CABDA 2026 Show Chicago: Report

 Last year I was able to post a report from my friend, Ari Andonopoulos, on the CABDA Show. CABDA is an acronym for Chicago Area Bicycle Dealers Association. Vendors from the industry come to show a variety of bicycles, components, and tools which may be of interest to the Chicago area bicycle retail trade, and beyond. 

This year Ari was in attendance again and he graciously sent over several images and a nice report. Folowing will be a plethora of images and a few words. Thanks for checking this out, and a big "thank you" to Ari for taking the time to share this with us!

All images credited to Ari Andonopoulos.  

Chicago, Illinois: Report filed by Ari Andonopoulos - I made the drive to the Schaumburg Convention center for the 2026 CABDA show. I also ran into a couple of people I know in the lobby, got signed in, badged, and looked for the coat check. No such luck! 

 

I did some quick rounds to get a sense of what was there. I immediately noticed the hustle and bustle surrounding all the e-bike booths. Aventon was the busiest, so was Velotric. Young and old were taking bikes onto the indoor test track with smiles on their faces.

 

 I was impressed with the Shimano booth. It was perhaps the largest display in the hall. I want to say they probably had everything on display with a large amount of staff helping visitors. They had assembled mini seminars, explaining bleeding brakes, setting up DI2 and MTB stuff. 

 The new Q-Auto system was also on display. I spent a lot of time there. 

Missing were some carbon bike companies that were there last year, like Factor, Cervelo and others. Park tool had their display and were showcasing some new work stands and manual tools. 

 

Absent were also Velocity , which I wanted to check out some 32" rim they were working on. Also absent was Provision Cycling, importer for Campagnolo and Assos .

Billy Flamingo is a new company specializing in winter tires mainly for fat bikes. Studded tires in 27.5x4 inches seem to be the norm up in Alaska, where the company is from. Other notable mentions were Jamis, Abus, Kryptonite, Giant, Pedros , Risse Racing, Koolstop, and Kenda. 

Vee Rubber is working on 20"x4" tires for e-bikes ,which we use a lot at the shop where I work. I talked to a lot of the vendors and everyone seemed optimistic for a good 2026 bike season. I spent more time this year than last and had better conversations with the vendors. Glad I made the trek out there. 

 

Thanks Ari! It looks as though it was a big and well attended show. Interesting to see the focus on electrified bikes that, for better or worse, seem to be in the crosshairs of governments across the USA now. 

This will wrap up the report section of the CABDA 2026 report. In the next post there will be a photo dump with no words, other than some captions. 

 

Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions, and another shout-out toAri Andonopoulos for providing us with this report.