Revival of a long defunct marque.
 

Would you believe bicycles are once again being sold under the Wright Brothers brand?
I had the opportunity to tour the Wright Brothers bicycle shop in Dayton this past week, and the tour guide mentioned that there was a new company in the office across the street that has licensed the name, and in co operation with the Wright Brothers foundation, was once again producing bikes and other merchandise under the brand.
I wandered over and met the president of what for now, is pretty much a two man operation, and had a lengthy and very interesting discussion.
Here is a link to the site with details on the two models being offered, with the same model names as the original bikes produced by Wilbur and Orville.

https://www.thewrightbrothersusa.com...nture-bicycles

Interesting.

I'll check it out.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm pretty skeptical.

They offer two bike models and about a million pieces of random GQ-esque clothing and accessories.

The bike models are just rebranded Co-Motion heavy duty touring bikes.

What does this have to do with the Wright Bros? They bought the license for the name essentially for search engine optimization?

Check out a bike shop in Vermont called Analog Cycles. They have had some unique fillet brazed quill stems made with 0 reach, mimicking a stem design seen on Wright Bros bicycles. That is more in the spirit of taking historical inspiration and making something unique.

Your skepticism is well warranted, however imho anything that keeps the history of anything relevant this far down the road is good. So much history, appreciation and sense of pride is being lost to the sands of time and apathy of tech moving at warp speed.

Their choice of Co-Motion is pretty sound, they don't build anything wrong and at the end of the day you have a dam fine bicycle rebadged with some pretty cool names.

Definitely spendy stuff, but between licensing, being tied to a serious historical foundation and living up to the history, it has to be for viability whether they survive or not.

I'm glad they picked bicycles.

I hope they do well inspite of themselves. ;)

If ever in Seattle, check out the Fremont bike shop ...

Wright Brothers Cycle Works - Seattle USA

Been in business for almost 50 years. It's old, woody, dark, and dusty. They have a co-op work space, vintage bikes for sale, lots of new parts, good service, and tons of old magazines to check out.

This makes far more sense to me. Very cool.

:thumb: +1 agreed, very cool, albeit a long way from Dayton and Kitty Hawk. ;)

With list prices of $4k or more, I'll pass. In fact, I scoff at bicycles at those prices? It is "wrong-headed". <-- an odd expression I picked up somewhere along the line.

If they were authentic, if they were true Wright Brothers bicycle designs, the head badge might have more meaning and might be worthy of a nominally higher price. That they are re-branded bikes makes them seem like a rip off.

"I have a Wright Brothers bicycle."
"Oh, cool, is it really an original bike?"
"No, it is a modern bike. It does have a badge and decals that say Wright Bros."
"Oh, that's pretty cool. Is there anything unique about it other than the decals? How much did you pay for it?"
"Don't ask."



As it is, I wish them well but would not invest in either the company stock or their product.

Are they going to carry on the tradition of blocking any American developments with patent lawsuits for the next 10 years while the French carry on with all the real advancements?

Brand is so old I dont think it will have much in common with the past.

I was happy to see Koski back though! Don is a heck of a guy to talk to, and has the most amazing stories!.....he suggested Kuwahara as the bike for ET when ILM was making the movie, designed and built the first dedicated 26" fork (for Cook Bros)..... and so much more. They did a run of 100 or so Laguna style cruisers this year with old school type Koski fork. I am on the fence as I have so many bikes, but would love to make one pop like no other.

Five thousand buckaroos for another glorified hybrid with a sloping top tube?

No.

Not to mention that the comparable, 8-year-old Co-Motion CityView that these are more or less based off of is basically the same bike with those all-important fenders. They were also cheaper when new.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6d594f4da6.jpg

Someone needs to stop and realize that asking $4k+ for a boutique steel bike means you get fillet brazed joints everywhere. At those prices, I don't think it's unreasonable to demand it AT ALL.

-Kurt

Not the first time someone has licensed the name(s) and tried to make a buck in Dayton. I find it interesting that each time, they try to go further upscale.

"Someone needs to stop and realize that asking $4k+ for a boutique steel bike means you get fillet brazed joints everywhere. At those prices, I don't think it's unreasonable to demand it AT ALL."

I'm not sure what you're saying here. To me, full fillet brazing would be a distinction without a difference. In no case would justify $4k - $5k for a bicycle.

