Cyclists are always looking for an edge, always trying to find that extra mechanical advantage. Anyone who has ever swung a leg over a bicycle has battled gravity, rolling resistance, air resistance, drive train friction, and a plethora of other nuisances that just try to slow us down! It is, for some, an obsession to solve the puzzles related to these resistances, and free us to do what we wish: go faster.
Bobby and Shawn would spend their college days at the University of Florida attending class in the morning, training in the afternoon, and having evening discussions about the equipment that they had just done their intervals on, and how it could have been designed differently to make them faster. A bicycle can be as simple or as complex as you make it, and with modern manufacturing techniques the design possibilities are limitless.
Alto was born out of this drive for perfection, a desire for a frictionless bicycle ridden in an ideal world with no air resistance. While the laws of physics are unbreakable, you can circumnavigate them with clever product design. And when Bobby and Shawn looked at the bicycle purely from an efficiency standpoint, the wheels provided the most opportunity to obtain the free speed that everyone seeks.
The wheel market in 2015 is, unfortunately, very crowded with brands taking the easy way out. Crowded by brands that are comfortable in their use of unsafe manufacturing techniques, and without any proprietary design work or a desire to drive technology forward. The market is, for lack of a better term, stagnate. The wheel is the most crucial component related to speed on a bicycle, but it remains the most flooded market in terms of sub-standard product design and manufacturing. This is not acceptable, and it’s why Alto exists.
Designing, testing, and manufacturing to the highest standards must return to the wheel industry. We are here to make that stand, and we want you to join us.
Bobby Sweeting
Author