Ignite was the very first bike we launched, though Inferno is the model which sparked the Fire in Ride Fire. Our history as a brand effectively dates back to what would later become Inferno, plus ideas and product testing dating back several years and bike racing at the professional level.
Whilst racing and spending significant time in Taiwan and China with their UCI team of that time, our founders Rob and Simon started to look to the future whilst drawing on their own experiences of the bike industry. A lot of time travelling on planes and post stage transfers can provide a lot of time to formulate ideas; it was meetings and sponsor factory visits in 2017-2019 that saw the evolution of ideas into plans, product testing, feedback and designs.
One of best things about bike racing can be travelling and experiencing the world on a bike. We all hear about riders at the Tour complaining about post stage transfers – and often rightly so – however the bike, and bike racing, can also provide opportunity to travel and experience different cultures around the world, often travelling to nations that the majority of people would never be likely to visit in their lifetimes, and as a cyclist perhaps unlikely to visit were it not due to bike racing. Travel to, from, and around the world can result in a lot of time to think, to create mentally, and to define how to more greatly sculpt what lies ahead… Our exclusively owned and developed frame; Inferno.
The original frame that evolved into Inferno was a rim brake design, with semi exposed gear and brake cables routed through the bars and into the front of the frame as was the standard at that time. The frame was raced and tested extensively, with Rob a key factor in it’s evolution. The next version saw improvements in cable routing and amendments to the frame to enable utilisation of wider tyres and rims, all whilst fine tuning the carbon lay up and geometry ready to transition to disc brakes. Again, the frame was raced and tested extensively. Early drawings of the frame as a disc brake bike again saw exposed cables and hoses before improvements in design and development saw the transition to fully internal routing, whilst it also became clearer that electronic shifting was more definitively ‘the future’. The objective through the evolution was always 100% clear; to develop a frame of unparalleled ride quality without sacrificing comfort whilst maintaining aero efficiency, resulting in a frame that can be raced, but equally ridden comfortably for endurance purposes – an all round bike that can descend as well as climb. Developments in design ensured that the bike would be sufficiently light without compromising strength.
Inferno launched.
Initially Inferno launched ‘under the radar’ in black on black. The colour-way saw only a select number of frames released to trusted dealers in the UK before a run of Inferno in black and red, however wider feedback and exposure of Inferno lead to our current colour-way ‘Gold Edition’, released in line with the introduction to Ride Fire of our Creative Director, David, alongside our branding plus colour palette update. As per all our models, Inferno is available as a fully customised bike from frame colour-way through to component options and tyre choice. ‘Gold Edition’ as standard we offer with BLKTEC’s R8 one piece handlebar, however our own carbon handlebar and stem (as seen on Ignite) perfectly compliment the Inferno silhouette.
Since day one our ethos has always been to build performance bikes, with carefully considered specs, and thorough quality with no shortcuts. We feel that Inferno perfectly delivers on that.
