Signal Cycles

[cardinal]

Thanks Mike. It looks like I am headed to Savannah GA for a couple years to earn a grad degree in Industrial Design. Gotta load up the family and get there before spring classes start on March 25!

[nmeschke]

Hi folks. I have been compelled to post a comment on Signal's Smoked Out thread and an update on Signal. I have been getting lot's of questions regarding the state of Signal and felt this would be the one of the best places to share.

There are two aspects of Signal right now, production bikes and custom bikes, and I will address each one. As many of you know Matt has taken a break from Signal and is pursuing a two year, Masters of Industrial Design degree at Savannah College of Art and Design. Continued education in industrial design is something Matt and I had both talked about for years and Matt decided the timing was right for himself and his family. Even with the move, Matt felt strongly that he wanted and needed to be as continually involved with Signal as he could from a remote location and is still helping direct our production bike design projects. We are currently in a 10 bike production run of disc and canti cross bikes called the Crusade that are being built by a very reputable welder here in Portland. This was a project we featured on our website and had an order close date of March 15th and all our orders came from Japan. Matt put in most of the planning and logistics of this project before he left for school and wanted to remain involved through delivery of the product. All of our Saltzman bikes will also be welded in Portland by Christopher Igleheart who shares space in our shop. Just like the Crusade model, almost all the Saltzmans sold in the last two years have gone to customers in Japan. We're big in Japan! I'm not sure why the Saltzman hasn't sold as well as we thought it would in the states. We feel the Saltzman is a bike that makes a lot of sense and will continue to refine the model as the months and years go on. We are also talking about offering more production models. Perhaps a city bike or MTB rig.

The second aspect of Signal is what helped us grow so quickly in the first 3-4 years. Custom ordered, one-at-a-time bike designs. While Matt was developing the Saltzman product line and creating the Crusade model, I was working with all our past, current and future custom orders and building all the custom bikes. This business model seemed to be a very natural fit for us. Two owners filling two unique roles in the company. And we realized that we could continue in these roles even with Matt in school. Things might change with the production side of Signal, as ideas for new projects come to us, but Signal will continue building the custom bikes that created the great reputation we have today.

I have also been designing our new website which should be up and running in a week or so. I'll keep you all posted on that as well.

Please post any questions or comments you may have or feel free to email me directly at nate@signalcycles.com

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you guys!