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TECH NEWS
LeMond logo - 1LeMond confirms new bike line is on the way
LeMond Bikes, headed by three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, has confirmed that it is on the way back with new models after raising more than $2 million in private investment.
We told you back in January that we believed LeMond would be launching bikes using new carbon technology. At the time, we expected those bikes to arrive in the spring.
LeMond Carbon, a separate business to LeMond Bikes, has been developing a new carbon-fibre production facility in Tennessee, and Composites Today announced that the company had completed a successful test of its carbon manufacturing process by independent technical auditors Bureau Veritas (BV).
We reported that LeMond Carbon had been working with Deakin University in Australia to commercialise its technology which, it is claimed, lowers the cost of carbon manufacturing.
In a Facebook post last December LeMond Bikes said, "The last three years, LeMond has been focused on building the future of carbon fibre. This is quite a significant milestone for us. We’ve proven our technology’s ability to produce carbon fiber 4X faster than today’s state of the art, using 75% less energy, resulting in a reduction in fibre costs of 30-60%+ vs the industry’s leading fibre. Big ramifications. Pretty cool."
Now Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN) says, "In an email Thursday, Greg LeMond told BRAIN that he could talk about his company's plans in the bike market in a couple of weeks.
"A Securities and Exchange Commission filing made Wednesday shows that on July 1 the bicycle company sold securities worth $2,029,178 out of a total offering of $4,608,000. The SEC Form D filing is sometimes filed on the sale of securities to a small number of select investors. The form contains minimal information about the investment besides the offering amount and names of executive officers, board members and promoters of the company issuing the securities."
Then, in a Facebook post, LeMond said, "Looks like the secret is out. Kudos to Steve at Bicycle Retailer and Industry News for his investigative skills. But we're not giving away all the secrets just yet."
Replies to user comments suggest there's more than one new design in the offing.
Greg LeMond licensed his name to Trek Bikes from 1995, but that partnership came to an end in 2008. We reported back in 2013 that LeMond was launching three limited-edition road bikes produced in collaboration with Time, but it has been pretty quiet over recent years.
It's all happening again now. We have the new logo and everything. What more do you want, pictures of bikes? Apologies, but we can't yet help you out there. We should know more in early August.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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11 comments
Please Greg, just don’t drop the seat stays!
Carbon frames are produced for about 50 bucks a unit already, a 60% cost reduction isn't going to change much for the consumer
It's not just about per frame production cost though, and I doubt LeMond particularly wants to be associated with the sort of frame you'd get for $50. They're talking about aiming for a 75% reduction in capex, which is very important for a potential manufacturer - if they could achieve it - and ongoing benefits not least in production time. May come to nothing but, just because there's already cheap shit available doesn't mean there isn't a market for their stuff. Time will tell one way or another.
A monocoque frame made in the Far East costs about 50 dollars to produce, materials and labour wise. Whether it's the cheap shit you're talking about, or a £4000 named brand. What you pay for is the R&D, marketing, sponsorship, distribution network etc etc plus all the various people who want a cut of the pie along the way. I don't see how a new manufacturing process will skew this any differently
Prices vary, so no you'll not pay $50 per frame to produce for all not least because the prepreg prices range quite a bit depending on what you're laying up with. Yes a lot of the cost is in the other things you mention, hence why I didn't say it would have any noticable effect on the frame price. What I did say is that they're aiming for a significant reduction in capex, which might potentially make a difference to starting up.
The report talks about lowering the cost of carbon manufacturing, up to 4x faster, using 75% less energy and reduction in carbon fibre costs of 30-60% over brand X, I don't really have any opinion on whatever you have to say about capex
Linked from the article
i.e. energy consumption reduction was 70%, the 75% was claimed capex reduction, which was my main point - as I said again. Whatever.
The logo is unabashedly 1980s. Happy to support this brand after Trek's abandonment. He might have to bring something genuinely innovative to the table however than just cost savings, otherwise the brand will simply be equated as budget carbon.
I'm not sure there's a shortage of bike brands - the industry has been consollidating for years, so most brands are just a label on a higher-volume bike produced by a parent company which has economies of scale.
But if Lemond has cool new tech, well, we all love cool new technology!
Looks like they're still $2.6m short
That's not how offerings work. It means that LeMond and his partners still own 56% of the company but have sold 44% of it in exchange for $2m that they didn't have before.