XDS

🚲 One of our favorite voices in cycling Ben Delaney had an enjoyable and insightful conversation last month with Patrick Pan, Head of International Growth for X-LAB. We've made significant progress in the <30 days that have passed, but it's worth noting that the soul of X-LAB remains unwavering -- to make cycling more welcoming and more accessible to more people. #BuiltInTheLab https://lnkd.in/gPrMPHJb

A #ThoughtfulThursday take on James Huang’s n-1 piece where he explores what some have missed. Many recent headlines about XDS have fixated on two ideas, “Chinese manufacturing” and “low prices," as counterweights to an industry and a product that has performed worse over time. Here’s the argument: the industry didn’t get worse. The industry got fragmented. Frames here. Wheels there. Assembly elsewhere. Competitive advantages in producing specific components were being taken at face value. Then, the industry added layers of distribution, margin stacking, and coordination costs that in the end put the onus on the retailers and the riders to accommodate, willingly or otherwise. In a maturing category, the best performing products naturally converge in appearance and function. The real differentiation moves upstream: who owns the system that creates the bike, and how quickly can they iterate (and re-iterate)? Huang’s point is that XDS isn’t just removing layers like some do in a pure DTC model. The far bigger unlock is vertical integration across the stack, which can reduce coordination cost, accelerate product cycles, and make modern baseline specs feel standard instead of aspirational. For riders, that means the performance bike is ready out of the box instead of the need for “buy it and spend months upgrading it.” For retailers, this model drives healthier sell-through without pushing the risk downstream. So, what’s the next frontier in performance bikes? Is it another cycle of frame tweaks and incremental component iterations? Or is it a deeper reset of the operating system behind the product, how it’s engineered, built, and delivered with consistency at scale? I’d love to hear where you think the real bicycle differentiation goes from here in the comments below. https://lnkd.in/g6xx5Viv

Something special is happening at X-LAB. 🏗️ The media buzz is easy to feel, and the racing success is easy to see (Ride on, XDS Astana Team), but the most important story is the one happening within the four walls of our office in Los Angeles, California. Over the past few months, we’ve quietly assembled a team of proven professionals across product, design, growth, brand, operations, and cycling itself — all around a simple belief: "The future of cycling, and the future of mobility, can be built even better." X-LAB is the culmination of decades of carbon engineering and scalable manufacturing from XDS, the world’s largest bicycle maker by volume. More importantly, the industry presents an opportunity right now to rethink how bikes are built, brought to market, and experienced by riders everywhere. What makes this especially exciting is the people. This is one of the rare environments where: • Builders still obsess over the product • Designers care deeply about aesthetics and ride feel • Operators move quickly and efficiently • Ideas are encouraged from everywhere • Everyone understands we are building for the long term We are still early, which means every person joining now has the opportunity to shape the trajectory of the brand in a lasting way. If you’re excited by: • Racing • Cycling • Mobility • Riders / customers • Storytelling • Brand building • International expansion • Redefining an industry from the inside out …we’d like to hear from you. See our open roles here: https://lnkd.in/gEPWcu3P • Director of Sales • Growth Marketing Manager • Senior Brand & Visual Designer • Sales Operations Manager • Field Sales Representative (West Coast) • Customer Service Manager We’re building for the long ride. Are you clipped in? 🚵 #XLAB #CyclingIndustry #Hiring #SportsMarketing #ProductDesign #GrowthMarketing #Mobility #Cycling #BuiltInTheLab Yanke(Edwin) Tan, Flo K., Patrick Pan, David Krinjak, Jordan chen, Walker Hague, Youenn Colin, Sean Cavanaugh, Bruce Deppe, Lingtao(Leon) Chen, Rick Webb

"This is also why pricing drifts upward over time. Not purely because the product demands it, but because the system requires it. Riders are not only paying for a better bike, they are paying for an inefficient architecture." In a follow up to our announcement last week, Yanke(Edwin) Tan (CEO of XDS International) dives more deeply into why cycling needed a reset. ❓ Question for you: Why do you think people who want to ride end up not riding? 🚴 Come meet Edwin and others this weekend at the #SeaOtterClassic at Booth R40. #BuiltInTheLab #RideXLAB #Cycling #WorldTour

It’s official. X-LAB has arrived in the United States. 🇺🇸 🚴 For the first time, our full lineup of performance bikes is tearing it up on American roads, gravel, and city streets. This is the culmination of three decades of XDS carbon and alloy mastery, refined with a global scale and proven at the highest levels of racing. X-LAB bikes are built with one obsession: a ride experience that feels complete from the first pedal stroke to the finish line and beyond. Welcome to a new era of performance cycling. Let's ride forward. #BuiltInTheLab #RideXLAB https://lnkd.in/gCCuji9p

Proud moment for the team: #CyclingWeekly today published our documentary... and it's the first time ever a Western media has been allowed through the gates of XDS. Follow along in this exclusive look inside the enormous XDS manufacturing ecosystem, and see how our world-class #WorldTour race bike, the #XLAB #AD9, is born from raw carbon and onto a podium. Ever wondered what the next chapter of performance cycling looks like? It's here. 🎬 The link is below. 👇 We would love your take: what part of the tour or the build process surprised you most? #cycling #bicycles #bikeshop #retail #manufacturing #carbonfiber #productdevelopment #innovation #worldtour #SeaOtterClassic #XDS https://lnkd.in/gRtFy5fP

🚴 See you at CABDA Expo West on March 18–19 in Las Vegas. Get an exclusive first look at the X-LAB lineup built to redefine performance in the U.S. market, backed by dealer-first terms and a true partnership mindset. Bike shop owners and dealers, let’s ride. Register here: https://lnkd.in/g9nv_ZBW

30 years of building. 30 years of learning. 30 years of riding forward. From our roots in Shenzhen to the global stage, XDS has never stood still. This short video captures not just a celebration of a milestone, but of a momentum that’s still accelerating. 🇺🇸 This year, we're thrilled to be bringing the championship DNA and elite carbon engineering of X-LAB bikes, XDS's premium racing line, to the USA. Let's ride forward. 🚴♂️ #BuiltInTheLab

🚴♂️ As the sport looks ahead to 2026, the conversations shaping cycling’s future are already happening. We were proud to hear the boys at the Global Cycling Network shout out our XDS Astana Team and X-LAB bikes. At XDS, our mission is simple — make world-class carbon engineering, proven at the highest level of racing, available to riders everywhere. 🍻 Daniel Lloyd and Simon Richardson https://lnkd.in/gMAQnYKv

X-LAB has been taking Europe and Australia by storm. What has been called “the world’s lightest production bike” is an engineering marvel. https://lnkd.in/gvi9s7DR