| 12/28/2001 | Kinesis USA, Inc. one of America's premier OE bicycle frame manufacturers announced today that it has acquired Mountain Cycle, a pioneering brand of high-end bicycle frames.
Robert Reisinger, Mountain Cycle's founder and principle creative force, 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.
The company produced the first commercially viable monocoque frames, the first modern disk brakes, and the first inverted motorcycle style suspension forks. Many companies, large and small were influenced by its groundbreaking designs. Mountain Cycle will continue its focus on breakthrough designs, and the upper end of the market. According to Michael Nover, Kinesis USA's Chief Operating Officer: "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."
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." Nover said, "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. In the short term though, we don't anticipate much if any difference."
“We are excited about the new potential in meeting our customer desires under our new ownership," said Reisinger. “We will continue to offer the highest in USA made quality products while providing better inventory capabilities and faster delivery to our customers. Additionally, we will discontinue consumer direct sales, while offering more added value services to our dealers, new and old. Mountain Cycle’s™ move from CA to OR has been a big effort" Reisinger continued, “and we expect to be taking sales orders in early 2002."www.mountaincycle.com
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