Friday 3 February 2012

2012 Onix Black Rob Hayles Signature Range


The Onix Black Rob Hayles Signature range will be available from mid - late March
Be the 1st to ride one and get a 10% discount on Pre Orders for the 1st 25 bikes.
Full details on the website in the next week!! 
www.onixbikes.co.uk
Or contact sales@onixbikes.co.uk for further details.


We are launching a new website in this coming week that will have all the detailed information for the range and you will be able to pre order your Onix Black bike with some discount !




Well today was the day that the cat finally came out of the bag :-)







Quotes from Rob Hayles

“I’ve always loved testing, developing and engineering. It’s part of who I am.
 I’m excited about the opportunity to help develop and test for such a forward looking British company.” Rob Hayles


“Putting your name to a bike is a big undertaking. Riding any new bike is always fun but when I tested the 2012 Onix for Craig I was genuinely amazed at how good it was” Rob Hayles.
Ex World Champion Rob Hayles with the Onix Black RH Pro
Ex World Champion Rob Hayles with the Onix Black RH 



I keep saying this over and over again "Everything I do is to make Onix as good as it can be"



  • We have a robust testing program using riders from the very top of the sport to make our frames ride and perform to there very best.
  • We could have gone with the easier and cheaper paint schemes but we went the extra mile with more complex Matt and gloss decals to stand out from the crowd.
  • We do as much as we can to involve our followers,current and potential customers in what we are doing via social media
Thinking of cutting corners or saying that will do just does not appear in my thought process at all.

And now we have brought in Triple Olympic medallist & Double World Champion on the track and former National road race champion Rob Hayles as Advisor, Test Rider and brand ambassador to Onix.
What a coup for a new upcoming brand like Onix and I cant tell you how excited I am about what Onix and Rob can achieve together in the future !!
Robs experience and expertise is going to make such a difference to the development of future Onix products and that is why I have brought him into the Onix family. 
Its another big piece of the jigsaw to get Onix to where we believe we can take it !

So how did we do it??

Well again as I have been saying for a long time we try to get as many riders from the top of the sport to test our potential combinations of frames,forks,carbon and give us feedback on them. We have done this in the past with a number of well known riders but we could never name them as they had current team contracts and subsequently had team bike sponsors.

In September I was tipped off that Rob was planning to retire at the end of 2011 and I immediately realised that there may be an opportunity to get Rob to test our 2012 bikes and name him as the tester for Onix because his Endura contract would run out on the 31st December.

So I spoke to Rob briefly on the phone and set up a first meeting for a coffee at Coffee Fix in Manchester. I can tell you that its always a strange feeling when im going to meet a cycling icon that you have admired for many years. Rob arrived and we really did hit it off straight away chatting about many things before we got onto the subject of Onix. We have children of a very similar age as well as a shared interest in innovation which made for an easy atmosphere.

Finally it was time for me to tell Rob of my proposal for him and went into a passionate tirade from the heart of where Onix has come from,what I have been through personally, what I want it to stand for and where I see it going in the future.
Id like to think that Rob was impressed straight away with my passion & approach to not cutting corners and always going that extra mile to get things right.It seemed that way and he even commented on the carbon finish on the Onix Team Car which he liked.This backed up my mantra of doing the best we can on everything we do. I had also brought the prototype 2012 test framesets with me which I showed to Rob and he recognised the quality straight away.

So 2 hrs later Rob Hayles agreed to:-
  • Test ride our 2012 prototype framesets
  • Give feedback on the performance of the said frameset combinations.
  • On the 1st January 2012 we name Rob Hayles as the test rider for Onix bikes.
I drove home from that meeting that night on cloud nine and had a few beers to celebrate..

What happened next?


It took about a week to get the bikes to Rob in his specification for him to test. In that week my entrepreneurial mind had gone into overdrive but I had to wait till Rob had ridden the bikes before putting my idea to him. 
The first bit of feedback I got was a text message from Rob which said the following


"I did a couple of hours today,Really like it & it didnt look out of place next to Cav on his venge"


WHAT !!!!  I spoke to Rob immediately and indeed he had been out training with Cav and Mark had been all over our frame having a right good nosey and liked what he saw...AMAZING ! 


