MCDONALD, Tenn. (BRAIN) — Kirk Pacenti has two new partners at Pacenti Cycle Design — Duncan Lloyd and Luke Humphreys — and a new focus the brand's own expanded product line, showcased on a new website that launched recently.
Pacenti is now offering a carbon and aluminum wheel and rim line, along with a line of P-dent bars and stems. There are no tires or mountain bike wheels, which is surprising as Pacenti was pivotal in launching 27.5 mountain bikes.
The new site, pacenticycledesign.com, has a B2B wholesale side along with consumer direct sales.
Kirk Pacenti said he is returning to product development for his namesake brand, after a few years of focus on projects for other companies.
"Dealers have always liked our rims, and for many years we were the go-to place for 27.5 tires and rims," he told BRAIN. "But dealers wanted wheels and I didn't have the time to develop a wheel line."
"I know it's surprising not to have mountain wheels right away but I wanted to let the Boost thing settle down before redesigning the mountain wheels. We have road wheels now, and dealers have been ordering quite a few of the Carbon 30s. And we just got our P-Dent patent and have started manufacturing," he added.
P-Dent, as the name implies combines a handlebar "dented" in the center so it can snug up against a fork steerer closer than a round handlebar. This allows P-Dent stems with extensions as short as 20-millimeters, with 25-millimeter and 30-millimeter extensions also offered. P-Dent handlebars are 35 millimeters in diameter. Because of the design's short reach, the company has requests for women's and kid's versions, which they may entertain in the future.
Lloyd joins the company as director of operations and co-owner and fellow new co-owner Humphreys is handling sales and marketing. Lloyd and Humphreys are based in the U.K., where Pacenti Cycle Designs already has a distributor in place. And the company is looking to pick up distributors in other markets.
"We will be dealer direct in the U.S., though bikewheelparts.com will also sell hubs and rims and other small parts," Pacenti said.
Pacenti said he will not chase OEM business as he has in the past. However, suppliers of long and low geometry mountain bikes are interested in spec'ing his P-Dent system. He is not sure if the company will get back into supplying tires as he said he is not sure what they could offer that is not already on the market.
