After an impressive forty years in the bike industry, TIME Bicycles CEO Tony Karklins is now navigating the dream and vision of TIME founder Roland Cattin, producing world-class bicycles at their factory in Slovakia and a new facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Time Bicycles are built differently, using braided carbon structure and resin transfer molding that many if not all bicycle connoisseurs revere with an almost cult-like devotion. We had a chance to talk to Tony about the new Scylon and what he is most proud of as he leads TIME Bicycles forward after taking over the legendary brand in 2021.
I’m really proud that we do something every single day that most people in the cycling industry say is impossible.
People refer to TIME Bicycles as art. What is it about the production process of TIME bicycles that make them so different?
The fact is, our technology is exactly what high-end automotive is doing for their carbon-fiber technology. They developed a way to actually create beautiful carbon fiber. The technology that we are using is the same stuff that McLaren uses for their exposed carbon pieces. When you’re in a BMW and you see a carbon-fiber dashboard, that’s our technology. Mercedes, Porsche, Audi and Aston Martin all use it. It’s the same technology that TIME has always been doing. So, we just have a naturally beautiful way because we’re working with raw fibers, and we’re working with graded structures. And those grades are what’s beautiful about carbon fiber. When you go to the other side of the rainbow and you’re dealing with sticky pieces of unidirectional prepreg that are put together like papier-mâché, there’s nothing pretty to see there. It’s not a pretty process. And what is crazy about TIME, is Rolan Cattin saw this as a better way to do it over 25 years ago. He was completely out there on his own and he kept doing it. We are getting a lot of momentum right now with help from the auto sector and the aerospace sector, because inside those companies there are cyclists. They know that we are the one bicycle company using the same technology.
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