From the Top: How Curve Cycling was built
If you live outside Australia, or if you’re not familiar with the whole bikepacking or adventure racing scene, you may not have heard about a small bike and wheel brand called Curve Cycling. It’s run by a few mates of mine here in Melbourne, Australia and started way back when I was first starting the CyclingTips business — a time when we were all similarly young, ambitious, and blissfully ignorant. Needless to say, I’ve taken a keen interest in the growth of the Curve business throughout the years.
Curve was originally founded by Steve Varga, a serial tinkerer, and was quickly joined by his lifelong friend Jesse Carlsson. Soon after, a friend of Jesse’s named Adam Lana became a customer and then a partner in the business. These are the three who’ll be taking us on their journey in this episode.
It all started in around 2010 when Steve was working in a bike shop and got asked all the time for wheel upgrades. At that time, the only aftermarket carbon wheels available were basically from ENVE, Zipp, and a few others. These represented a major price leap from high-end alloy wheels.
Steve started asking himself why a more accessible carbon wheelset wasn’t available. He looked around the internet at sites like Alibaba, and eventually found an agent in Taiwan who could connect him directly with open mould carbon wheel manufacturers. He ordered some, tinkered with them, ordered some more, and eventually came up with some wheels he quite liked. All the while he was using Jesse as his guinea pig.
Curve is a brand that’s being built slowly and deliberately, and in my experience these are the brands to watch out for.
This is Curve’s story.
Thank you to Ashley de Neef for composing the music for the show, as well as our producer Mal Bloedel.
|
SUBSCRIBE TO THE ‘FROM THE TOP’ PODCASTThe post From the Top: How Curve Cycling was built appeared first on CyclingTips.