Two Plymouth entrepreneurs have designed a trail bike which is receiving glowing reviews – and now need to raise £375,000 to start manufacture in their native Plymouth.
Neil Harvey and Steve Pengilley set up to produce and market the Tornado Attack, already praised by Mountain Biking 海角视频 magazine for being among the best in its price range.
The full-suspension bike is available to pre-order, with two already ordered, and Mr Harvey and Mr Pengilley are now in talks with two major 海角视频 retail chains.
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They are also crowdfunding to raise enough cash to start full-scale production of the two-wheeler, thereby creating jobs in Plymouth.
So far two backers have pledged £2,550 towards the project and with more than six weeks to go before , ends Mr Harvey and Mr Pengilley are confident of hitting the target.
They would then look to assemble the Tornado Attack on a wide scale in Plymouth, after importing parts made in the Far East.
“It’s an awesome bike,” said Mr Harvey. “But we need to raise exposure and get orders so we can have the manufacture and build in Plymouth. If we don’t raise the money, it doesn’t happen.”
Mr Harvey and Mr Pengilley had previously set up the Selfie Pods business in Plymouth, which was a pioneer but eventually undercut by the mass popularity of selfie sticks and a glut of cheap competitive producers.
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Now they have turned their attention to a more high-end product: an entry-level bike that is ready to use “out of the box”, so upgrades such as better tyres and a dropper post aren't needed a month after purchase. They believe this has been lacking on other “budget” full-suspension bikes, and is a gap in the market they want to fill.
Mr Pengilley has worked in the mountain biking industry for 10 years, for three direct-to-consumer bike brands, and is currently working in Copenhagen, Denmark, repairing bikes.
Having seen how much a bike actually costs from the factories, he realised there was room to make an even higher-spec bike for a great price.
Mr Harvey calls his business partner “the genius behind Tornado Attack”, having come up with the design for the full-suspension trail bike, which is “fast and agile” and “ready to use out of the box”.
Mr Harvey, who is busying himself with PR and marketing, said: “Steve has worked around the world fixing bikes. So he designed his own bike and found a niche.”
The Tornado Attack has been designed as a “fun and fast all mountain/trail bike”, with the design features such as Boost spacing, a long and slack frame, a low standover height and a short, wide cockpit. It comes in a sleek matte black finish.
If Tornado Bicycles can hit its crowdfund target it can produce 300 bikes, which would sell for £1,250 each, and move on to the next step of employing people.
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Tornado Bicycles said direct-to-consumer brands have made bikes cheaper, but by selling via pre-orders it is possible to cut prices further by cutting out warehousing and other costs.
The two large retailers that are in talks with Tornado Bicycles could help hugely with orders. Mr Harvey said one does not currently sell a trail bike, the other does but he insists Tornado Attack is a better bike and that is what has attracted the firm.
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Mr Harvey and Mr Pengilley are buoyed by a whole-page review in Mountain Biking 海角视频, the nation’s “biggest bike mag” which said: “You won’t find many better trail bikes for this kind of price.”
Tornado Attack has also been reviewed by Mountain Bike Rider magazine, and can be read .
Mr Harvey said that is important for the product, to prove it is high quality, when, for various reasons including the Covid-19 pandemic, people are not able to physically inspect the Tornado Attack.
“For a bike, people can usually go into stores and look at it,” said Mr Harvey. That’s a challenge. We have to convince people that the magazines and professionals have trusted it and like it.
“We need people that would go into a store and buy a bike to invest in it now. It will be one year to bring it to market, that’s a challenge and we get that, but we are in discussions with retail outlets.”