Half of the medals for the 2024 Olympic mountain biking events were won on Berd Spokes, which is pretty wild for a small company. From a college apartment idea to a company producing a revolutionary type of bike spoke, Berd has climbed up the ranks. Recently, Renee Hoffman and Nick Noethe visited Berd’s factory in Minnesota and, below, dig into the brand’s Olympic success and how they got started.
Minnesota Made
There’s a sort of inside joke among Minnesotans that we’re always looking for the local angle, and the 2024 Paris Olympics was no exception. While most of the state had gymnast Suni Lee’s performance at the top of their must-view schedule, cyclists were equally excited about the news that numerous Olympic mountain bike racers would be using locally engineered and manufactured Berd spokes out on the course.
Berd Spokes, which was founded by Brad Guertin, Kyle Olson, and Charlie Spanjers back in 2015, started in Charlie’s apartment at Penn State, where he got his PhD in chemical engineering. He says that it was, “kind of a fun process where we had no idea how we were going to make it.”
At one point in the design process, Kyle had an idea for the part of the spoke where the braided fiber connects to the stainless steel rod, and Charlie misinterpreted what he said. Then, when Charlie showed Kyle what he created, they realized that, while it was an accident, it was one that worked.
“We’d hang spokes from the rafters in my apartment and hang on them to test them and build them. So that’s when we made the first prototypes and submitted our patent,” said Charlie.
After that, Berd was a slow, part-time gig for about three years until 2018, when things picked up. The company won a business competition, got a small business mentor, and received grants that allowed them to move from Brad’s basement to an office in Minneapolis, and eventually to a larger facility in Hopkins, MN. The company is moving to an ever bigger space down the street soon.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Berd. Gaps in funding, overcoming challenges with the manufacturing process, and more meant that progress sometimes stalled.
“In 2019, there was a time when I was thinking, ‘Are we ever going to get anywhere?’ So I certainly wouldn’t have envisioned that we would have gotten to where we are today,” said Charlie.
Going to the Olympics
For Berd, the road to the Olympics was more of a slow-growing realization that this is actually happening?! versus a one-time celebration of having broken into the big leagues. When I asked Charlie if they ran around the office screaming when they found out Olympians were going to use their spokes, Charlie explained, “I tried not to get too excited because there are always opportunities where something sounds cool, but it doesn’t always work out. We all tempered our expectations, but then as the Olympics got closer and closer and Tom [Pidcock] and Pauline [Ferand-Prévot] were winning World Cup races earlier this spring…we knew it was happening.”
Involvement with pro teams started months earlier when a mechanic from Ineos Grenadiers took notice of Berd’s unique spokes and decided to see if team riders would try them out. The team is known for testing products that aren’t necessarily under their sponsorship contracts to ensure that they get the very best for their riders. Ineos’ mechanic built up some wheels with Berd spokes for Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferand-Prévot, who said they “never wanted to ride metal spokes again,” after testing them out. Cannondale Factory Racing also reached out along the same timeframe and began using the spokes with their riders as well.
In terms of getting the actual wheelsets set up for the Olympics, the team at Berd played a very hands-on role in handling both the logistics and the builds.
“They sent us samples of all the parts so we could do a trial build and determine the perfect spoke length for them, and then also build a sample of wheels so they could check the spoke tensions and replicate how we’d build it. We also took all their hubs and did our hub prep process on it, which is unique for Berd spokes,” said Nick Vetter, wheel production manager at Berd.
Climbing the Podium
As the Olympic mountain bike races drew nearer, Charlie and Rob Stepaniak (director of sales at Berd) flew out to watch the competition in France. The women’s race was first, taking place on Sunday, July 28. Hometown hero Pauline Ferand-Prévot rode away from the field early and held her gap, resulting in Berd’s first Olympic gold medal.
“The women’s race was amazing. I mean, I didn’t think it could get any better after that huge gap and Pauline winning. It was such a decisive win. We got to meet Pauline’s family and took some pictures,” said Charlie.
The next day was the men’s race. Back in Minnesota, Berd employees arrived at the office early to watch the race together, while Rob and Charlie headed back out to the course to spectate in person. The race started off strong for Berd until Tom Pidcock suffered a mechanical.
“When Tom got a new wheel, the number one thing I’m thinking is, ‘there’s no way that he’s going to win this race,’ and the number two thing I’m thinking is, ‘I hope that wasn’t a problem with our spokes.’ But then he started pulling Alan [Hatherly] back up to the front and probably the most exciting part was when Alan, Victor [Koretzky], and Tom all came through together with one lap to go. I knew that most likely two out of the three medals were to riders on Berd spokes,” said Charlie.
In the end, three out of the six total Olympic mountain bike medals went to riders using Berd spokes, which felt like a testament to their dedication to creating the best possible product.
“It’s still a niche product. It’s still something that’s different. But this Olympic experience has done a ton to legitimize the product and show people that this isn’t just some weird thing that is never going to work. These athletes have been racing them all season. They’ve won tons of World Cup Championships and now the Olympics,” said Rob.
What’s Next
I asked the folks at Berd if they had their sights set on recruiting more pro cyclists or breaking into other well-known races like the Tour de France or spring classics and, while that is certainly on their periphery, their primary goal is to keep forging ahead with a focus on what they’re already doing.
“As far as the future goes, we’re planning on just keeping on doing what we’re doing — providing a great service and great experience and growing organically. We just want to keep producing the best spokes,” said Rob.
“It’s easy to get distracted, but we’re really focused on what we’re doing now and continuing to do it better. We’re working on some new technology for next year, but I can’t divulge too much about that now,” added Charlie.
Check out more at Berd Spokes, and for even more on these magical spokes, read Kyle’s review!
