Following up on my post from Tuesday, I just got off the phone with Kinesis USA President Michael Chen. He called to give me more details about last week’s sale of Mountain Cycle.
Mountain Cycle has been sold to a Taiwanese company called Ideation Industrial. They’re a huge bicycle manufacturer established in 1977 with offices and factories across China. They sell bikes and electric scooters primarily in the European market.
According to Chen, their acquisition of Mountain Cycle will allow them to enter the U.S. market. The company already has an office in California but they have no definite plans to have a presence in Portland. However, Chen says Ideation reps are interested in re-hiring former employees and will be in Portland soon to conduct interviews (polish up those resumes guys!).
While he cannot speak for Ideation, Chen said he wouldn’t be surprised if they opened up a Portland office for marketing and R&D purposes.
It’s good to know the Mountain Cycle brand is not dead and let’s hope they open up an office here. Now that we’re an official “target industry” I wonder if a PDC rep can do some official wining and dining while they’re here?
Yahoo! some Chinese company that builds and sells crappy bikes has now bought Mtn Cycle. Its inevitable that theyll dilute the product, build it in China and expect the US to be all excited about a line of bikes that used to be built here where the employees actually made a decent wage and the manufacturing process had more environmental controls. I see nothing exciting about this option. The appeal of the brand was that it was made in the US. I dont see the original Mtn Cycle employees or original dealers wanting to have anything to do with this. its lost its heart and soul. WalMart might as well have bought it…..
Wow! Welcome to a crappy website with a bunch of crappy bikes. I just visited the Ideation website and oh boy am I…uuumm…dejected. I guess that’s the feeling. I own and race several Mountain Cycles (San Andreas, DNA, Rumble, Shockwave 9.5). My basis for choosing these bikes is based strongly in the brand itself. When I first saw the San Andreas I thought, “What is that thing? I have to get one.” Their bikes have always been exotic and innovative. I certainly hope the brand is not reduced by this purchase. If Ideation is “cool”, they will keep their name as far from the picture as possible or else they will likely lose out on their “target market.” Good luck.