King Liu, founder of Giant, has died aged 91. He started the company in Taichung in 1972 and launched the Giant brand in 1981, growing it into a global bicycle leader with more than $2 billion in annual sales. Liu was celebrated as a lifelong advocate for cycling who regained a passion for long-distance riding at 73 and completed a 900 km tour of Taiwan. Several of his children have held senior roles at Giant, reflecting the family’s long involvement in the business.
Giant Founder King Liu, Cycling 'Missionary', Dies at 91 — Architect of Taiwan’s Bike Boom
Taiwan's King Liu, the founder of Giant, one of the world's biggest bicycle makers, has died at the age of 93, the company said (SAM YEH)(SAM YEH/AFP/AFP)
King Liu, the visionary entrepreneur who founded Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer Giant and described himself as a "missionary" for cycling culture, died on Monday at the age of 91, the company said.
Born on July 2, 1934, in Taichung, central Taiwan, Liu launched Giant in 1972. The company originally produced bicycles for overseas brands and introduced its own label in 1981. Under Liu’s leadership the firm evolved from an export-oriented OEM into one of the world’s largest bicycle makers, generating more than $2 billion in annual sales and selling millions of bikes a year.
Giant Group said Liu "passed away peacefully" early on Monday and praised him as a "lifelong advocate" for pedal-powered transport. "Throughout his life, Mr Liu devoted himself to bicycles, believing they represented not merely a business, but a meaningful way of life," the company said in a statement.
Before bicycles became his life's work, Liu tried a string of ventures — from trucking freight and importing fish feed to farming eels — after a brief spell in his father’s trading and food-manufacturing business. A suggestion from a friend to explore the U.S. market helped nudge him toward the cycle industry.
In Giant’s early days Liu often rode his bike to the factory to get hands-on knowledge of the product, though he later stopped commuting by bike as the company scaled up. When Giant launched its own brand, "Made in Taiwan" still carried connotations of low-cost, inferior goods and cycling was widely regarded locally as a utilitarian mode of transport for the less affluent. Over the decades the company moved into higher-end manufacturing and helped reposition cycling in Taiwan as a leisure pursuit and sport.
Late-Life Passion and Legacy
Remarkably, Liu rediscovered serious cycling in his seventies. In 2016 he told AFP that at 73 he completed his first major ride — more than 900 kilometres (560 miles) around Taiwan’s rugged coastline — and called the experience transformative. "I was an old man contemplating retirement, but funnily enough, I instead discovered a brand-new me," he said, crediting cycling with boosting his confidence, health and appetite for new challenges.
"There will be one day when I can't pedal my bike anymore. I hope that day will keep getting pushed back again and again," Liu told AFP in 2016.
Several of Liu’s children later took senior roles within Giant. His eldest daughter, Liu Li-chu, told the China Times that working with her father could be "painful," underscoring the personal intensity behind a family-led corporate culture.
King Liu leaves a legacy as an industrial pioneer who helped transform Taiwan’s manufacturing reputation and promoted cycling as both industry and lifestyle. Giant’s global footprint and the wider acceptance of cycling for sport and leisure in Taiwan stand as part of that legacy.
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