Priority Bicycle’s quest to build a better bike
Dave Weiner, founder of Priority Bicycles, quit his job running a tech company to reinvent the bicycle. Why?
“I had this desire to bring my knowledge of supply-chain technology and bicycles together to build a simpler bicycle,” Weiner says.
For Weiner, that meant rethinking every part of the bicycle, from the tires to the handle bars.
“The most noticeable feature on our bike is the belt-drive. That was the hardest part of the engineering,” he says.
But Weiner had to deal with more than just engineering challenges.
“The big bike manufacturers want to work with the big well-established companies,” Weiner says, so he had to go all over the world sourcing parts for his bike.
With a background in the bicycle industry, Weiner was confident in his ability to build a better bike, but he needed funding too.
“And that’s where we went to Kickstarter and said ‘Does our idea make sense? Do you like it as much as we do?'”
According to Weiner, the Kickstarter campaign was a success. “We had over 1,500 backers back us for bicycles. They all received their bicycles on time or early. And they’re all happy.”
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