with work, we finally got our schedules to line up — three months in the making. “I’ve been riding the Brompton so much lately, I might hold you all up,” Yoshimoto warned. But the words had barely left his mouth before he was floating effortlessly up the back side of Onekan’s rolling climbs, and watching his back, I was reminded once again: this man is a cyclist to the bone. We wiped the sweat off and ducked into Zebra Inagi.

Shimizu: Yoshimoto-san, thanks for joining us today. I felt we needed a space to talk about Chinese brands from multiple angles, so I really appreciate you making time.
The reason is that, reading the pieces you’ve been writing on Chinese brands for other outlets, I felt a slight sense of unease. Friends around me were saying the same thing — “we’re not sure where Yoshimoto-san is coming from lately” — and I wanted to hear directly how you actually see it.

Yoshimoto: Is that so.

Shimizu: The rise of Chinese brands has made affordable, high-performing equipment more accessible. The tone of the coverage tends to celebrate that. But the issues behind it — quality, sustainability, the erosion of the ecosystem — those don’t really get addressed, and that’s what’s been bothering me.

Yoshimoto: I see. Part of that comes down to the constraints of print — you can’t fit everything onto the page. But to explain how I arrived at that stance, I think we need to unpack why Chinese manufacturers have launched their own brands and entered the market so rapidly in the first place.

Shimizu: Please.

Yoshimoto: For years, they built their foundation as OEM subcontractors to Western brands. It was a kind of dominant-subordinate arrangement. But the pandemic made them realize the limits of a business model dictated entirely by Western brands. When demand spikes, orders flood in; when it cools, the orders stop dead overnight. They’re trying to break out of that dependent relationship and carve out their own position, free from Western control.
The other factor is that healthy sports cycling has genuinely taken off domestically in China. The earlier boom was about wealthy people splashing money on high-end bikes that ended up as living-room ornaments. But in recent years, a real culture of riding and enjoying the bike has taken root.

Sustainability

Shimizu: So it’s a matter of business logic. Chinese brands moving in was an inevitable survival strategy.
But that line of reasoning raises another question: isn’t the R&D behind the products they’re putting out simply borrowed from Western or Taiwanese brands? They’ve spent years as the world’s factory, accumulating R&D know-how, and now reaping the rewards of a free ride.
And as these brands start selling, there’s a real concern that the established major brands won’t be able to fund the kind of development they used to.

Yoshimoto: It’s a bit paradoxical, but Western brands themselves look at Chinese factories’ manufacturing capabilities and think, “if this technology exists, then we can do this.” Take the ultra-thin seat tubes and fork blades we’ve been seeing recently — those are only possible because of the production technology on the factory floor. And lately, brands like SEKA are bringing in European engineers, publishing white papers, and creating genuinely original products. They draw a clear line between themselves and the kind of operation that just slaps a brand name on an open-mold frame.
Of course, alongside the serious brands, the truth is — as anyone who’s browsed AliExpress knows — the number of low-quality, dubious brands is also growing. So you can’t just lump them all together and dismiss them as “copies of existing brands” anymore.

SEKA’s SPEAR, which publishes a full whitepaper

Shimizu: True — lumping every Chinese brand together under “China” probably is too crude. European engineers are being recruited away, and Chinese brands themselves are now moving into a phase where they handle R&D in-house.
But even among the brands you’d consider legitimate, what about sustainability? Chinese capital can pull out tomorrow the moment it decides something isn’t a viable business, and compliance discipline has also been flagged as loose. Just recently, evolve CIMA — a brand that had earned strong technical reviews — abruptly halted sales over a trademark dispute in Europe. As cyclists, can we really go out of our way to choose a brand that might hand us a product carrying that kind of risk? And from a shop’s perspective, your supplier could vanish overnight. This risk doesn’t seem to be discussed honestly.

Yoshimoto: That concern is completely valid. Which is exactly why, with Chinese brands, the key question becomes “who is selling it.” There are operations that are just flipping product from one hand to another, but there are also companies running proper quality control, staffing real support desks, and handling customers with care.

Shimizu: So depending on the brand, there’s a gradient in how committed the distributor actually is — and it falls to the user to read that.

