Not long ago we had heard rumors that long time British crankset and chainring producer Middleburn was in financial straits, and soon after they announced that they would have to completely cease operations. Being a proud owner of a set of RS-8 cranks on my singlespeed, I was especially sad to hear the news, as they clearly had built some great, classic products over the years. Well, just a few days ago now, we got news that fellow British component producer BETD stepped in to buy out Middleburn and continue on their production. If you haven’t heard of them or want to know more on how the brand will carry on, join us after the break…
If you’re unfamiliar with BETD, they are a relatively small division of a bigger precision engineering and metal production shop. Over the years they have established themselves in cycling, both by developing a catalog of suspension maintenance & rebuild offerings, as well as by making some of their own design hubs, cogs, and modified suspension components.
The Middleburn brand will live on through BETD, and still produce their components in the UK. Its hasn’t yet been said what changes will be made to the new Middleburn line-up, but the goal is to carry on their most iconic products, and provide a steady stream of new components for those already riding them. So for example, don’t worry about wearing out the direct mount rings on your Middleburn cranks or even swapping out to a new spider, BETD will have you covered.
BETD also hopes to make the Middleburn products even more accessible with consumer-direct online sales through their own e-shop expected in the near future, as well as through their broad network of shops and distributors. BETD says that they are excited to be able to keep the brand going and promise to keep producing the Middleburn products to the “same exacting standards” that have made the cranks sought after. They also look forward to the “opportunity to add new products to the portfolio backed up by [their own] first class customer service.”
It will be interesting to see where that takes Middleburn.
