Working on a ‘one bike concept’ (one bike with one specification and one design per application) distributed via direct sales is a refreshing way of doing business in an industry cluttered with unwanted and sometimes unrideable bikes. Yet each one of these bikes is bang on target. Take the Tues downhill bike, RockShox Vivid shock and BoXXers, Truvativ cranks and transmission, Avid Code brakes. Obviously pretty worthless if the geometry is wrong, yet in the Tues, like all their other bikes, YT have got it right. The philosophy at YT is to support young talent (hence the name) and beginners on competitive low–priced bikes. Manufacturer to consumer – the right price, the right build. This is just what the rider’s need. I spoke to two of the main men, Markus Flossman and Steffan Willared.
Steffan Willared: I studied engineering in university and then eleven years with an automotive supply company, during the time I was project manager for chassis components and steering systems…and then YT.
CEO Markus Flossman: Eight years at a fitness company as head of marketing and three years ago I quit my job and began YT.
Markus tell us about Sponsoree.MF: I made an on–line platform called Sponsoree.com. It’s a platform where athletes and sponsors can get together. It was at that time I had an idea to offer a quality dirt jump bike for half of the price of other bikes on the market. Sponsoree was about helping younger athletes to get a sponsor to help the costs of their hobby. Not big contracts like professional riders but more the smaller things like chains, brake pads, tyres and things like that.
And not just for mountainbikes?MF: No I started with mountainbikes but increasingly more athletes came on board with soccer, tennis and other sports.
Tell us about the first bike, the hardtail.
MF: Well I met a young rider out on the trails in Forchheim who was riding a really cheap full suspension bike, a total pile of rubbish from the supermarket that looked like it would crack in half. But the guy had great skills and I suggested he get a good bike and told him that one day he could turn his hobby into a job. And the guy said ‘well I can’t because I have no money and a good dirt jump bike is about a thousand euro’. I went home sat down and drank a bottle of Salito (lager with tequila that you only buy in Germany) and thought about it, and then I thought the idea was that it could be possible to make a good bike for half the price because a good dirt jump bike only has a suspension fork and one brake, no shifting or expensive stuff.
There are a lot of companies that make one–off hardtail bikes but now you have taken things considerably further with the introduction of bikes for a variety of riding? Eleven bikes.MF: It’s taken a few years. In the beginning we had only one bike and one hundred pieces, so not from the beginning. We wanted to know how the hardtail would be received, but it went really well and won a price/performance test in a German freeride magazine very quickly. This showed me that we were on the right way and that’s the reason why I thought ‘OK I quit my job and make more bikes’. The second year there were three different bikes in the range.
It’s about time that bikes became available at the right prices.SW: Yes it was the time because if you compare the price of a bike to other consumer products then the difference is too much and obviously we chose a way to sell a product directly from the market to the customers and when you do everything by yourself and sell it directly, well it was time to do it like that. With small overheads and to bring bikes on the market with at a reasonable price.
A lot of companies have materials engineers, frame designers, suspension designers, graphics designers, possibly ten different people involved in making a bike. Not the case here at YT?SW: No we do not have ten engineers involved in the process we have only one. Really if you think about it, the high quality mountainbike with less frame weight and high suspension technology is maybe only eight to ten years old – there so much experience that people lacked during this time, but now for us it was easier to do. Benchmarks have been established, especially to create ideas for existing products and obviously when we went to Taiwan to search for partners for the production we get a closer look into the frame tubing and technology size and everything. You need to be clever yes, but my product development background in the automotive industry helped. That’s why it worked.
It was easier because of the contacts in Taiwan?SW: No. It’s really not easy.
But communication was?SW: Yes, that was easier for me, a strong benefit, without eleven years experience in a really good company in the strong automotive business I really wouldn’t be able to do that. I collected so much experience and negotiation skills, travelling in different countries, travelling to Asia many times before. I know how to handle it, the culture differences everything.
Talk to us about the range of bikes here, they all seem to be bang on. Downhill, play bikes, all–mountain, enduro.
SW: Yes well for us it was an obvious step. We wanted to do a freeride bike, a downhill bike, a bike that you can use in the bike park but also take uphill, and then Superenduro. More importantly we like to use these bikes and that is another consideration. The basic background is that we want to ride. We want to ride the bikes and ride our own bikes.
Just one model in each range though?MF: When you look at other companies I think that is a problem, they are offering too much choice to their customers. For example, in the all–mountain category some companies offer one frame in eight different specifications, two different colours, five different sizes. I see no need in that and in my opinion we make only one bike in the perfect specifications and no pimp parts but all the parts have to be of good quality and work well. Like we would ride if they were our own.
