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There is non-road/gravel, and then there is this: https://envemotorsports.com/
Proper race cars need lots of carbon bits.
I do believe something with pivots is coming on the bike side of things, but I could be wrong.
If I understand this correctly it's just a (driver development?) team, not a parts development company. It's even based at Thermal, in Califronia, while ENVE is Utah based.
Here's a rough idea. I'm sure there are some details missing, and despite my best efforts, this rabbit hole has some twists.
So you have Mark Hancock, co-founder of PACS Group, owner of 323 skilled nursing facilities in 17 states. Current net worth estimated at $2.4 billion. PACS went public on the NYSE in 2024 at $21/share, currently at ~$36.50, and Hancock reportedly still holds 35%. The chart, since IPO had some wild moments, but seems to be back on track.
Obviously, a very successful entrepreneur at this stage. In April of 2024, Hancock's own PV3 Investments (later PV3 Enterprises) acquires Enve Composites for $20 million. Amer paid $50 million in 2016, so they took a hit, and he got a deal, comparatively. PV3, relying on the guidance of Proverbs 3 (hmm, PV3 sounds like Proverbs 3), deploys capital to do some kind of "good" in the world. More of a patient capital approach, and doesn't say it, but seems to operate more like a family office, possibly. They also hold a couple of restaurants, a golf course, a marketing agency, some retail space, and, most recently, a racetrack.
The state of Utah passed a law in 2024 that "prevents companies owned or controlled by the governments of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from owning land in Utah." That meant that Mitime Utah Investment (Chinese-owned) had to divest the track facility (Burt Brothers Motor Park), which was sold and thus acquired by PV3 just weeks ago. The track is close to the Tooele Army Depot so Governor Cox hailed it as "This is a huge win for Utah. It's a big win for the United States. It's a win for our servicemembers, and it's a win for national security,"
To PV3's credit, they state that they want to invest in and improve the facility, which is believable given that it appears two of Hancock's sons are part of the leadership team, and at least one of them is a driver for Enve Motorsports. A couple of the Enve Motorsports race team sponsors are also in the PV3 portfolio, ie. a lot of money is coming from one place. One can speculate that the Enve MS team could be moving from California to Utah.
Now, to tie this Saturday morning ramble back together, I give you a quote from the track purchase press release:
"PV3’s perspective is informed by hands-on experience in performance-driven environments. Following PV3’s acquisition of ENVE Composites in 2024, the company continued expanding the advanced fabrication, testing, and engineering work it was already known for, work that increasingly moved from controlled environments into real-world applications. That evolution led to the launch of ENVE Motorsports, which competes across open-wheel, GT, and high-performance racing programs, using the track as a proving ground where ideas are tested, refined, and translated into broader advancements.
That experience reinforces a long-held belief: at its best, motorsports is not just competition, it’s an engine for innovation. It pushes materials, aerodynamics, safety systems, and manufacturing techniques that eventually influence transportation, cycling, and other performance industries. Utah is well-positioned to participate more meaningfully in that ecosystem, and this venue can once again play an active role."
Seems plausible that Enve Composites will be developing, or at least making, some racecar parts and perhaps lots of other carbon fiber things in transportation and performance industries. Or not.
A bit delayed, but you can find my analysis of Fox's Q4 results here. Outside the obvious, the big news is the moderate amounts of restructuring the brand is undertaking.
Re: recent geopolitical happenings
With the Straight of Hormuz and Red Sea both being closed to tanker traffic, we will be seeing some very large increases in oil prices, at least in the short term.
In my 30+ years tracking bicycle retail trends, we usually see an uptick in bicycle sales when the price of gasoline becomes painful for commuters who have options besides driving to work.
The oil prices increases in 2004 (it went above $50 a barrel for a while in the fall, IIRC) was one of the things that allowed a lot of shops to survive that challenging bicycle market.
Thanks for the background. Imagining composites companies venturing towards motorsports, especially if they can get some kind of a foot in the door, is not hard. I'd be wiling to bet the margins are a lot better than they are in the bike world...
Speaking of fox, do we have a timeline of them entering specific markets? They started off with MX suspension, but they are not present there anymore? When did they enter automotive, snowmobile markets, etc.?
Cycling to work is a pleasure, who in its sane mind choose to drive there, just because of cheap gas availability, anyway?
