The brainchild of industry veterans, new adventure cycling brand Wilde Bicycle Co. handcrafts frames right here in the USA.
This week, a new gravel specialist enters the expanding adventure bike arena. Formed by cyclery veterans Jeff Frane (formerly of All-City Bikes), Josh Klauck, and Andy Tesch (both of Minneapolis’s Angry Catfish bicycle coffee shop), Wilde Bicycle Co. is starting simple and sturdy.
The brand premieres with two handmade steel builds: the Earth Ship gravel bike ($2,500 base) and the Yo-Jeffy! hardtail mountain bike ($2,000 base). Both options incorporate an ENVE suspension forks front and center — ENVE’s Adventure fork flocks each Earth Ship, and ENVE’s classic Mountain carbon fork completes the Yo-Jeffy!.
The starting lineup should provide buyers with a good notion of all the things Wilde Bike Co. is going for: heavy-duty performance, minimal maintenance, and flexibility (the Earth Ship targets gravel racers and bikepackers equally). That ENVE stepped in to get the inaugural adventure bike rolling, rumbling, and ready speaks to how tightly knit the gravel bike community is.
But expansion into aluminum and titanium frames — also handmade — is in the works. The array of frame options provides specialized performance that isn’t necessarily cost-prohibitive. And the company is accepting customer orders as we speak, including special requests for its titanium Earth Ship ($3,900) and titanium Yo-Jeffy! ($3,500).
Wilde Bicycle Co. will use its founders’ experience and connections with U.S. cycling specialists to produce uniquely optimized and custom builds.
On the brand’s website, Frane explains that “being domestically produced allows us to iterate very quickly to keep up to date on the latest trends while supporting American workers and small business. Our handmade in the USA bikes represent the cream of the bicycle crop, the lightest, strongest tubing, the fanciest frame parts, the ability to customize. These are truly the finest that money can buy.”
For more information on Wilde’s Earth Ship, Yo-Jeffy!, and forthcoming models, visit wildebikes.com.
