THE IDEA
… it all started in late 2013, when Xavier Serret spotted a completely unfilled dream for all Fat Bikers: The ability to adjust tire pressure on the go. Unfortunately, all previous attempts had either failed or incurred too many drawbacks. He came to wonder… How come nobody has been able to engineer a solution to such a “simple” problem?
Xavier’s idea was conceived when he recognized the key issue to be that of inflating the tires. This was the impenetrable brick wall into which so many attempts had slammed. Moreover, there were already hundreds of patents in this field (the first ones dating back as far as the late 1880’s !!), so it became clear to him that continuing with this same approach would be futile.
But… what if we made inflating the tire “child’s play”, while converting the “easy” problem of deflating the tire into a slightly harder but “more manageable” challenge?
To achieve this, he introduced a “closed air” system, comprising a small air reservoir that always holds a pressure level higher than that of the tire. Inflating the tire is as simple as releasing air from the reservoir. Deflating the tire actually needs an air pump to suck the air out of it into the aforementioned reservoir. This rather “simple” idea was the breakthrough that brought the WhiteCrow Hub to life. (Patent pending PCT/EP2015/052126)
Xavier concentrating on the Engineering…
THE EXECUTION
The first engineering studies began in Feb 2014 when industrial engineer Mathijs Verstraete joined in. After a few early designs based on “vane pumps”, Xavier decided to fund out-of-pocket a full-blown prototyping project in collaboration with the multidisciplinary industry research lab “Sirris”. Simultaneously, Xavier enlisted the expert skills of Rob Bruyndonckx from Swooth, a Belgian master wheel builder collaborating with the international competition team of GT, the European team of Kona and many others.
WhiteCrow Tech was then established in Oct 2014 and, after the usual painstakingly difficult fund-raising campaign, Xavier finally secured investment for the current prototyping and production phase from the high-quality startup investment fund and accelerator “The Faktory” This is when Etienne Brandt also joined us. Etienne is an industrial designer boasting an Academy Award (Oscar) for technical achieving for his pioneering work on high-end drones and, of course, he’s also a biking fanatic. As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also enlisted the help of VKC, an experienced materials laboratory specialized in the automotive industry, and we continue to corroborate with Sirris and a few other selected engineers.
THE FUTURE
We’re totally driven by our passion for this beautiful sport. This project is like that beautiful long-distance adventure in the middle of nowhere we are all dreaming about… Like that scary enduro trail shooting up all our adrenaline in a good way. And it’s an adventure we like to share with you!
That’s the reason why, although we’d initially foreseen to manufacture some of the “easy bits” in Asia (as it’s the industry common practice), we’ve discovered that our project carries a level of complexity and quality requirements above & beyond what the typical TW/CH manufacturer is able to achieve. Therefore, we’re now re-establishing a network of high quality part suppliers in Europe, leveraging also the existing know-how in high-precision manufacturing for automotive, aerospace, etc… This is to reiterate that for us, together with sound engineering, quality and reliability manufacturing are also paramount principles, even if this carries in the short term economical trade-offs unacceptable to most bike parts brands.
We are now undertaking our field prototyping and expect to take pre-orders by September 2016, but only once our production supply chain has been properly consolidated.
It goes without saying WhiteCrow Tech will continue to operate from Belgium as we’re convinced the challenging terrain conditions and the strong national biking culture will continue to nurture and foster our adventure!
WhiteCrow Tech is proudly supported by The Faktory.
