Making this inspiration a production reality for riders everywhere was no easy task. Enter Luc Callahan, our Leader of Road and Gravel Engineering, and the longest period of committed development for any single road or gravel technology. We created 352 frame post samples to support testing and validation, developed an entirely new battery of standards, and then ran literally millions of cycles to validate this new technology was ready for gravel roads everywhere. After three years of long days and late nights, Luc and the team had taken D’Aluisio’s inspiration and made it a reality for riders everywhere.

“After riding some earlier prototypes, I was a believer in the technology. We had to make this happen! This was truly to be an evolution of Rider First, like we’d never done before. The scope was huge: nine distinct Frame Posts… to be paired with six different frame sizes… the validation testing matrix alone gave me a mini heart attack. It was blood, sweat and tears…literally. Long days and late nights for sure, as well as the inevitable moments of doubting if you’ll ever make it to the finish line. But with a team like we had, how could we not? Plus, we were too stoked on the product to not dial it in just right.” - Luc Callahan, Leader of Road and Gravel Engineering