Original Carbon Material

Craig Calfee has been designing and making carbon bikes since 1987, and counts Greg LeMond among his loyal customers. Here he tells the brand’s story, and talks us through one of his latest creations, the Luna Pro .

- James Spender

In the world of cycling Craig Calfee is something of a polymath. The softly spoken American holds various patents as diverse as Simplified rear suspension for a bicycle and Ground air water craft. He’s built a solar-powered, 6m-long bamboo tandem e-bike. He teaches people in developing countries how to build bamboo rickshaws. He was also among the pioneers of carbon fibre road bikes back in the 1980s – with a little help from a friend.

‘The guy who brought Time pedals to the United States was sponsoring Greg LeMond, and he saw one of our carbon bikes and said we should send one of them to Greg’s dad because he was looking for a custom carbon bike for the whole team. I said, “Wow, really?” So we sent a bike over and they were like, “Greg loved the look of the bike, can you build one for him?” We ended up making 18 for the team.’

Greg LeMond was heading up the iconic Team Z, and had been dabbling in exotic materials for a few seasons, having ridden the first pieces of carbon fibre to Tour de France victory in 1986 in the form of tubes bonded to aluminium lugs by French aerospace manufacturer TVT – although the bike was branded a Look. This was followed by experiments with titanium, courtesy of Merlin, and then, off the back of a 12km mountain time-trial at the 1991 Paris-Nice, LeMond chose to personally pay to equip his team with Calfee’s fully carbon frames.

At the time, LeMond was on cycling’s most expensive ever contract, worth $5.5 million, so he could probably afford it. But still, it was a huge statement, and Calfee is under no illusion as to how important LeMond’s connection was for him, his bikes and the material itself. ‘Greg LeMond took a risk and put a carbon fibre bike to the test, and that put us on the map,’ he says.

Shoot for the moon