In the infancy of Velobike, I (Glenn) used to conceptualise wild product ideas for track cycling, mostly for myself and to add to my personal design portfolio, but also to put ideas into the wild and see how the community resonates. Back in 2019, I sketched up a radical track drop bar concept to achieve a hood grip on track drop bars provisions for them.
One day the Cycling New Zealand mechanic DM’s me from a post of the handlebar sketch asking if these were ever going to be produced. I said it’s possible if you saw a need for them. The response was ‘if you can, we’d probably ride them at the Olympics’. The only catch was that there was only 6 weeks until the Olympic equipment signoff at the last World Cup event pre Tokyo 2020.
I dove straight into the project, spent a week digitising the sketches into a 3D model, the second week 3D printing mock-ups and making mild ergonomic developments while calling around local carbon experts.
We made the tooling for the prototype from MDF, 3D prints and silicone. We managed to mould the first sample with carbon wrapped around a 3D printed core. We got them to CNZ just in time for George [Jackson] to ride the pair at the World Cup and for the design to be registered for the Tokyo Olympics.
The first unit was a functional one off carbon prototype that represented the final design (back then I believe prototypes were allowed in track cycling), but not how we made the production units. Over the next 6 months, a lot more work went into preparing the product for the public market and the Games.
As of January 1st 2020, the product needed to be ‘commercially available’. At 12:04am on the 1st of Jan (NZ time) we launched them available for preorder. We hadn’t yet finished the tooling let alone layup development or ISO safety certifications, but at least they were available to buy.
We only made 50x units of the first version of the design. These special ones were 350mm in width and finished in a gloss clear coat exposing the carbon weave (if you have one of these, they are super rare!). At the time I never thought we’d ever need to make more than that, so I never considered investing in the expensive steeling tooling capable of making thousands of units.
While still under preorder, it was evident that there was a demand for them, and we quickly had all 50 units allocated. The decision was made to then invest in steel tools.
Along with the decision to make some new tooling, we also developed a new size – in 330mm width. These were all in a matte clear coated finish.
As a designer, a highlight is always seeing something you’ve designed or made, out in the wild. For me it was a super humbling moment being sent a photo of a Hope Lotus equipped with a set of handlebars that came out of my garage.
The bars went on to win 2x Gold, and 2x Silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
The design also won a gold pin at the Best Design Awards. The judges noted that it “demonstrates the power of user centric and collaborative design research to discover novel solutions for the global track cycling market. It’s a design that is bringing home golds on the track and taking kiwi design to the world.”
It was pretty evident that the concept assisted performance at the top level in the sport, and since debuting the design, numerous influenced designs had popped up. Some have taken the concept even further – empowering athletes to maintain even more aggressive positions. Even the name for the handlebar ‘Bunch Bars’ have become the term for the style of bars.
We have begun to sunset the Bunch Bars following the development of the SKAT Endurance Bars – the second generation of the concept. When a new version of anything comes out, it's not uncommon to cannibalise sales of the prior generation. Given this, sales fell off a cliff. It took another 2 years to move the remaining stock.
Personally, the Buch Bars are my favourite handlebar we have made, I prefer the comfort and shape to the more aggressive drop and grips of the SKAT.
The shape of the drops are also a favourite of Matthew Richardson. His one-piece Mythos bars for Australia, and now his Hope bars were modelled off the Bunch Bars. We are glad to have influenced some sprinting records through an endurance bar.
We have a few units we kept aside for the future Velobike museum of Olympic innovation.
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