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Why Cycles got its start in early 2016 in Ogden, Utah as the common idea of a group of cycling enthusiasts and business associates: Adam Miller, Jason Schiers, and Ben Craner. Focused on creating high-end bikes that reflected the joy they found in cycling, the three began dreaming up and sketching out beautiful bikes geared for luxury, comfort, fun, and speed.  They discussed improved methods for constructing frames, customizing components, and finding a streamlined distribution system for getting the finished products into the right customers’ hands.  Soon after, Adam formally founded Why Cycles to meld these preliminary ideas into a boutique business model with a focus on simplicity: no marketing fluff, no unnecessary product features, and no glitchy sales tactics. Why stands for straightforward, clean, eye-catching bikes done right.

Since those idealistic beginnings, and with those principles firmly intact, Why Cycles has now evolved into a team of hard-working bike enthusiasts based in Carbondale, Colorado.  Adam continues to design the bike models and run the company (along with his active puppies Finn and Kudu), Jason looks over everyone’s shoulders to ensure the engineering is faultless, and Ben creates unique graphic designs to keep the bikes looking gorgeous.  Kevin Boyer manages production and shop operations, Greg Herrman makes sure customers are happy about their bikes and customer service (Greg is probably the one you’ll talk to when you call), and friendly faces like Kelly Rossberg and Adam Smith help out with business processes, exchanging and challenging creative ideas, and pouring beers at trade shows.

The entire team is guided by our main value and fundamental mission: the products we create represent the fun and excitement we have biking – the reason why we ride – while simultaneously delivering impeccable, beautiful bikes that provide a riding experience that no other bike can.

Meet the Crew

Greg Profile Picture

Adam Miller

Adam Miller grew up in Alaska and is a self-proclaimed bike nerd. He started his first business when he was 11 years old: buying used bikes on Ebay or at garage sales, deconstructing them, and selling the individual components. After causing his parents a series of mild anxiety attacks in the early days by taking risks and using tools like Paypal when sending money over the internet to strangers seemed like a bad idea, he started steady after-school work in an Anchorage bike shop at age 14.  Adam later worked for 907 Bikes, and then founded Borealis Fat Bikes after moving to Colorado Springs. Adam sold Borealis in early 2015, spent that summer fishing and biking in Alaska, and then decided it was time to step it up and pursue a new business idea. Since he had always been intrigued by titanium (the very first bike Adam ever wrenched on at the shop was a custom Seven), he followed his heart and started this business to develop modern, artistic, and smooth- riding titanium bikes to suit the most discriminating riders.

Greg Herrman

Greg Herrman has lived all over the world and been obsessed with bikes since the early days of mountain biking in the 1980’s. He finally settled in Colorado Springs, and after many years in the high-end technology world, decided that working with bikes suited him a whole lot more than a stuffy corporate environment. Greg worked with Adam at Borealis Bikes after managing sales at Colorado Cyclist, SRM, and a multitude of other bike-related businesses.  Currently, Greg manages all sales and customer service for Why, even though he’s the ultimate non-sales-oriented sales guy.  With his mild but intelligent feedback, Greg works with customers to make sure they truly will love the bike they buy – he will spend as much time as it takes to help you get the Why of your dreams. He also moved to Carbondale to work at Why’s new headquarters, and is basking in the simplicity of a small town with no traffic and incredible mountain bike trails nearby.

ANDY MICHELIN

Andy is a native Coloradan and has worked in the bike industry for almost 20 years.  You name it he has probably ridden it or fixed it.

ADAM

Adam Miller grew up in Alaska and is a self-proclaimed bike nerd. He started his first business when he was 11 years old: buying used bikes on Ebay or at garage sales, deconstructing them, and selling the individual components. After causing his parents a series of mild anxiety attacks in the early days by taking risks and using tools like Paypal when sending money over the internet to strangers seemed like a bad idea, he started steady after-school work in an Anchorage bike shop at age 14.  Adam later worked for 907 Bikes, and then founded Borealis Fat Bikes after moving to Colorado Springs. Adam sold Borealis in early 2015, spent that summer fishing and biking in Alaska, and then decided it was time to step it up and pursue a new business idea. Since he had always been intrigued by titanium (the very first bike Adam ever wrenched on at the shop was a custom Seven), he followed his heart and started this business to develop modern, artistic, and smooth- riding titanium bikes to suit the most discriminating riders.

Greg

Greg Herrman has lived all over the world and been obsessed with bikes since the early days of mountain biking in the 1980’s. He finally settled in Colorado Springs, and after many years in the high-end technology world, decided that working with bikes suited him a whole lot more than a stuffy corporate environment. Greg worked with Adam at Borealis Bikes after managing sales at Colorado Cyclist, SRM, and a multitude of other bike-related businesses.  Currently, Greg manages all sales and customer service for Why, even though he’s the ultimate non-sales-oriented sales guy.  With his mild but intelligent feedback, Greg works with customers to make sure they truly will love the bike they buy – he will spend as much time as it takes to help you get the Why of your dreams. He also moved to Carbondale to work at Why’s new headquarters, and is basking in the simplicity of a small town with no traffic and incredible mountain bike trails nearby.

ANDY MICHELIN

Andy is a native Coloradan and has worked in the bike industry for almost 20 years.  You name it he has probably ridden it or fixed it.

