I was in Asheville, North Carolina, at the airport with a little time to kill. It was late summer of 2007 and I hadn't talked with Aaron in a couple of months so I rang him in Portland to catch up. He told me he was going to UBI to try his hand at making custom bikes. Aaron needed to be reinvigorated - he had burned himself out designing traditional consumer products and saw handmade bikes as an opportunity to be inspired again. By the time we got off the phone I had involved my self in Aaron's adventure - I wasn't going to be there to make the bikes, but I new I could support him in many other ways. Game on.
Aaron is the most methodical and talented designer I've ever worked with. I knew we could make something valuable, a product, a brand - a statement cyclists could get excited about. Well, here we are, three and a half years later, and we've done it. Using design as our voice, and with the support of a lot of good people, we have an established channel for expressing our opinions about what makes a good bike and how best to invigorate cyclists - purpose, honesty, beauty.
However, we're making a few changes at COURAGE. We will continue to use design as our voice for engaging the cycling world. We will continue to produce bikes. We will continue to explore how to be a productive entity in the bike industry. The main change you will see is Aaron will not be making bespoked frames, not for the foreseeable future. I'm testing the best ways to build limited run race bikes to embody our ideas and create valuable products.
COURAGE is not done exploring. Watch for new projects and new inspiration to come out of the studio. You can stay tuned to the latest happenings at Chicago.CX, where COURAGE is proudly supporting their elite race team.
