By: Aaron Tirazona
A Bell For Every Rider
With premium brass and stainless steel, the Spurcycle bells’ compact design and precise ping, rings long, loud and clear; politely warning anything and everything in its path. Available in a pure raw metal finish or black diamond-like carbon coating, this bell mounts perfect on any handlebar. Hand crafted in Sausalito, California, brother’s Nick and Clint and their pup Dash have created every biker’s must have accessory.
The Spurcycle Story
Launched in September 2013, Spurcycle crowdfunded over $330k via Kickstarter to help bring Clint and Nick’s vision of a better (and sexier) bell to fruition. Since then they have begun designing and exploring new product lines: handlebar tape, mirrors, bidons, carabiners, and soft-goods. Chalking up projects with a series of brands, including Ornot Bike and Chris King along the way.
As Clint puts it, “We might create products in competition with others, but we know our brand shares a specific customer profile. You make great stuff, we make great stuff; we want our brands to be tied together.” It is a philosophy that the brothers have lived by, collaborating with the network they have developed.
The brother’s passion for bikes started at an early age. When their step dad — a former professional cyclist, opened a bike shop on the shores of Martha’s Vineyard. It was here, where Nick and Clint learned about running a business — selling rentals and servicing repairs during the summer break.
Years later, Clint and Nick followed a similar path. Ditching their jobs in product design and operations to embark on their mission to create and deliver high quality bike products to a market that wasn’t being met.
There’s No Place Like home
Unlike many of their industry peers, Spurcycle sources all of their materials and hand-crafts their products in the USA. “When we started Spurcycle, we wanted to see how we could make it strictly in the US,” said Clint. “We could have easily sent a prototype design to a Chinese manufacture, where they manufacture the product, distribute the product, and scale the product rather quickly. But we wanted to be different. We wanted to take a hands on approach and be the final QC check, the single contract manufacture.” A feat that is by no means easily achieved. One in fact, only companies like Chris King have successfully managed. Where they pull their full operation end-to-end, under one roof. “It’s a huge capital investment, but then again their [Chris King] operation is one built from over 40 years of experience and success,” Nick says. “Hopefully that will be us one day.”