100% rider owned companies

[muttley]

Proper is Carlo Grigg's company. 

[kev-s]

Proper is Carlo Grigg's company. 

but does he own it 100% or does he have backing from other people outside of the sport?

if he owns it £100% then it adds another one to the list

[Dingobmxer]

I thought Hoffman was sold to a business woman a while ago?

  DINGO

[generallee]

Hoffman, I believe, sold Hoffman Bikes to a business type person, and now stays on as a figurehead/advisor etc - but doesnt own it anymor.e I cant be sure of this, but Si Tabron told me this a couple of years ago - and he's chummy with Hoffman, so it may be true.
T1 is part owned by a business woman in the far east I think.
And Mirraco is part owned by Trek mountainbikes in the USA I think too, so not rider owned. again this is all hearsay, so im not 100%.

Curtis are rider owned arent they?

[evamedia]

Fitbikeco,  made in the S+M factory

Not all of them, some are Taiwanese made

[evamedia]

MirraCo

Not even close, owned by Trek

[evamedia]

Is whether a company 100% rider owned even matter.

Do any of the frames/parts etc. get tested properly? Is giving a frame to a rider for a few months before going into production ample testing? Do they get tested by machines as well, or is this just too expensive?

[dialledbikes]

New CEN regulations for mountain bike frames which come into force next year means all decent mountain bike frames will be machine stress tested (5 different tests).  No such tests for BMX frames yet, but apparently the EU law/regulation makers are working on some BMX frame tests.

All of my frames get ridden for a year by team/test riders, mountain bike guides in the Alps, etc, before going into production.

[Dark Diggler]

MirraCo

Not even close, owned by Trek

As I understand it they are distributed and manufactured by Trek and Owned by Mirra and several "investors" none of which are Trek

Could be wrong though.

but yeah, does it matter if its rider owned? is the product any better as a result of "keeping it real"? I suppose its cooler and that is usually enough to move a few boxes.

[kev-s]

its not about if the product is any better/stronger or how cool the company is

its about supporting rider owned companies and not lining the pockets of people who are in the indusrty/sport for the short term to make some cash, but supporting the 100% rider owned companies so in 10-15 years time they are still here and still producing good products


imagine if haro and gt hadnt been sold off by the original owners, do you think they would have still died like they did in the 90's?

[evamedia]

New CEN regulations for mountain bike frames which come into force next year means all decent mountain bike frames will be machine stress tested (5 different tests). 

Thnaks Mike, do you have the specs for the tests, been googling, but no luck

[Peter J]

What if the rider/ex-rider is also a businessman (I guess they/we must all be businessmen as we are in business)?

 

[muttley]

Carlo had the money from the begining, family dough I think, so pretty sure Proper can be classed as rider owned.

[telelogic]

the make?

[bmxer4ever]

2nd Childhood.

If I ever make another video, it will be 100% rider produced...

 

G

[dialledbikes]

New CEN regulations for mountain bike frames which come into force next year means all decent mountain bike frames will be machine stress tested (5 different tests). 

Thnaks Mike, do you have the specs for the tests, been googling, but no luck

CEN 14766 Mountain Bicycles - safety requirements and test methods

Impact test (falling mass)
Impact test (falling frame)
Fatigue test with pedalling forces (100,000 cycles)
Fatigue test with horizontal forces (50,000 cycles)
Fatigue test with vertical force (50,000 cycles)

The first model I've put through these tests has passed, so it's so far so good.  I'll have to get all models test eventually.

[teamsano]

sherry chu (or her company) owns hoffman, volume, snafu and t-1 as far as i know.

[Jamie C]

i thought proper were backed by someone so not 100% rider owned? anyone know for sure

Yeah Carlo owns 100% of both Proper and IMG.

There's a lot of 'smoke and mirrors' but Sherry Shu owns (or has an interest in) quite a few well known brands.  I really wouldn't worry too much about making some sort of ethical purchase based on rider ownership cos there's a good chance you'll be being (at least partly) deceived. i.e. half the world thought Robbo owned Fit.

So far as I know Mark owns 100% of Deluxe and Grant 100% of BSD. Moeller obviously owns most (if not all) of S&M and Fit. Mirra is part owner of Mirraco. Beyond that I wouldn't like to say.....I don't know the exact ownership detail of brands that we distro, so you've got next to no chance of finding out for sure.

[kev-s]

cheers jamie

i knew about snafu and primo but not about hoffman, t1, mirraco and im quite shocked about hoffman but saying that they seem to not be as big as they used to be and i cant remember the last time i saw someone riding a decent hoffman frame not a cheap complete

im pretty sure moeller will own s&m 100% and prob fit too

its a shame we cant find out who exactly owns what and who is involved in the companies within the industry

maybe im being idealogical but supporting a 100% rider owned company is what bmx should be, when i started riding in the early 90's it was all about the rider owned companies, unfortunatly just like the 80's the 90's companies have ethier got too big or the riders lost interest/had other things they wanted to do so sold off/ got other people involved so they could do other things

im sure in 10 years time history will repeat itself and some  100% rider owned new school companies will go the same way

[lodge]

This thread has shocked me by highlighting just how few rider owned companies exist in bmx, I guess money talks as most of them were started by riders.

[christhejob]

money has a lot to do with everything in the world, and it's crazy hard to keep something running when you hit a certain level without the assurance of a big backer behind you..  have a read of hoffman's book and you'll see how crazy over his head hoffman bikes soon became, from a payroll of 25 all working out of the ramproom to breaking new ground with taiwan - at one point one of the main US distributors went tits up leaving hoffman with a giant unpaid debt which meant he owed his suppliers literally millions. 
This could have taken HB under but he assumed the debts himself (a totally honourable thing to do but not the move of a true businessman, more the move of a human) and years of Hoffman trading was to get it out of this debt - maybe this had something to do with him subsequently relinquishing full ownership of HB.
ANyroad, business and politics.. I won't say "who cares just go ride" I find it all quite interesting.

Howabout macneil?  Reckon that's 100% beast owned still?

[muttley]

Does anyone actually care though? Not the first thing i think about when i'm buying stuff.

[lodge]

Yeah I think older riders and especially those who rode in the dead years do care to a point.
Look at how many Standards and S&M's are rode by people on this site.

[muttley]

Fair point.

[kev-s]

i care hence the post



as S&Mc bicycle co said us who rode the in the dead years do care and if i ever decided to never ride a s&m again then the only other company id even consider for a frame would be standard, partly due to them being rider owned and because like s&m they were in there early years when i started riding and there still here today and  still rider owned