Steve Frothingham

Steve is in his second stint at BRAIN. He was here at the beginning in 1992 while still working for a bike shop in Santa Fe, N.M. He wrote several articles for BRAIN's first issue and later joined the staff, eventually becoming managing editor and then executive editor.

After leaving BRAIN in 1997 he worked for several news organizations including The Associated Press and VeloNews before rejoining BRAIN as web editor in 2011.

He is based in Longmont, Colorado, and is an enthusiastic (and slow) road, mountain bike and cyclocross rider.

All articles by Steve Frothingham

April 24, 2024

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — At least four former Stages Cycling executives have joined Giant Manufacturing as the power meter and smart bike brand has apparently stopped operations. Meanwhile Giant, which manufactures many Stages products in Taiwan, is suing Stages for about $14 million in unpaid invoices. 

Posted in Industry News
April 23, 2024

A version of this article ran in the April issue of BRAIN. This has been updated with information about the company's latest investors, announced April 30.

Posted in Product/Tech
April 23, 2024

OSAKA, Japan (BRAIN) — Shimano is reporting that its first quarter sales were 100,557 million yen ($650 million), down 20.2% from the same quarter last year. In the company’s bicycle division, sales were down 22.6% to 76,090 million yen. Company-wide, ordinary income was up 0.9% from the first quarter of last year.

Posted in International
April 19, 2024

BROOMFIELD, Colo. (BRAIN) — The homepage of e-commerce sites Colorado Cyclist and Planet Cyclery (which merged in late 2021) each began promoting a "Closing Sale" on their homepages this week.

Posted in Retail News
April 19, 2024

MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Kent Outdoors, which acquired Kona Bikes from its founders in 2022, said Friday that after a strategic review it has decided to sell the bike brand.

Posted in Industry News
April 17, 2024
Kona sent out an email recently inviting fans to visit them at the Sea Otter.

MONTEREY, Calif. (BRAIN) — Kona Bikes employees were tight-lipped Wednesday after the brand's employees set up a display at the Sea Otter Classic expo (which opens Thursday) and then began breaking it down.

Posted in Industry News
April 17, 2024
Company is moving Munich Composite's manufacturing equipment to South Carolina.
Photo of Munich's European factory provided by Munich.

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (BRAIN) — Two supporters of domestic manufacturing are teaming to begin production of carbon fiber rims for the original equipment market.

Posted in Industry News
April 1, 2024
Beat goes on.

GIVISIEZ, Switzerland (BRAIN) — Industry veteran Beat Zaugg, who has been an owner of Scott Sports since 1998, says he remains the brand's CEO, a minority shareholder and chairman of its parent company board, despite a news release Friday saying that the board had fired him.

Posted in International
March 27, 2024
CSL's facility in Iowa.

AMES, Iowa (BRAIN) — As the German distributor Messingschlager pulls back from the U.S. market, industry veteran Nyle Nims has relaunched his 3PL business in Iowa, now called Cycle Source Logistics. CSL provides third-party logistics services to clients in and outside of the bike industry.

Posted in Industry News
March 5, 2024
Company also will reduce SKUs by 40% according to internal document.

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Trek Bicycle president John Burke has told company leaders that he has decided to “right size” the company by 10% in response to slow sales and high inventory levels. But he says the company's overall strategy remains unchanged.

Posted in Industry News

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