Yes, Rolf Dietrich sold his business to Brian Roddy this past summer. I'm not sure just how many changes Roddy has been able to put forward that weren't already in the works given his short tenture as the majority owner. Again, outfits like Rolf and Topolino are very small firms with just a handful of employees.
You can read more about the sale of Rolf wheels
here:
Eugene maker of high-end bike wheels gets new owner
Brian Roddy, one of the first partners in Rolf Prima Wheel Systems, returns to take over the company
BY TIM CHRISTIE
The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Friday, Aug 21, 2009
Business: Home: Story
Brian Roddy, one of the original partners of Rolf Prima Wheel Systems, a Eugene company that builds high-end bicycle wheels, has returned to the business as its new majority owner.
Founder Rolf Dietrich has sold the company to Roddy, who helped start the company in 2002, for an undisclosed price. Roddy left the company in 2006 to work for Burley Design, a Eugene company that makes bicycle trailers. He left Burley in 2008, and was looking for an opportunity to get back into the bike business when Dietrich called him to see if he was interested in buying Rolf Prima, he said.
“Rolf was looking to retire,” Roddy said Thursday. “I thought it had a lot of potential. It’s nice being able to keep the business here in Eugene.”
Rolf Prima makes hand-built, high-end bicycle wheels that start at $550 and top out at $2,200 per wheel. The company is one of the few in the business to build its wheels in the United States, Roddy said. Most wheel builders have their wheels built in Taiwan or China.
Dietrich owns several patents for his wheel designs, and is best known for his innovation of paired spokes, where two spokes come together at the rim, which enables the wheels to be stiff but lightweight, Roddy said.
Before forming Rolf Prima Wheel Systems, Dietrich licensed Trek Bicycle Corp. to manufacture and distribute his wheel designs under the “Rolf Wheels” brand name, according to the company Web site.
The relationship with Trek ended in 2001, and Dietrich started his own company in 2002 with Roddy, Blair Winter and TJ Walsh, each of whom had worked in product development at Trek during the Rolf Wheels years. Roddy was a principal design engineer.
Rolf Prima rims are made either from aluminum or carbon fiber. The spokes are all stainless steel. The hubs are made from aluminum and titanium.
The company sells its wheels through bike shops nationally and internationally, including Hutch’s and Life Cycle bike shops in Eugene.
The company sponsors the Land Rover-Orbea team in Portland, and several professional triathletes, including Olympians Hunter Kemper and Jarrod Shoemaker.
Rolf Prima has eight employees, and Roddy said he hopes to add several wheel builders to the payroll later this year.
Business has slowed because of the recession, “but it’s better than we thought it would be,” he said.
“It hasn’t turned out to be that bad,” he said.