The US cycling industry faces “devastating consequences” from tariffs and wider business uncertainty, with little hope of a recovery before the end of the decade, the boss of lobby group PeopleForBikes said this week at the world’s largest cycling trade show.

Jenn Dice, chief executive of the US group told journalists at Eurobike in Frankfurt, “We’re pretty sober about the next four to five years.” PeopleForBikes predicts stagnation in US bicycle sales until 2029 with “plenty of headwinds”, she added. “Many of our CEOs say in their many decades of experience, they’ve never experienced a time like today.”

The industry was already contending with four years of falling sales after a major boom during the pandemic, when the US came to be seen as a key growth market because of its size and lower levels of bike ownership.