High-end bike unveiled to swift demand

Ooltewah-based American Bicycle Group deviated from its typical bread and butter with its latest Litespeed Archon models which already are sold out before hitting store shelves.

American Bicycle is a company known for its titanium frame bikes, but the entire first shipment of its carbon Archon C1, C2 and C3 models have been sold, said Steve Dunn, a company sales and operations official. He added that retail stores have not even yet received the shipment.

The bikes first stirred up talk at Interbike, a trade show in Las Vegas, but display models were unveiled this month at River City Bicycles, 112 Tremont St.

"We received fantastic feedback" at the trade show, Mr. Dunn said. "This is really one of the first offered to the public."

He declined to say how many bikes are in the initial shipment, calling the number private company information. The Archon bikes can be ordered at River City, Mr. Dunn said.

The bikes were designed and tested over two years to ensure the new carbon models meet the same standards set for the company's titanium models, said Peter Hurley, American Bicycle's chief executive.

"The result has been a palpable sense of excitement from our team, for sure, but also a whole new way of looking at integrated aero features that our designers eventually dubbed 'AeroLogic,"' he said.

Mr. Dunn said AeroLogic includes a series of engineered features which increase stiffness, responsiveness and aerodynamic efficiency.

The bikes vary in retail price from $3,000 for the C1, which is sold as the frame only, $4,500 for the entire C2 bike, and $3,000 for the entire C3 bike, which differs in components from the C2.

The Archon models follow American Bicycle's Quintana Roo CD01, a triathlon bike that took first prize at the Eurobike trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, for its design, officials said.

Mr. Hurley said the innovations from American Bicycle Group should give the company a boost in the high-end bicycle market that is down more than 20 percent.

LITESPEED ARCHON

American Bicycle Group says its new bike model has a series of engineered features which increase stiffness, responsiveness and aerodynamic efficiency.