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10 Apr 2007Ideas are worth defending.Every once and a while there comes along a situation that forces you to answer the question ‘What do you believe in?’ or ‘What do you think is worth defending’. In 2002 when I stared Thylacine, 12 months down the track I was faced with a situation that forced me to draw a line in the sand and stand up for my beliefs. It was a very stressful time, a time where I was literally left with no income for 5 months, nearly lost the woman I loved, and nearly lost the dream of starting my own bike company. Definitely a time I don’t want to repeat, but if anything, I learned that I actually was a strong individual who doesn’t take shit and stands up for what they believe in. I got a lot of respect for that and it certainly helped me feel that I made the right decisions in a time where I could’ve very easily rolled over. Little did I know, around about the same time, there must’ve been something aligned incorrectly in the stars, or some Hellgate was opened and some Hellspawn was accidentally released. Turned out, I wasn’t alone. The front triangle of the first ever Thylacine was welded by Brian Caulfield of Kavik Bicycles in Arizona. I can’t remember how I heard about him, but one thing is for certain - it’s some of the best fabrication on a bicycle I have ever seen. The welds somehow have an ungodly accuracy to them, but yet are still obviously done by hand. It’s actually quite mesmerising if you’re into that kind of thing. Sometime after Brian did that frame for us, he penned a full suspension design which he put up in the Skunkworks section of his website and e-mailled to us telling us about it. I’ll admit at the time I had no idea what I was looking at. It was a four-bar with another linkage behind the BB and a tension member linking the rocker with the lower link. Fast forward to last year. Felt unveils the ‘Equilink’, and it is discussed in length on mtbr in the 22nd of August. I was instantly reminded of the Kavik design, so I went and searched for photos of the design so I could be a smarty-bum. I could only find one bad photo of the prototype as it was shown at interbike. Here it is:
I was a little confused at this stage. I couldn’t get hold of Brian, I couldn’t find hardly any references to his bikes or this design, and I couldn’t find any accreditation of his input into the Felt design - no ‘BC Link’ decal, no nothin’. Naievely I thought he’d done a Bontrager, and was probably working on the second version in Puerto Rico while recieving a big fat retainer every month. Looks like I might have been wrong. Today I get a PM from Brian saying that he had been out of the bike industry and just found out about the Felt bike. According to him, after he returned from showing that frame at Interbike, two representitives of Felt came out to buy him lunch and test ride the bike. They were lukewarm about the idea, thanked him and were on their way. Fastforward to 2006, and Felt release their ‘Equilink’ bikes. In case you don’t know what these frames look like, here they are :
Now, here’s a nice comparrison, just incase there was any confusion. Felt on the Left, Kavik on the Right :
Now, it’s my understanding there’s two “golden rules” when it comes to IP (Intellectual Property) in my profession. The first is the ‘10% rule’, which basically states that your design only needs to differ by 10%. The second is ‘Ideas are only as good as your ability to defend them.’ That’s a paraphrased oversimplification, but hey, I’m not the sharpest tool in the box. I’ll confess straight up that I’m not privvy to all the information, but I’m confident with what I do know, and my dealings with Kavik, and the research I’ve done to date, to at least say something stinks here. And it stinks bad. Posted by warwick @ 10:24 am 6 Responses to “Ideas are worth defending.”Leave a Reply |
April 18th, 2007 at 9:58 am
This dosent sound good at all
April 20th, 2007 at 12:05 am
I might be a little biased since I am Brian’s sister, but even in the cool world of bike guys you have business guys that cross the ‘responsible line’ of integrity to grasp on the almighty dollar. I almost wish my brother Brian worshipped money a little more, cause he would at least have the credit due to him on an amazing design. But then karma is pretty powerful, so Felt might want to wear their helmets…
April 20th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Well, there are people who’s only perception of ‘credit’ is what is spoon fed to them. They will believe only what they’re told, and it’s easier to believe the shiney message given to them on a plate by figureheads of business and government, than it is to actually search out the truth for themselves.
There’s the illusion of what the world is….and then just under that there is the real truth. That’s where you’ll find Brian, his ideas, and his amazing craftsmanship.
June 6th, 2007 at 2:56 am
I hope Brian can solve this problem, it was a very advanced design for 2002.
keep fighting
June 13th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I’ve got a Kavik Lola that I bought on ebay a few months ago, outfitted it with Durace and Ultegra components, etc. and am very, very pleased with it. By comparison I’ve been riding a mid-80’s DeRosa anniversary edition, so you can imagine the difference in weight. I still love the comfort and stability of the DeRosa, but I feel like I’ve got all that plus more on the Kavik. So my question is, where’s Brian now and why isn’t he building bikes? Has he pushed the IP envelope yet? It sounds to me like he’s got a very strong case. I have some attorney friends that specialize in this area and have been very successful and love nothing better than calling out the big guys in defense of the small business owner.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Brian opted out of the bike biz for a real job with an actual wage a few years ago. I’d be surprised if he was interested in pursuing anything, but if you like, drop me an e-mail and I can pass the details on to him.
I’m trying to get him back into the biz even in a small way, because as a designer I don’t find too many peers in this industry where I look at something someone else has done and say “You know what, I wouldn’t change a thing, that’s exactly how I’d do it”.
Brian is a huge talent and I’d be honoured to work with him in any capacity.