US monocoque maker bought by Kinesis USA

Robert Reisinger, Mountain Cycle’s founder and designer, will move with the company to Kinesis’ Portland facility. Mountain Cycle was formed in the late 1980’s as a vehicle for Reisinger to introduce technologies that had been proven in other industries such as motorcycles and aerospace to bicycles. Reisinger was ahead of his time, introducing monocoque aluminium frames, disk brakes, and inverted motorcycle style suspension forks.

Michael Nover, Kinesis USA’s CEO said: "It should be a very synergistic relationship. We think we can help Mountain Cycle achieve the level of production it has been striving for all these years. It was hindered in the past by a lack of capital and a low economy of scale. We plan to help in both areas, giving the company a financial boost, and taking advantage of the fact that in our US facility we produce many more frames per year than Mountain Cycle, thus making us more efficient."

Kinesis has produced aluminum frames for many brands including Bianchi, Diamondback, GT, Mongoose, Peugeot, Raleigh, Santa Cruz, Schwinn, Specialized, and Trek. It employsover 1300 people at their three factories worldwide.

The new Mountain Cycle will begin by producing the current line of frames with little change. For model year 2003, it will likely introduce some new models along with updates to existing ones. The frames will continue to be made in the USA.

Kinesis’ core business of making frames for other brands should benefit too.

"We saw this as an opportunity to bring our own capabilities and technologies to the next level," said Nover.

"Robert is a very talented engineer and designer and will contribute a huge amount to making us a more progressive and dynamic frame manufacturer. We want to integrate a lot of the core Mountain Cycle technologies and processes into our OE frame business."

Tom Jeng, Chief Executive Officer of Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd., Kinesis USA’s parent company sees relatively little immediate change for the companies’ Taiwanese and Chinese factories. "In the long run, we certainly hope our Asian factories will share the innovations Mountain Cycle will bring to Kinesis USA. We have used Kinesis USA as a pilot plant for many new developments in the past."

Mountain Cycle will discontinue consumer direct sales.

http://www.mountaincycle.com.