Why did we start this crazy thing?
ON BACKBONE TRAIL IN MALIBU
"On a ride, like most great stories in this industry. We were on a ride and facing a huge climb, One of those short, nearly vertical walls that if you make it up, your lungs are on fire and your legs are just yelling at you. Mike and I sat there, trying to find the courage to tackle this silty, baby-head studded test of our masculinity, when Mike looked up from his sweat dripping visor, and said, 'Hey, I've got an idea.'
Up that climb and the rest of the way back to the lot, some of the groundwork was laid out that resulted in the Oracle. Dozens of long meetings, hundreds of hours of design and engineering, hundreds of changes and rejects, and slowly the Oracle took shape.
We aren't in this just to build great bikes at a great value, and to finally make the online model actually work for bicycles. For us, it's all about relationships.
Relationships based on trust and respect are what will allow us to do to build this, and that is what we've established from the get-go. Our short term plan sees us operating as lean as possible, and we have established a JIT fulfillment from our Vendor / Partners to make this happen.
We wanted the challenge. We chase it, the thrill of overcoming the impassable obstacle, the excitement in engineering a solution to a before unimaginable idea. Three different wheel sizes on one bike? Create a whole new way to sell the bikes online? Negotiate with the best vendors to be able to offer the value? Build the bikes in America, Even if the components are made overseas? We have attempted to answer all these questions with our Oracle."
William Kenefick, CEO.