Yoshimoto: Exactly. I don’t claim to know everyone, but recently I hear a lot of positive feedback about Winspace and YOELEO in terms of how they handle customers. Listening for those voices is essential.
One more point on sustainability: China’s bicycle bubble peaked in 2023 and has started to deflate, but domestic purchasing power inside China remains formidable. You know how the Aethos 2 now wears the S-Works logo on its down tube? That’s said to be a design decision made with the Chinese market in mind. Because Western brands now treat it as a market in its own right, they aren’t going to walk away from it any time soon.

Shimizu: Looking at “Red” — China’s Instagram equivalent — you can see influencers with follower counts that dwarf anything in Japan, which tells you the cyclist population around them is enormous too. If they can already make decent money on domestic demand, why bother entering the small Japanese market?

Yoshimoto: To offset that softening domestic demand, they’re making a business call to chase overseas markets. The other reason is that Japanese consumers are the most demanding on quality anywhere. There’s a sense that “accepted in Japan = proof of high quality.”

Shimizu: That tracks. As an example from a Japanese brand — when Altalist expanded into other Asian markets, the thing they prized most was the image and credibility of “ridden by Japanese cyclists.” If you apply that lens, you could read these Chinese brands entering Japan as less about revenue and more as an investment in that kind of image-building.

The China Shock

Shimizu: Yoshimoto-san, you’ve been calling the current situation the “China Shock.”

Yoshimoto: Right. The bike industry has been through three major tectonic shifts: the “Canyon Shock,” the “Wiggle Shock,” and now the “China Shock.” In each case, something the established industry structure had been protecting got blown through, and each time we were forced to change how we do business.

Shimizu: The Canyon Shock destroyed distribution via DTC. I heard you actually got on a Canyon very early on.

Yoshimoto: Before Canyon Japan even existed, I wanted to try one and ordered direct from the home country. I think I was probably among the first one or two riders in Japan. I can say this now, but at the time I caught a lot of snide remarks from distributors.

Shimizu: Snide remarks… we get those too (laughs).
The Wiggle Shock meant every component became available online at low prices, and user purchasing behavior shifted. LOVE CYCLIST was also taking ad work back then, and distributors literally told us, “we can’t run campaigns on a media outlet that covers Wiggle.”

Yoshimoto: That kind of distortion in the power balance is always there. But what’s interesting is that none of these shocks were stoked by the media — they bubbled up from users. Because users demanded it, media and shops had no choice but to follow.

Shimizu: All user-driven. With Canyon too, shops that had been declaring “no outside bikes” eventually started accepting them for maintenance once Canyon riders multiplied. Wiggle ended with the pandemic, but it also spawned the “outside-bike specialist” business model.
Those two shocks fundamentally rewrote how users buy.

Yoshimoto: Yes. And now, pragmatic users are starting to pick Chinese brands. Bike prices have climbed and high-end models are out of reach for many, so when shops think about a product mix that fits that reality — to carry the carbon-spoke wheels and other products users are asking for — they’re starting to stock Chinese brands.

The Growth Curve

Shimizu: Let’s get into performance. I’ll admit I’m talking from the impression I got test-riding a few years back — but where is “made in China,” once shorthand for cheap and nasty, today?

Yoshimoto: They used to be exactly what you paid for, sure. But the growth curve of Chinese brands is abnormally steep. What used to take five years is now done in two or three. So on a year-by-year basis, they become an entirely different product. I haven’t ridden every Chinese brand so I can’t generalize, but of everything I’ve tested, Winspace is in a different league.

Shimizu: I hear good things about Winspace a lot. The veteran British outlet Rouleur recently ran a sponsored feature on them too — you can feel the momentum of Chinese makers reaching into Europe.

Yoshimoto: On function, I’d say they’re already right on the heels of Western brands. XDS is supplying frames to the Tour, and at the top tier of Chinese brands you can honestly say there’s almost no gap with their Western counterparts. At minimum, if you can ride this well for this price, it’s a fine entry into road cycling. There’s also the upside that the industry gets revitalized within a more affordable price range. That said…

XDS supplied to Astana

Emotional Value

Shimizu: But…?

