MONTRÉAL (BRAIN) — Three former Guru Cycles employees, including Guru founder Tony Giannascoli, have launched a new titanium bike brand called T-LAB and a carbon frame repair business, Cycle Fx. Giannascoli is working with Guru's former marketing director, Rob Rossi, and its former design head, John Anagnostopoulos, on the new venture.
Giannascoli left Guru in 2015, about a year before the company filed for bankruptcy, to join the others at Visceral Performance Inc. Visceral was founded to work on an advanced composite technology whose application for cycling is still years in the future.
"Last year, some former Guru customers had reached out to us to inquire about new frames and then carbon repair, said Rossi, who is president of Visceral. "We did a few direct sales locally, in stealth mode, and we started seeing some traction for the design, so we started asking retailers if there was demand. We did seem to hit a nerve and now we are working with some of the top retailers in the States and Canada," Rossi said.
Rossi said T-LAB will remain a small-quantity, custom-oriented brand. The company began shipping frames about a month ago, he said. It offers road, gravel and cyclocross frames. Guru offered frames made of carbon, aluminum, titanium and steel.
Giannascoli said the focus is titanium for this project because of its versatility, durability and ride quality. He said the company's proprietary metal forming techniques enhance the performance characteristics of the material.
"The idea is to take all those years of experience making bikes and take it to the next level. Our goal is to take the enduring quality and versatility of titanium and push it forward from a performance standpoint, based on technical innovation and forward-thinking design."
The Cycle FX repair business grew after word spread that the ex-Guru employees were making bikes again. "When people in the industry found out we were back making and painting bikes, they started sending us their repairs," Giannascoli said. "I guess there is no substitute for experience when it comes to making sure carbon frames are done right."
As an introductory offer for the month of April, CycleFx is covering the cost of shipping for all repair and paint restoration jobs.
More information: t-lab-bikes.com | cycle-fx.com.