The 8 speed Alfine hub costs $400, the 11 speed a little more, but it still does not tally up at $5k. I built a steel framed 8 speed Alfine, Brooks saddle,... everything for well under $1,000 and I paid full retail for everything,... including the VO fenders. ;-)

You could not get me to part with $5k for one of these bikes, not even with belt drive and a 14 speed Rohloff hub.

+1, agreed, BUT we are not the target market here, maybe they will figure out who is. :rolleyes:

Italvega is also another brand that has revived, I believe a couple of years ago. Oddly or. Ot, appears they are based in the Netherlands and make bikes and lots of lifestyle gear. Where they source their bikes I do not know.

https://www.italvega.cc/bikes/
[img]https://www.bikeforums.net/306b8525-dd06-4372-8569-ed72a050a67f
[img]https://www.bikeforums.net/c8077e3d-aeb2-47f7-b505-ab42d40c8758

Fair point, fillet brazing does not justify the price alone.

Nevertheless, at these prices, the frame should have joints between the tubing that are distinctive and suggest a much better product than the competition. There's a practical cap to how much "better" everyone can make a bike under the same parameters of tubing and components, so the value in the cost has to be justified some other way; in the example I propose - craftsmanship. The English builders (and a number of current builders today) often express this their lugwork and paint, while the French constructeurs did the same with elaborate fillet work or a combination of fillets and lugs (or sleeves). This exceptional hand craftsmanship is part of what drives and justifies the values of these bikes to this day.

While I'll admit that the welding on this Co-Motion is exceptionally well done, it isn't anything that hasn't been seen on much cheaper bicycles. And since these are presumably hand-made frames built here in the US, fillet brazing over these joints should be possible in the workflow. Perhaps a pain to do, but for upwards of four thousand clams, one should get it by default.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f6e53f1734.jpg

-Kurt

I wouldn't mind using a headbadge if I repainted my Bridgestone, but if I wanted to spend that kind of money on a retro steel bike, I'd just get a lugged beauty from Rivendell.
I might have done so already, but on a practical level, that space is already filled for me with my LHT.

Still... those lugs... :D

I just realized I was in Dayton this past December and didn't even think to stop in on the museum. D'oh!

Sadly, at those prices the only commonality that this "new" brand will be sharing with the old is that they too shall be defunct.

I like the concept of the bikes. However, I see no value in what is essentially a rebranding exercise. One of my favorite airplanes of all time is the F4U Corsair. Perhaps I should create "Corsair Cycles" and rebrand bikes as well... ;)

Texbike

just to note a coupled of things...... I don't see the equivalant in the current co-motion offerrngs....... they offer rolhoff and pinion for igh, so even if based off of an ealier model there is some level design for wright bro bikes

the prices are not much different than fully outfitted co-motion bikes....

I

Of course, you realize that for between $3995-4750.00 you can buy an actual pre-WWI (and very possibly 1890's) bicycle in complete and worth restoring shape.

I like the effort, but the prices being asked are . . . . . . . er . . . . . . . insane?

:roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2:

Insane? Well, to the extent they will likely cause an early death for the business, sort of a corporate suicide. Is that insane?

• Regarding an actual pre-WWI bicycle,... would people be interested in a modern rendition of those old bikes?
• That is, a recreation of the frames built back then but done in modern steels with a modern drivetrain and modern brakes?
• Would anyone buy a bicycle that had wooden rims?
• Do modern rim brakes work on wooden rims or would this force you to use disk brakes (which I don't like and would destroy the aesthetics of the bike)?
• Would anyone buy a bike because just it was a pseudo-recreation of a Wright Brothers bicycle?

What is the point of the Wright Brothers brand without the Wright Brothers products? <-- or Italvega, or Raleigh or ...

My personal dream is to own and restore to rideable condition a 1890-1914 vintage bike. And actually ride it on a daily basis. Assuming that's possible, or practical. That's what the last fifteen years of bicycle restorations that I've been doing have me aiming for. So far, I'm back to about 1935.

And I can only imagine what a genuine 1890's Wright bicycle would cost, given the pedigree.

Color me puzzled as well. So many bicycle booms have busted since that brand went kaput, that there would be absolutely no brand recognition without their other sideline. Sure, they might have been innovative for 1896, but trying to do anything "innovative" with the brand now would mean a complete break with their history. And I'm skeptical of the rebranding exercise doing well. It would be cool if they built lugged, slack-angle, long-chainstay, cruiser-ish frames that could be built up as old-timey track bikes or path racers, but I'm not sure what the market for that would be. They'd be competing with Pashley at that point.