Thinking outside the bike industry bubble

Two of the most unique looking saddles ever seen are produced by Fabric Cycling – a new parts and accessories brand launched by the team behind Charge Bikes.  The Cell has the sporty look of a Nike Air Max trainer, whilst the single piece ALM saddle bears the Airbus logo and looks more like a stealth bomber. Whilst having adventurous looking products isn’t new, it’s the approach to manufacturing that makes Fabric unique.

The bike industry may have hundreds of brands, but a substantial chunk of manufacturing takes place in few core factories in Asia. Most of the worlds best bicycle manufacturing establishments are based there, and thanks to decades of development work can make pretty much anything imaginable. Whilst this is amazing for the larger companies that can really benefit from this, smaller brands have to think carefully how they plan, manufacture and market their products – as it can be easy to get lost in the sea of bike gear out there. Understanding how other companies work, and the production capabilities at the factories is a good start – but to be truly unique you need to step back and take a different approach.

This is exactly what Nick Larsen has done with Fabric Cycling.

Nick Larsen is the Global Manager of Charge Bikes – the relatively small bike brand that packs a big punch.

 Starting on a Charge

Like many other bike brands, Charge bikes has it’s own line of accessories – It’s a nice way of pulling the image together on complete bikes, especially at price points where it might otherwise be easy to spec cheap or no-name components. It was the development and production of Charge saddles that presented Nick with the chance to start Fabric as an independent brand.

“When we first started making saddles, we didn’t look how other saddles were made – we looked at how other things were made. The Charge Spoon had a stitch pattern that covered the saddle without stretching the material – which meant the foam underneath could be softer as it didn’t have to support the stretching of that material. This made the saddle more comfortable purely because the foam density was softer – a simple design point that affected things. At the time we couldn’t afford tooling, and we couldn’t afford to patent anything – except the stitch pattern, which was key to the comfort.  The base I chose was not being used by the factory, but was an off-the-shelf base. Once we’d sold enough product, we were able to look at options for tooling for our own base, and an aim to making the Spoon the most ultimate it could be. This later became the Fabric Scoop saddle”

Mass appeal

Being able to offer products to both enthusiasts and mass market consumers has a lot to do with the success of Charge Bikes, and ultimately the future success of Fabric. The riders out there will always identify the technical merits, where as others will buy in to the brand for different reasons.

“There’s definitely two aspects to things – one is to make the design unique with added benefits – but also to appeal not just to enthusiasts. That’s where the biggest expanding markets are – like our Cell saddle. It looks comfy, squishy and all the things someone looking for a comfortable saddle looks for – and it’s unique.

Look at the objectives behind it – Is it weight? No; Is it comfort? Yes; Is it how it feels when you touch it? Possibly.

When you touch a regular gel saddle they are very squishy – but are expensive to make. The theory behind air sprung saddles is much like Reebok Pump technology, and this is probably something a mass market consumer can relate to more”

Fabric’s Cell saddle brings new technology to cycling from existing sports manufacturing. Non-enthusiast consumers might be able to relate to this easier, and understand the products.

Saddles simplified

The beauty of Fabric saddles is the simplicity in which they are presented to the consumer. There are four saddles in various options including rail material; cover and profile – and there is an easy way for the consumer to identify the style saddle they need.

“We’ve tried to simplify every thing – the saddle is all about your position on the bike and your bone structure – nothing else. Not the discipline. In general – despite what genre of riding you are looking at – a saddle is still just something to sit on. Some disciplines might require certain attributes, but that’s fine detail. We’ve tried to simplify how you look at the saddle, and how you buy them.

There are three body positions – upright; 45degrees and really stretched out. On a road bike or an XC mountain bike you’re really stretched out so you need a flat saddle to support your hip bones. When you’re upright you need a saddle with more radius. That’s how we’ve broken it down”

Nick went on to tell us how bone structure isn’t related to weight and how doctors would determine which category you fit in to, for identifying the saddle width needed…

“it’s determined by measuring the wrist, as it’s one of the only areas of the body that doesn’t hold fat. You then fit in to an Endomorph; Ectomorph or Mesomorph category – which dictates which hip size you tend to have. This is a really simple way for the consumer to understand it”

High Tech

At the same time as providing a new simplified system, Fabric has also made the lightest and most technically advanced saddle out there – the ALM.

“The rails on the ALM are curved and designed to act like leaf springs. Our approach was that the comfort came from the rails; the support came from the top and this meant we could minimise the padding on the top. The goal of this was to create the lightest most comfortable saddle there is. At a glance you could think it’s uncomfortable, but Cannondale spec one of these saddles and they don’t have padding at all on their saddle – it just has a Buffalo leather cover”

This is where the team at Fabric have really thought outside the box, as the ALM is so advanced it couldn’t be manufactured in a saddle factory as they simply don’t have the technology needed. You’ll notice the Airbus logo on the underside of the ALM – this is because they were instrumental in the development work, by helping Fabric prototype the leaf spring concept in Titanium.

Fabric stepped outside the bike industry to see where manufacturing opportunities might lay, and found that working with parallel industries offered lots of potential. The ALM saddle is produced in a factory that has specialised in high-end carbon manufacturing for 25years – the bike market can only offer so much.

“I’ve been sending my staff to manufacturers and trade shows that are operating outside of the bike industry – but that are still parallel industries. We see what trends are in manufacturing, design and in material use. We also see facilities that are not bicycle component specific – and it’s opening things up for us – what we’re trying to do is push the boundaries of what can be done with a manufacturer, and ultimately make the best products possible”

Despite being a road saddle, Nick Larsen stands by the ALM so much, that he’s given us a sample to ride on a mountain bike, to prove how comfortable a saddle with virtually no padding can be.

We’ll keep you updated when we’ve spent some decent time on the ALM.

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