2. E-Bike Test & Show

20-23. February 2025

E-bike Test&Show again at the Travel⁺ exhibition!

The E-bike Test&Show presented for the first time at the 45th Travel Exhibition in 2024 also attracted an enormous interest and popularity among visitors and exhibitors as well, with more than 2,400 people trying out one of the 100 e-bikes on a specially built 3,000 square metre track.

Similar to last year, the event will feature a wide range of Hungarian brand representatives. Visitors can not only view the range of electric bikes on the stands, but also try them out free of charge on the test track during the exhibition’s opening hours.

At the heart of the track will be a bridge where testers can actually experience the e-bike experience. Helmets will be provided by the exhibitors for use on the test track.

The modern e-bike, the pedelec

What do you need to know about today’s electric-assisted bikes?

Electric assisted bicycles are developing rapidly and are becoming increasingly popular among hikers and road users alike. In comparison, many of those who have tried them or are thinking about purchasing them do not even know how these bikes work.

When we talk about how an electric-assisted bicycle – a pedelec – can do more than a conventional bike, the first approach is to forget about the technical data and other parameters. Let’s focus primarily on the human aspects, let’s see what these machines have to offer in terms of quality leisure time. If you haven’t tried it yet, note their most important feature: these modern e-bikes only work with human propulsion, and the electric motor only adds a certain amount of help to moving forward, depending on the mode you choose. In other words, we can work our feet on a pedelec just as much as we would like. In the end, we get tired, even burning thousands of calories. For many, due to their age, weight and possibly weaker physical condition, their biggest fear on a traditional bike is that it can become awkward and hard to climb steep climbs. Well with a pedelec bike this will definitely not happen, the electric assistance will help just the right amount to reach our goals.

Perfect freedom in nature, when experience and not performance comes to the fore in the saddle of a bicycle. In short, this is how you can summarize the main value of modern, torque-sensing pedelec bicycles.

E-bike history

From the beginning of the 20th century, we can also register various electric powered vehicles and bicycles.

• 1989: This is when the first series-produced Western European electric bicycle, the Hercules Electra, is completed, which can travel at a speed of 20 km/h.
• 1992: After several years of development work, Michael Kutter launches a mass-produced pedelec bicycle on the market, which works on the “pedal-electric-cycle” principle, meaning  the motor helps depending on the pedal rotation.
• 1993: The first bicycle based on pedal rotation, pedelec system, rolls off the Yamaha production line. In a few years, 300,000 units of the PAS will be sold in the Far East, i.e. this is the first pedelec produced in a large series.
• From the middle of the 1990s, lithium-ion batteries also started to spread, which nowadays dominate the market.
• 2000: The Hungarian-owned Gepida launches the first series of domestically produced pedelec bicycles on the market.
• 2008: The Canadian BionX system appears, which also spreads throughout Europe on pedelec bicycles. Thanks to the rear hub motor design, the BionX can recharge the battery while braking.
• 2011: Bosch GMBH enters the pedelec business and launches two new drives, which immediately become world-class.
• 2012: Bosch opens a pedelec production plant in Miskolc, Hungary, thereby providing jobs for domestic workers.
• 2012: The LithoRec project, which is owned by Chemetall Gmbh, is launched, and with a total of 40 subsidiaries worldwide, the recycling of Li-Ion batteries, which has been an unsolved problem until now, begins.
• 2013: Shimano presents the STEPS electric pedelec system, and soon they fight head-to-head for the market leadership position with Bosch engineers, the “e-bike boom” continues today.

Brands participating in the exhibition: