BERKELEY, Calif. (BRAIN) — The owners of Wrench Science, the custom bike e-commerce site that closed earlier this winter, are looking to sell its remaining assets, including two custom-built online platforms: one that facilitates online bike sizing and a configurator that lets customers spec custom bikes with compatible parts.
Wrench Science founder Tim Medina said the owners are open to selling a package including the two platforms and other IP assets including its customer list and the Wrench Science brand, or selling them separately.
"We had an amazing run," said Medina, who began the business as simple service shop over 30 years ago in Berkeley. The business remained in the same building throughout its history, taking over more and more space as it grew.
"We were a pioneer in the online cycling space, but as you know the last couple years have been extremely rough across the whole industry. It reached the point where we didn't have the reserves to weather another year.
"But we still feel we built something with incredible value and our focus now is to find a company that can take that innovation and move forward with it," he said.
The configurator is in its third version, built largely in-house. The fit system attracts customers to the site and the configurator lets them build their dream bikes.
"The system is extremely robust. The cost to build it from scratch would be pretty staggering," he said.
Medina said that in 2022 Wrench Science stopped selling P&A to focus on its custom bike business. That was a good call until major bike brands began heavy discounts on their high-end stock bikes following the COVID boom. "It was good until the last couple of years when we were competing against monster companies that were selling bikes at cost, week after week. ... It's hard to compete against that. We were closing the gap in the last year but when we looked at the coming year, we said, 'we're not going to make it, we would be better off to wrap up shop and pass the torch.'"
Wrench Science has not filed for bankruptcy, but that remains a possible path depending on how the asset sale unfolds, he said. In the meantime, the company has been working to liquidate assets, return inventory where possible, and repay debts.
"We're doing what we can to make as many people whole as possible. This asset sale is part of a final push to wrap things up responsibly," Medina said.
Interested parties can reach out to info@wrenchscience.com for more information about the available assets.
