For another of our looks back at people who’ve played and interesting part in the growth of the Kinesis brands that you may not be aware of, we’ve been talking to Roy Hunt.
Roy’s known Upgrade Bikes Damian and Matt Ryley before they even began the company. Roy’s also been involved with Kinesis UK since the beginning as a sales agent who took the first fork products out to dealers to convince them to stock what was a completely new brand.
In the early days progress took time and relied on many conversations and the ability to spot opportunities.
Not long after the fork products were in the market discussions obviously turned towards frames and collective Roy, Dom and the Upgrade team looked for niches that they felt would respond to a product that rode well at an affordable price.
The first frame to market was an aluminium road frame but with mudguard mounts. The success of this led to more discussions with Dom and to a cyclocross frame and a mountain bike frame.
Roy and Dom always worked very well together discussing ideas and one of the earliest examples of Kinesis being confident enough to try new things were disc brakes. Roy, Dom and Kinesis worked together to release a disc brake cyclocross frame over a decade ago.
Certainly it was ahead of its time but Roy says it’s still satisfying to see new brand bring discs models to market now, knowing he’s had a hand in this idea a long time ago now.
Roy’s also an accomplished racer winning multiple national championships in both mountain biking and cyclocross racing. Amy, Roy’s daughter is also an accomplished racing and between the two of them they boast 12 UK national titles.
These days Amy works with Roy as part of their sales agent role, where they remain committed supporters of Kinesis UK.
Roy believes the current Kinesis UK product line is the best it’s ever been and he’s excited about some of the new developments that will come to market before long.
He also believes that a key reason Kinesis have done well and will continue to is that they listen to ideas and to their customers.
It’s a collaborative approach that’s used to design solutions to challenges that riders/customers are facing.
We’re delighted to have had Roy’s involvement in the Kinesis story to date and we’re pleased to say he continues to be fully engaged with us sharing ideas and helping us continue to improve our range.