Video: Gerard Vroomen on Open Cycle
The co-founder of Cervélo discusses his new 29" hardtail mountain bike
On Dec. 4, I caught up with Gerard Vroomen to talk about Open Cycle, his latest 29″ hardtail mountain bike. The co-founder of Cervélo was at La Biciletta in Toronto to discuss the new bike that he and former BMC CEO Andy Kessler are behind. Vroomen gave a presentation to approximately 30 curious bike fans. He was ever the engineer, providing a lot of background and detail about his new project and making droll asides that turned on mathematical technicalities. (“Of course, the simplest company builds nothing, but we wanted to build something,” he said. “We settled on one thing.”)
In my talk with Vroomen, I picked up on some of the things he revealed in his presentation. He decided to build a hardtail 29er – instead of, say, a full-suspension bike – after he conducted a quick online poll. In May 2011, he knew he wanted to build a mountain bike. The market wisdom at the time would have directed him to a 26″ bike. Vroomen, who is quite active on Twitter, put up a poll around midnight. In the morning, Vroomen had approximately 200 replies that indicated that 29er was the way to go. He says he spent 99 cents on the poll. He could have done it for free, but he wanted geo-location information.
Vroomen also discusses the features of the bike, especially the internal cable routing that can handle anything: mechanical, electrical and hydraulic. He even reveals his least favourite part of the bike: “the standard, ugly seat-tube collar.” Vroomen has a modular mould to work with for the bike, so if he thinks of a better seat-tube collar, he can work it in.