Yoshimoto: Few of these bikes step into the realm of “sensual performance.” They’re undeniably fast, but the seasoning is thin when it comes to the ride feel — that “this bike feels so good to ride…!” or “this gets me genuinely fired up!” sensation. That’s true of the ride itself, and I feel it’s also lacking on the branding side.

Shimizu: That’s exactly the point I’ve been thinking about as this media confronts Chinese brands. Bikes are often discussed in terms of specs, and if we look at speed as functional value, there’s a real chance that Chinese brands’ R&D capabilities will match those of Western brands.
But beyond that, the question is whether we can say YES to “Do I want a Chinese brand’s product to be part of my lifestyle, as a hobby machine?”
That’s what’s called emotional value, and I think Chinese brands will never catch up to Western brands in that respect. XDS is racing the Tour, but that only proves functional value at this stage.

Yoshimoto: As you say, emotional value is the exclusive territory of Western brands. When you ride their bikes, you get the pleasure of layering your own aesthetic onto historical context, scarcity, or brand philosophy.
Japanese makers, who also value heritage, are struggling there too. But I do think we need to take the long view. For example, in running shoes, China’s Li-Ning has been building up credibility — signing athletes like Suguru Osako — and is now establishing itself as a legitimate brand. Looking at road racing too, I believe there’s a Chinese person working in media for UAE now. People like that may embed themselves in the heartland and start promoting Chinese brands more aggressively. Building a racing pedigree is the shortest path to emotional value. Those kinds of efforts may eventually generate emotional value down the road.

Shimizu: I’m a bit skeptical here. As a practical matter, there’s no example in any industry of a Chinese brand holding emotional value comparable to Western brands. Gadget-category players like Insta360, DJI, and Anker dominate share, and I buy them personally too, but that’s because those industries are decided on functional value. On the other hand, in expensive lifestyle items like cars, cameras, and luxury fashion, no Chinese brand has broken through the wall of “aspiration” or “aesthetics.”
Of course, it depends on what you want from a bike. There are plenty of users who don’t need emotional value — just give them something fast, something fun. But both you and I, Yoshimoto-san, we choose bikes emotionally, don’t we?

Yoshimoto: True. But when it comes to Winspace, they seem to be quite clear-eyed about where their weak point lies. Recently they recruited Mike Pryde from CHAPTER2, and their product development appears to be entering its next phase. Their M6, announced this year, is a bike that delivers not just on performance but also on a refined ride feel — and I found myself impressed, thinking “they’ve finally arrived.” So they’re certainly starting to be conscious of sensual performance too. Though, the visual sense of luxury still isn’t there.

Would You Buy One Yourself?

Shimizu: When the Canyon shock hit, you were quick to buy a Canyon. With the China shock happening now, is there any chance you’d buy a Chinese brand bike yourself?

Yoshimoto: Honestly, the road bike I just ordered is a SuperSix EVO.

Shimizu: Really?! You’d been saying you were looking for an endurance road bike, so I assumed if it was Cannondale, it would be a Synapse. Didn’t see that coming.

(The conversation goes off on a tangent here, so we’re skipping ahead.)

Yoshimoto: On the question of whether I’d buy a Chinese brand bike going forward — speaking from a journalist’s perspective — I think owning a properly engineered one like Winspace as “one of several bikes” is a valid choice.

Shimizu: Not the main bike, then.

The Winspace M6, priced at ¥308,000 for the frameset and ¥498,000 for a complete 105 Di2 build

Yoshimoto: Maybe the closest analogy is “fast fashion.” Fast fashion has the negative side of sustainability issues, but any phenomenon has both downsides and upsides. On the positive side, more people can afford to buy on-trend pieces and enjoy dressing well.
Owning a Chinese brand bike feels similar — wearing something with a fashionable edge for a season, the sensation of wanting to own a bike that symbolizes this moment in time. I think it can be a plus in broadening how we enjoy the sport. Rather than splurging on a Dogma and riding it for eight years, you keep the price down and rotate to something trendy every four years. Road bike standards are in flux right now, and the technology is moving fast, so having that kind of bike in the stable is one valid way to enjoy cycling.

