History

 

Vortex composites history…

‘’Sometimes, things are better done by yourself’’

This is what I have told myself 20 odd years ago when I started lacing my first wheelset. Of course there was some good stuff out there but parts and service was always a problem in the fancy world of high end bicycle wheels.
Working my way through the wheel business building thousands of wheels in a small basement operation, Vortex was slowly taking shape. Carbon fiber was at the beginning of the rage it has become and promising lots of positive change for the cycling world.

The purpose of the company is to offer cutting edge quality and technology to the demanding recreational or professional cyclist.

All of the Vortex products are purpose built and can be maintained by a skilled local bike mechanic. Standard tooling is used to keep everything in premium working state.

We paired with leading edge manufacturers for the supply of our hubs like Industry nine and Chris King. Spoking is handled exclusively by DT swiss spokes. The way wheels are built here is a ‘’all hand built’’ building and truing
process. Using all hand is the key to weed out all products that would show signs of manufacturing defect from hubs to spoke to nipples to rim.

A trip out to the motherland of carbonfibre ‘’Taiwan’’ was essential to pair with the best rim manufacturer that would produce small batch production with the ability for us to pick the best carbon type for our products. We use exclusively Toray prepregs and Textreme for certain models. The fact that a company like Textreme is interested to work with us is flattering. They are the reason why we are able to produce the Palomar SLR rim at a scant 490 grams (26 inch, 90mm wide single wall fat bike rim) without having fear of a rim failure. All our rims are now backed with a limited 5 year warranty. There is also a crash replacement program.

 

Ben Poirier - Professional Bike Mechanic & Founder of Vortex Wheels