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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — These are challenging days for independent bicycle shop owners and they, along with bike store suppliers, are gathering in Las Vegas this week for business strategy sessions Monday and Tuesday and the CABDA West bike show in downtown Wednesday and Thursday.
The Las Vegas Cyclery bike store in Summerlin hosted a meet-and-greet for the National Bicycle Dealers Association Summit West Sunday evening, with the bike shop owners schmoozing with other bicycle store proprietors and even supply company representatives who work with the independent bike businesses.
NBDA Executive Director Heather Mason caught up with the bike shop owners between slicing a big cake to welcome the association members.
The bike shop owners will be listening to speakers and attending sessions on everything from e-bikes to being profitable: “Get ready to dive deep into the topics that matter most: expanding ridership in your community, exceeding customer expectations at every touchpoint, unlocking service center revenue opportunities, building cultures of excellence, navigating the e-mobility revolution, mastering used bike programs, and implementing winning inventory strategies.”
One of the speakers will be Jim Kersten, who puts on three CABDA shows a year, including the CABDA West bike shop show at the World Market Center Expo in downtown. CABDA will be in action Wednesday and Thursday. More than 100 bicycle brands will be on hand at the two-day CABDA show.
Even though the city of Las Vegas and Clark County are known for not being hospitable places to ride a bicycle, the bicycle industry used to hold its annual trade show event called Interbike at the Sands Expo convention center and then the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. But Interbike held its final show in Las Vegas in 2017, nearly a decade ago.
But Kersten moved his western CABDA bicycle dealers show to Las Vegas for the first time in 2025. It’s kind of like a little mini-Interbike, open to B2B bicycle store owners to check out products from bikes to tires to helmets to anything that can be sold in a retail bike shop.
Also helping fill the void of Interbike no longer around is the Sea Otter Classic bike festival and races outside Monterey, Caifornia at the Laguna Seca race track in the hills off the Pacific Ocean. Sea Otter is set for April 16-19 and LVSportsBiz.com will be there to cover the hundreds of bicycle industry exhibitors who show products at the race track facility.
PSA