Steve Domahidy, the man behind Niner Bikes’ CVA suspension design, has been secretly toiling away on the Factor 001 road bike for some time now. His plan? Take the F1 technology from their full custom, body-sensing, wallet-destroying concept bike and make it mass produceable.
The result will be unveiled this fall at Eurobike. We talked to Domahidy and he said the finished bike will still be pretty radical but will be able to meet UCI approval.
“There will be some similarities to what’s been developed so far. It’s built around Dura-Ace Di2 and is completely integrated. The idea of Factor is integration and we’re not shying away from that,” Domahidy said. “My take on the next evolution of bicycles is this: When you buy a car, you don’t buy it then figure out what wheels and seat you want on it, and I think bikes will head in that integrated direction to give riders what they want.”
Will the 001’s hydraulic disc brakes carry forward?
“Unfortunately not at first because they’re not UCI legal yet for road racing. We want this to be able to go in any race, and I’d like to see a Factor team in the Tour in two or three years. Plus, I think there’s still a lot to be worked out in terms of heat and leverage and other things. Another thing to consider is those group pile ups in some races. I’m not sure the rotors are out of the way enough to prevent serious injury. There are some major positives, though, it’s just something to consider.”
Word is even the Factor 001 will get some tweaks and will be announced in the months ahead. It’ll be a limited edition partnership with another company, but he couldn’t comment any further on that.
Full PR below…
PRESS RELEASE: bf1systems, an engineering firm working on cutting edge technology for F1 (Formula One) racing cars, other motorsport and the aerospace industry, announced today that Steve Domahidy, co-founder and former head of R&D at Niner Bikes is to lead the development of its next generation Factor bike project.
Two years ago, work commenced on designing a high-end road bike dubbed the Factor 001. The purpose of designing the bike was to demonstrate how the latest race car materials and technology could be applied to a bicycle. The Factor 001 shocked the cycling world with its forward thinking design and execution, received extensive TV and press coverage, and was showcased at the Science Museum, London. Now bf1systems has established Factor Bikes as a separately branded subsidiary to focus on the design and manufacture of the worlds most advanced bikes.
“Working directly with bf1systems is a perfect amalgamation of talents and I’m super excited about this opportunity” Steve Domahidy said of this new partnership, revealing that he is currently working on a ground up design of Factor Bike’s latest offering. “What I bring is the ability to take their cutting edge technology and put it into a bike that’s capable of being mass produced. This will not be your run of the mill road bike and I can’t wait to unveil what we’re working on later this year.”
Speaking of Steve Domahidy’s involvement, bf1systems owner and founder of FACTOR® John Bailey stated, “Steve has been working on this project since last year, and we’re all on board with his vision of what the Factor brand can become. As our lead consultant, he brings a wealth of knowledge from the bike industry while we bring out of the box thinking. With these two elements working in tandem, the results will be spectacular.”
Factor is planning to launch its next generation bike in time for the 2012 Eurobike show in Germany. Until then, a holding page will be up at www.factorbikes.com while Steve and the rest of the engineering team at Factor will be updating progress on the new bike via their Facebook and Twitter feeds.
