Empire Cycles Ltd

Business Overview

Empire Cycles Limited (ECL) is a Chorley based company that to date has exploited unique approaches in the design and manufacture of cast aluminium alloy mountain bike frames. It is owned by Chris Williams, an industrial designer with many years experience in designing and developing automotive/motorcycle and bicycle structures.

The first ECL product to market was the AP-1, a competition downhill race bike. This product is now being used in competitions all over the world at the highest levels of racing. It has also been highly successful as a piece of product design, winning a prestigious Red Dot design award in 2010. The AP-1 was always going to be the bike that put ECL on the map. The unique looks, manufacturing technique and technical features have done their job well as mountain bikers all over the world are now aware of ECL as a brand.

Empire Cycles then wished to manufacture a mountain bike for trail riding purposes, in simple terms, one that can go anywhere. The company contacted Regenerate’s Lancashire Innovation Network to advise and assit with this new product development.

Regenerate’s Role

World markets for competition-standard mountain bikes are strongly influenced by technology, style and technical fashions. ECL realised that a cast frame can provide unique advantages in the technical design, but also offer a new route to further product improvement which is not open to the more conventional welded tube construction. With help via the previous Eureka programme, ECL has devised a business strategy to sell their novel products in the UK and EU markets, whilst applying the same technology to additional products and markets for competition frames and for less demanding designs with broader appeal. Regenerates Eureka programme also part-funded the cost of tooling make the cast aluminium frames.

ECL wished to manufacture a mountain bike for trail riding purposes, in simple terms, one that can go anywhere. This product, the MX-6, is intended to sell in much greater numbers than the AP-1 because the type of riding is much more accessible, with off road trails available all over the country.  Local councils in the UK are investing in bike specific trails and right here in Lancashire several sites have been developed to encourage this type of riding.

Careful consideration has been made to the specification of the new frame design.  After rigorous justification, it has been decided that the best approach for ECL is to machine the main frame and swing arm components from solid aluminium.

Nearly every mountain bike brand in the market today uses welded fabrications as their primary manufacturing technique. It has been established that there is a great appetite for machined-from-solid products.  Hope Technology, based in Barnoldswick, have been machining mountain bike components from solid for twenty years and have achieved global success.

Regenerate’s Lancashire Innovation Network have assisted Chris to take his ideas forward through selection and commissioning of precision engineering companies to make the machined frame sections for the new model MX-6, and were able to part-fund the production of the first prototype.

Continued Support

Regenerate is currently undertaking a programme to assist Chris and his company to reach new sales through marketing via social networking sites, and to identify new sources of funding for the company.