The Story Behind Outer Cycles
, by Dayle Holmes, 3 min reading time
We are a new brand, but we have a bit of history. We thought we would share our journey getting to the point of launching Outer Cycles. Watch the video for a little insight in to our story or read along below for all of the details.
The Backstory- Lyne Components
To explain where this all begun, it would be best to Introduce myself. I'm Dayle, the cofounder of Lyne Components and Outer Cycles.
In 2010 I completed my BTech degree in Industrial Design. I’ve
always been obsessed with creating things, from a young age I found myself drawing, building and disassembling anything I could get my hands on. When I wasn’t doing this I would be riding my motorbike or BMX, so Industrial Design seemed like an obvious career path for me.
In 2011 I started a 6 year journey at Silverback Bikes as a
frame designer. My journey at the company morphed over the years allowing me to dabble in other aspects like graphic design and marketing as well as learning to manage a team in the creative department. It was an exhilarating time as the brand was growing rapidly and standards were high.
In late 2016, I felt prepared to begin my entrepreneurial journey. Coincidentally, my father, Derry, shared my enthusiasm and was eager to invest in a new business venture. Thus, we founded Lyne Components.
Derry is a Civil Engineer and project manager, and in his other life deals with nuclear power and mining related projects, his speciality is keeping calm when things get chaotic or complex, so he seemed like the perfect business partner for me with my scattered creative brain! Derry also happens to be an avid cyclist and has completed multiple stage races and endurance events so understands bikes and cycling pretty extensively.
Back to Lyne Components- We noticed a gap in the market for
a competitively priced mountain bike components (that were still good quality). My experience with manufacturing in Taiwan came in handy here and we quickly set off launching a range of products that were well received, most notably our range of dropper posts, which were pretty disruptive at the time, considering the prices and reliability issues surrounding dropper posts circa 2016.
Lyne Components, now in its 8th year, has been steadily growing, launching new products along the way, but one goal still remains; Rad products that are light on the wallet! We have made some mistakes and have also done some things right, but overall it’s been an incredible learning experience and we are still stoked about riding our bikes and making cool products that improve your ride.
Outer Cycles- A Post Pandemic Brainchild
By early 2021, after a challenging year for Lyne Components, we felt optimistic, thinking the worst was behind us, and started work on Outer Cycles. However, we were quickly brought to a halt by unprecedented production lead times, some stretching up to 700 days, which stopped our progress almost as soon as it began
In the next year and a half things started to calm down and production lead times recovered as the bike boom started to slow down so we began work on getting Outer Cycles off the ground, starting off with our first model, a full suspension E-bike.
These are our first test frames, we painted these locally and began ride testing.
At the end of 2022 we received our first pre-production samples where we did many hours of ride testing, putting these frames through some serious abuse. We made some changes to the cable management system, battery cover and a few small details, but in general were really happy with how these frames performed.
Fast forward to January 2024 where we finally launched Outer Cycles with our two models of the Link full suspension E-bike. We are very happy with how they have been received and are excited for the future. We have a lot more up our sleeves so watch this space!