Guerrilla Gravity’s New Bikes & Big Ideas (Ep.3)

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TOPICS & TIMES:

  • Backstory: Getting started, doing things different (7:50)
  • Refusing to use carbon — and how that paid off (19:37)
  • “Revved” carbon — or, the benefits of Carbon 2.0 (27:00)
  • Cutting-edge tech + heavy-metal branding?? (35:32)
  • The ‘Elevator Pitch’ that won them multiple grants (38:16)
  • ‘Revved’ carbon vs other types of carbon (41:24)
  • On Guerrilla Gravity’s modular designs (52:37)
  • Which bikes are Will, Matt, and Ben riding? (1:04:52)
  • Production: how are you handling all the orders? (1:07:54)
  • Ambitions: How big are yours for Guerilla Gravity? (1:09:07)

We first reviewed a Guerrilla Gravity bike — the Megatrail — back in 2015, and if you’ve been paying attention, you know that we’ve recently been talking quite a bit again about Guerrilla Gravity — we published Noah Bodman’s initial review of their new Trail Pistol, and then in our previous episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, I talked to Noah to get his take on what Guerrilla Gravity is up to.

Noah, as always, had some good insights. But I still had quite a few questions. And among the biggest of those questions was how to square the fact that this small little bike company with a very heavy-metal vibe was making extremely big claims about cutting-edge materials they are using to manufacture bikes, right here in the USA, in Denver, and doing all of this at a pretty modest price point? Were these guys full of crap? Or delusional? Was this just more over-the-top marketing BS from yet another bike company? Or are these guys truly on to something here? And if so, how big of a deal is this?

So earlier this week I went to the Guerrilla Gravity headquarters in downtown Denver, and I sat down with Guerrilla Gravity co-founder and president, Will Montague; co-founder and chief engineer, Matt Giaraffa; and Guerrilla Gravity’s director of composites engineering, Ben Bosworth.

And after spending several hours with these guys, let me say that I am no longer skeptical. Will and Matt and Ben do a very good job of talking about the principles that Guerrilla Gravity was founded upon, and how sticking to those principles helped put them in the position that they are in today. Furthermore, they do an excellent job of explaining the significant advantages of what they call their Revved carbon, and what I now call Carbon 2.0.

Still, we go from talking about the mythical ‘Gnarnivore,’ to how these former DH guys went about winning some extremely competitive grants, to some pretty detailed talk about cutting-edge composites. In some ways, it still doesn’t totally make sense. But that is why I decided to head to Guerrilla Gravity Headquarters in Denver in the first place, and it’s also probably why I enjoyed this conversation with Will, Matt, and Ben so much. And I’m confident that you will, too.

Guerrilla Gravity co-founders Matt Giaraffa and Will Montague and their director of composites engineering, Ben Bosworth, talk about the brand's origins and how they're making affordable carbon mountain bikes in the USA on Blister's Bikes & Big Ideas podcast
Ben Bosworth, Will Montague, Matt Giaraffa, and Jonathan Ellsworth at Guerrilla Gravity HQ, Denver, CO.
Guerrilla Gravity co-founders Matt Giaraffa and Will Montague and their director of composites engineering, Ben Bosworth, talk about the brand's origins and how they're making affordable carbon mountain bikes in the USA on Blister's Bikes & Big Ideas podcast
Guerrilla Gravity Trail Pistol
Guerrilla Gravity co-founders Matt Giaraffa and Will Montague and their director of composites engineering, Ben Bosworth, talk about the brand's origins and how they're making affordable carbon mountain bikes in the USA on Blister's Bikes & Big Ideas podcast
Swapping parts on a Trail Pistol to turn it into a MegaSmash
Guerrilla Gravity co-founders Matt Giaraffa and Will Montague and their director of composites engineering, Ben Bosworth, talk about the brand's origins and how they're making affordable carbon mountain bikes in the USA on Blister's Bikes & Big Ideas podcast
Guerrilla Gravity MegaSmash

3 comments on “Guerrilla Gravity’s New Bikes & Big Ideas (Ep.3)”

  1. Just not a podcast guy, but some of the recent ones are really intriguing.

    Any chance that it’s simple to provide text transcripts?

    Signed,

    Older Member that prefers to read.

    • Not simple to do them really well / accurately, and we already don’t sleep enough around here.

      So try listening. It’ll be worth it. And if you don’t agree, then stop. :)

  2. Wow, that has to be the longest-winded, most obfuscated way of saying “we use PAEK/PEEK resin” (probably) that I have ever heard.

    As they said, this is all over the engineering and composites world. It’s well-enough known that as I could guess what they were doing as soon as I read “carbon 2.0”, and I haven’t been a practicing ME in decades

    The assertion that nobody knew how to make tubular continuous-carbon composite parts with thermoplastic resins before GG is laughable. A quick look at some highlighted applications on victrex.com (Victrex makes PEEK) should be sufficient to disabuse any reasonable observer of that notion. I’m sure GG came up with some clever bike-specific refinements, though. It will be interesting to see what patent claims end up being allowed.

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