Matt McCully

Matt McCulley was born and raised just outside of Memphis, Tennessee. When he was 10 years old a BMX track opened in his little town and changed his life. The simple hobby of ripping bikes around the neighborhood suddenly became validated. He suddenly had friends with bikes who liked riding them. Fast forward to starting college and he bought an old road bike. A few weeks later he went to buy new tires, and there was a help wanted sign in the window. He signed on, built a ton of hybrids and beach cruisers, learned how shifting and suspension worked. When he graduated college, he began working full time in bike shops. After a brief attempt in the corporate world Matt pulled up his Tennessee roots, gazed westward, and moved to Colorado. After a few years in Denver Matt found himself missing the small-town vibe and found Salida. When Why had an open position for the demo driver job, he applied and convinced us to call him the Technical Field Rep because it sounds cooler than demo driver.

Chris Reichel

Reichel was a New Yorker, when he decided he couldn’t stand taking public transportation two hours to ride his bike on dirt, so “one day I just freaked out, gave all my stuff away and moved to Arizona with two bikes and $700 in my pocket.”  After being the main marketing guy at Industry Nine, we dragged him out to Carbondale to help us build our small titanium brand. Chris is a high-achieving bikepacker, adventure cyclist, and bike journalist, who loves nothing more than to explore and share adventures focused around bikes. He has been a featured writer for numerous publications like Mountain Flyer, Freehub Mag, Adventure Journal and many others. He has probably ridden his bike across Nepal and Mexico more times than most people.

Matt McCully

Matt McCulley was born and raised just outside of Memphis, Tennessee. When he was 10 years old a BMX track opened in his little town and changed his life. The simple hobby of ripping bikes around the neighborhood suddenly became validated. He suddenly had friends with bikes who liked riding them. Fast forward to starting college and he bought an old road bike. A few weeks later he went to buy new tires, and there was a help wanted sign in the window. He signed on, built a ton of hybrids and beach cruisers, learned how shifting and suspension worked. When he graduated college, he began working full time in bike shops. After a brief attempt in the corporate world Matt pulled up his Tennessee roots, gazed westward, and moved to Colorado. After a few years in Denver Matt found himself missing the small-town vibe and found Salida. When Why had an open position for the demo driver job, he applied and convinced us to call him the Technical Field Rep because it sounds cooler than demo driver.

CHRIS REICHEL

Reichel was a New Yorker (upstate, then the Bronx) until a few years ago, when he decided he couldn’t stand taking public transportation two hours to ride his bike on dirt, so “one day I just freaked out, gave all my stuff away and moved to Arizona with two bikes and $700 in my pocket. The goal was to live in a place where I could ride my bike every day on dirt and still have a career. Phoenix fit the requirements.” Now he’s a high-achieving weekend warrior and starting to write for publications other than DrunkCyclist.com (most recently Mountain Flyer). He’s also Drunk Cyclist’s most prolific contributor, under the name “Dirty Biker.”

Manufacturing Pride

Our frames are manufactured in a small mom-and-pop style “factory” in Northern China. Adam has travelled to China nearly a dozen times, and after visiting multiple factories in Taiwan and China (as well as the United States), chose the current manufacturing partner for several reasons.

Quality: First, the quality of the products from our factory is hands down the best we could find anywhere.  Only three individuals prepare and weld our frames, at our specific direction, and, of those three, the one with least experience has been welding titanium for six years! The raw material supplier is just minutes away from the factory; that supplier is a raw titanium ingot producer for multiple industries, and produces most of the titanium tubing that is used in high-end titanium bikes made in China, Taiwan, and the USA. When we visit our factory, we also visit the raw material producer to ensure our tubes are made exactly to our specifications, from the raw titanium ore to the finished butted round tube.

Tube Shaping: One of our goals was to create bikes that are a “modern take on a traditional material.” This involves shaping and manipulating titanium tubing in the most effective manner to take advantage of both its stiffness and its flexibility (depending on its angles, shape, and geometric features) to create the best ride quality, similar to modern carbon fiber bikes. Since titanium is extremely difficult to manipulate, and requires extra time commitment and unique handling skills, no other factory we found was willing to push the limits of shaping titanium in a way that would fully support our mission.

Testing: We work extremely closely with our factory on testing and quality control procedures. While most manufacturers are somewhat set in their ways, our factory was willing to set up new testing and QC procedures specific to our bikes. Beyond that, we worked with our factory to build a complete ISO-certified testing facility on site in the spring of 2017.  This new facility helps ensure our frames are properly tested beyond standard ISO protocols, and also helps shorten new product development time.

Why Cycles provides a lifetime warranty on our bikes.  To confidently do that, we take our product development and testing very seriously – as you can see.

They rock: Each time we visit our factory, we are left with a further feeling of joy in working with them. The entire facility has only 18 workers total, and the company fits no stereotype of the negative side of Chinese manufacturing. The employees go on regular group bike rides, they offer excellent maternity and family leave, and they take every worker out to a group lunch on Fridays. Most importantly (to us), all the workers seem genuinely happy and are thoroughly proud of the products they make. In the nearly three years of working with this factory, with about ten in-person visits and almost daily Skype calls, they have become our closest company partner and we are truly proud to call them friends.

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