The Bicycle group Kona

[clockworkgazz]

What Does The Bicycle Group sticker on my lava dome refer to? Is this j murray,s design company or am I missing something?

 

[one-eyed_jim]

The Bicycle Group was (is) a Vancouver distribution company set up by Dan Gerhard originally to distribute the Brodie brand. When Gerhard and Joe Murray set up Kona, it was distributed through TBG.

http://brodiebikes.com/2005/newsletter/index.php?id=5

From what I can gather, TBG is the corporate entity behind the Kona trademark, much as Raleigh was owned by Derby.

 

[Anthony]

I expect he'd have a wry smile about that! The Bicycle Group was the company that invented Kona, used Joe Murray and Paul Brodie to establish their brand and then dropped them when they were no longer needed, Brodie in c1990 and Murray in c1993.

So for example I think Joe Murray raced Brodie bikes under the management of TBG in the years immediately prior to the establishment of Kona in 1988, and designed some of the parts that theyused. To be fair, TBG were and are very good at marketing and the Kona concept was and is a very good marketing concept.

 

[Geoff]

So are Kona still part of TBG (and Brodie for that matter)? I always thought they were initially and then parted company. It seems not?

 

[Anthony]

The Bicycle Group was (is) a Vancouver distribution company set up by Dan Gerhard originally to distribute the Brodie brand. When Gerhard and Joe Murray set up Kona, it was distributed through TBG.
http://brodiebikes.com/2005/newsletter/index.php?id=5
From what I can gather, TBG is the corporate entity behind the Kona trademark, much as Raleigh was owned by Derby.

Thanks for that link, I hadn't seen that before.

That article appears to have been written by Jake Heilbron who jointly owns Kona with Dan Gerhard (and after whom I guess the Jake models are named). Although that article is on the Brodie website, the way he puts the relationship between TBG and Brodie isn't exactly the way Brodie puts it himself. But I guess it doesn't matter all that much now.

 

[Anthony]

So are Kona still part of TBG (and Brodie for that matter)? I always thought they were initially and then parted company. It seems not?

I think Kona is the brand name of TBG. Brodie is very very separate. If you look on his blog, there is an early history of his work in which the words Murray, TBG and Kona do not appear.