‘Approved by UCI’ labels suspended following industry backlash

The Union Cycliste Internationale held a two day meeting with bike companies last week, trying to explain the rationale behind its ‘Approved by UCI’program which would have forced suppliers to spend many thousands of dollars getting frames measured by a lab appointed by the UCI.

Suppliers have told BikeBiz.com the UCI measures could "bankrupt smaller companies" and would lead to less innovation and more expensive products for consumers.

Industry sources have told BikeBiz the meeting was "uncomfortable" and that the UCI refused to take questions.

Now, on the BikeBiz trade-only forum, a supplier posted an email from the UCI, which was sent earlier today, to those companies that attended the meeting in Switzerland. It reveals that the UCI will suspend the stickering program and a revised program will be presented on 1st February.

The letter is published in full below:

INTERNATIONAL CYCLING UNION

To manufacturers of frames and forks

Aigle, 20 January 2011

Modification of the approval procedure

Dear Sirs / Madams,

The meeting organised with bicycle manufacturers at the International Cycling Union headquarters on January 13th and 14th concerning the approval procedure for bike frames and forks, in which a large number of you participated, led to some very constructive discussions and we would like to thank you for this.

Given the pertinence of the questions, remarks and propositions that came up and following on from the mail we have received since, the UCI has decided to modify certain points of the procedure.

We will contact you again before the end of next week in order to inform you of a procedure that has been adjusted to take your contributions into account. As a consequence, the procedure in its current form is suspended until 1st February. From this date, a revised version will come into force. 

We are confident that this process, which in no way questions the foundations and the objectives of the approval procedure, will benefit all concerned. We will endeavour to carry out the necessary modifications as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards.

Julien CarronTechnological Coordinator