A period of time went by where Rob rode the bikes using all manner of different frame & fork combinations and reported back with incredibly positive feedback on the ride and performance. Almost everytime I spoke to Rob he waxed lyrical about how good the bikes were and I could tell he was really enjoying the process of testing for us.
The Onix twitter ride was coming up so I needed to go over to Robs house to pick up the bikes as I was going to ride one on the twitter ride in The Peak District.
Upon arrival Rob invited me in for a coffee and we chatted for a long time about how good the bikes were and the bike industry. Now that I knew he really really rated the product I threw my idea to him about joining us on the Onix journey and putting his name on the bikes for 2012 as well as my vision for us working together in the future.


Rob love's the whole ethos of Onix and he would not put his name to something unless it met his very high standards and agreed to join Onix.
2012 actually turned out to be a very small part of our conversation and all I can say is we have a grand plan to work together for many years to come on a number of exciting ideas for Onix in the future.




From Early to Mid March the


Onix Black Rob Hayles Signature Range will be available for sale consisting of 2 road bikes.

The Onix Black RH/PRO

The Onix Black RH


Notice on both bikes the Gloss decals against Matt = Class !


After some research at Eurobike looking for bike trends I designed the paint schemes myself, its the part of running Onix that I find most enjoyable and rewarding.I wanted the bikes to be right on trend and be striking which I feel we have achieved.
 I cant tell you the feeling when you see your vision come to life for the 1st time !


And of course signed off by Mr Hayles himself in an understated way in keeping with the design 



Rob Hayles Signatures in Gloss Decals

All pictures Property of James Maloney (@liverpoolmerc)
All permissions must be granted from merseypics@gmail.com



Some features :-
Toray Carbon
BB30 bottom bracket
Carbon Dropouts
Internal Cabling
Totally in vogue paint scheme with matt and gloss details 
Fully tested and endorsed by Rob Hayles with his signature on each bike


So there you go its all been revealed at last and I dont have to keep secrets and talk in riddles anymore :-)
I can honestly say that this has been the hardest thing to keep secret, im rubbish at keeping secrets.
Special thanks to all the people in the inner circle who also had to keep there mouths sealed namely photographer James Maloney who has been with me right from the start and has worked so hard on the images of the new bikes, Ken Jones from Bioracer, our trusty spannerman Mike Jackson and our PR peeps who swore us all to secrecy..




With Bioracer we have designed a new 2012 Onix Black RH kit to match the bikes that we think is extremely cool and will compliment the bikes perfectly. We are always wanting to be right on trend with everything we do with the brand !!





Just over 1 year ago hardly anyone knew about the brand and no one would take Onix seriously..
A printer of 22 years with no experience in the bike trade, 
You gave up a well paid job.....Your mad they all said..


Well after 12 months of working passionately 24/7 look where we are today.. What a story !!!


I have put my heart and soul into these products to make them the very best they could be and Im immensely proud of them.


I am totally committed to continuing to make Onix the most exciting ambitious bike brand in the UK and I dont see any limits as to where this amazing journey will take us in the future..







Enjoy


Craig




6 comments:

  1. Great post Craig - the bikes look amazing and it's no wonder Rob was won over by your passion, commitment and enthusiasm.
    Now I need to work out how I convince Mrs D that I need one of these!

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  2. I'm drooling Homer Simpson style. If those aren't bike porn then nothing is.

    Congrats Craig on a stunning range of bike and clothing.

    Now which body part can i sell so i can buy one.

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  3. Wow. Simples.

    CB

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  4. Craig,
    Beautiful machines, I'm sure Rob Hayles enjoyed tinkering away on them as well as riding them!
    If you need to employ a 'wannabe bike sales rep' (currently working at HP in Norwich) for your East of England sales team, I'd love to come on board. Terms & conditions apply ;-)

    Best Regards

    Martyn Taylor

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  5. Amazing bikes and well done on the tie in with Rob Hayles, couldn't think of a better person in bike development. Followed you since you first joined Twitter and great to see the results of today, super chuffed for you.

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  6. Very, very nice looking bikes - love black bikes and these look really well

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