A new analysis published by the NextGen Mechanics initiative and European Cycling Industries (ECI) shows that Europe’s bicycle industry will need to recruit around 105,000 additional mechanics by 2032, a requirement equivalent to 60% of the entire workforce it employs today.

The NextGen Mechanics report, launched at the European Cycling Industries Summit in Brussels, contains the first estimate of demand for cycle mechanics built from the employment data of cycle retailers themselves. It finds that Europe currently employs around 175,000 cycle mechanics, and that employers need an estimated 45,000 more simply to meet demand as it stands today.

Paul Walsh, CEO of ECI:

“A bicycle that cannot be repaired is a bicycle that stops being ridden. This is not a problem for bike shops alone, but also for the wider cycling ecosystem. Europe’s capacity to train and retain qualified bicycle mechanics is falling behind demand, with an impact felt by both consumers and businesses. This undermines a fast-growing European industry and limits the return regions and cities see on their cycling infrastructure investments.

European Cycling Industries is honoured to take forward the recommendations in Shimano’s report, on behalf of the entire industry.”

Meeting demand to 2032, including replacing those who leave the industry, would require the European maintenance workforce to grow from around 175,000 to close to 250,000, an increase of roughly 40%.

The shortage is already changing how people travel. Shimano’s State of the Nation 2026 representative survey of 25,000 respondents found that 212 million people across Europe experience barriers to maintaining their bikes. Of those, 121 million cycle less as a result, and 7.6 million have stopped cycling altogether.

Ties Van Dijk, Advocacy & Strategy at Shimano, said:

“We know from talking with bike shops that the workshop matters more to their business every year, and they cannot find the people to staff it. We convened NextGen Mechanics to understand the problem properly and are pleased to collaborate with ECI, who are ongoing to try to solve it, because no single company can fix this alone.”

The report argues that the job itself has changed faster than the profession’s status or pay. Modern mechanics work with firmware, battery systems and digital drivetrains, yet pay across Europe sits below the national median for full-time employment even in markets where conditions are strongest. Data from OOMT, the Dutch training and development fund for the motor vehicle and two-wheeler sector, found that 24% of mechanics left the industry in the Netherlands in 2024. Were that rate to hold across Europe, the current shortage would rise by a further 15,000.

There are safety consequences. Research by SWOV, the Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research, found that cyclists attributed 10% of cycling accidents to a mechanical defect, with poor maintenance a contributing factor in 45% of those cases. Where riders cannot access professional workshops, the report finds an expanding informal repair market, including for illegally modified e-bikes that established workshops decline to service.

At the European Cycling Industries Summit in Brussels, Mario Nava, Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission, said: “Bicycle mechanics is something that can’t be replaced by AI; bike mechanics are a job of the future, and we will need many more for the future, as many more people will cycle.”

What happens next

ECI is establishing an Education and Skills Expert Group (ESEG) to carry the report’s recommendations forward, inviting pioneer cities and industry leaders to take part. Immediate priorities are:

  • Conducting a pan-European, sector-wide needs assessment to identify key sub-sector challenges and map the current and future skill gaps across the cycling industry.

  • Partnering with expert VET providers to build a standardised, replicable European training framework for bicycle mechanics.

  • Piloting newly developed VET frameworks alongside cities and industry partners to ensure real-world viability and scalable implementation across Europe.

The report sets out 27 recommendations across five areas: 

  1. Supporting and developing the existing workforce

  2. Growing the workforce

  3. Building the vocational education and training framework

  4. The economics of cycle maintenance and consumer value

  5. Creating structures for action.

Interested parties can join the new ECI working group by contacting Henrique Santos at h.santos@cyclingindustries.com