Can You Match It to Your Own Build?

Shimizu: I’d also like to ask about the aesthetic side. A slightly mean-spirited question — would you pair Chinese brand wheels with the SuperSix EVO frame that’s about to be delivered to you?

Yoshimoto: Speaking personally, yes, there’s a sense of dissonance. It’s the same as feeling “purely on performance the Roval Rapide is the answer, but I don’t want Rovals on the EVO.” If you want to ride a product that feels right, aesthetics included, there are parts that are hard to accept. I tend to weigh that heavily, but for younger generations and pragmatists, the fact that you can get a 1,200g carbon-spoked wheelset for ¥200,000 is genuinely attractive.

Shimizu: It was great to hear your own values come through. When sharing thoughts about a specific product in the media, you inevitably end up speaking from a journalist’s perspective about “what kind of user it suits.” But what I and the people around me actually want to hear isn’t “who would accept this,” but rather “what does Yoshimoto-san himself accept, and what doesn’t he accept” — your own criteria. That’s the perspective worth asking about precisely because you’ve spent over 35 years engaging with bicycles.

Yoshimoto: On that front, your criteria and mine are really quite close, aren’t they?

Shimizu: At LOVE CYCLIST we cover products we genuinely want to bring into our own lifestyles, so when it comes to Chinese-brand gear, we’ve drawn a certain line.
That said, I do love the Shanghai apparel brand hypersupp. and have reviewed it — which proves Yoshimoto-san’s analogy of equipment as fast fashion is spot on. Since this is actually apparel, it really is fast fashion in the literal sense. I wear PNS and MAAP too, but hypersupp. captures street-scene trends, and both the price point and quality are perfectly tuned for wearing hard over a season or two. You can wear it purely for the fun of fashion.

Yoshimoto: I’d had my eye on hypersupp., and seeing you and your crew wearing it confirmed it really is good.

Cost-Performance and Conduct

Shimizu: Hearing you out, it’s clear there’s a gradient among Chinese brands — and the contrast within it is significant. And there’s still real risk in that space.

Yoshimoto: Yes — which is why it’s still too early to render a verdict on Chinese brands. Just as we once travelled to Italy to interview Colnago and De Rosa and try to decode their mystery, I feel we’re now in a phase where we should be looking at the Chinese scene firsthand and decoding their philosophy.
At the very least, the arrival of Chinese brands is becoming a force that shakes up a rigid market. As a stimulus, I think it’s welcome, and from the standpoint of letting more people stay on road bikes within a certain price range, it’s a contribution.
But caution is warranted. If only the instinct to pick whatever offers the best cost-performance takes root, that’s bad for the market. Choosing things purely on functional value, with emotional value treated as expendable. Good users don’t grow out of that kind of arid soil.

Shimizu: Cost-performance and emotional value are fundamentally incompatible. When consumption tilts short-term and shops struggle to cultivate quality customers, healthy communities don’t form — and that’s exactly how the conduct of being a cyclist fails to get passed down. I’ve actually heard this is already happening at some shops that carry Chinese brands.

Yoshimoto: It comes down to how you sell. Proposing a way to enjoy the sport that includes conduct, and sharing a worldview. Unless that part is communicated properly, users don’t stay in the sport for long.
The road-bike boom grew the population, but we leaned too heavily on the product and weren’t careful enough about how we sold it — that’s our reflection. And that applies not only to shops but to us as media. We have to show value that goes beyond spec.

At CYCLE MODE TOKYO, too, we pursued “value beyond spec”

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Chinese brands have now built the capacity to handle even components in-house, and are stepping into the main arena: the complete-bike business. Their real survival game starts there — and the question will become how far they can guarantee the intangible values we look for, things like emotion and trust, beyond simply delivering spec.
The role of media isn’t to glorify Chinese brands, but to give users the material to make their own judgments. Even after this conversation, the unease we feel toward Chinese brands remains. So that we don’t slip into the “arid soil” of choosing things on functional value alone, we’ll keep watching the moves of Chinese brands relentlessly.

Photo & Edit / Tats