😁
Speaking for the US only, cycling infrastructure is terrible across the country with only a few bright spots. I have commuted by bike for twenty years and have had so many near death experiences.
Public transit in the US is also woefully underfunded and underdeveloped. That’s by design since the US political system has been corrupted by petroleum/auto money for nearly a century.
(also add in distance and weather realities)
And I could go on…
The last time I had a road bike I was hit by an SUV going 55mph.... also it snows.
Yup, commuted to work for years. Hit 3 times, last time was an ambulance ride to trauma and some permanent hardware. Done with that now.
Biking to work every day here year round and can ride bike lanes all the way to work 10km from our house but there's no chance I'd do that in any of the places I've spent time in in the US except for Durango probably.
I used to ride to work frequently until that last job let me go.. If the times worked out, I'd ride 2 miles to the train station and then a couple miles from the train to work.. But, the schedules don't mesh.. By the end of the year, I should have a 1 mile commute to work.
Realized last night that the changes at Spesh make it even more unlikely that the Motion Instruments IP ever sees the light of day as a standalone product and that bums me out...
With the global bicycle market coalescing around “mobility solutions” as the future profit center the American response that you are “afraid to ride to work” is just about all the economic insight needed to understand why this thread will soon be 150 pages long.
The number of Americans I know who have held pro dh licenses but are hesitant riding a bicycle from their own homes to run an errand is staggeringly high. I mean, I get it, but I don’t have to like it.
Before People For Bikes (the defacto US industry trade lobbying group) became embroiled nonstop in ebike regulation drama, they were trying to advocate for policies that made people feel safer using bikes.
I’ve pedaled many hundreds of thousands of miles on the roads in the USA, it’s hard to deny that i feel less-safe in the rapidly-growing poorly planned 8-12-lane surface road parts of this country, and safer on eastcoast roads designed for stage coaches and ox carts sometime in the 18th century.
It's well-documented and understood that straight, wide residential streets are much more dangerous than narrower, curvier (within limits) streets because they encourage high-speed driving.
Sadly, Americans have been sold the vision of 4- or 6-lane residential streets with no sidewalks and surrounded by groundwater-irrigated golf-courses in the middle of the desert as the epitome of the American dream/success.
Couple that with the belief that cars should have primacy on those streets and bikes are toys and you end up w/ the often-lethal, always-opposed "bike infrastructure" here. (And when there inevitably is a crash and some poor biker gets smeared across the pavement by a driver in a 4-ton "mid-size SUV" on their way to the Starbucks drive-through, said driver is rarely charged and we get yet another ghost bike on a corner somewhere).
It sucks.
/rant
While I was unemployed a while back, I got hooked on urban planning videos.. Not Just Bikes is probably one of my favorite channels. Anyway, a constant theme that comes up is that the US is more concerned with moving cars, not people. Another is that the best way to reduce traffic is to make transportation options other than cars viable.
I live less than a mile from a lot of shopping and there is no safe easy way for me to ride there for small trips..
Blame this guy for why its bad to cycle in the US&A
https://youtu.be/pRPduRHBhHI?si=1aiZlnsRzVZfDWCr
Oh, f*** that guy. 😠
The worst part about all of this to me is that the DOT would need to spend like what 5% of what it spends on US road maintenance and construction projects to basically fix the main issue with bike commuting (lack of safe/protected bike paths)? And said paths would require like a tiny fraction of what road maintenance cost due to the fact that cars and trucks create a ton of wear and tear on roads.
Anyways, to tie this into the thread, bike companies were on top of the world when it came to personal transportation in the late 19th century. They then let car companies come along and wreck their shit.
Auto makers and oil companies lobbied hard to turn streets into a place that's largely unsafe unless you're on four wheels. Bike companies weren't anywhere near organized enough to fight off that kind of effort.
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2026/02/26/annual-bike-imports-fall-lowest-number-least-decade
Annual bikes imported drops to lowest number in at least a decade.
Considering a lot of companies were cutting back due to high inventory levels then tariffs threw another curveball at bike companies..
It wasn't that long ago that "15 minute cities" was the latest far right snarl word/term. It didn't hit as hard in Australia but it still comes up from time to time.
I work in transport planning and the hysteria around it completely baffled me. How can anyone possibly delude themselves into believing that the idea of city planning based around safety and accessibility for all transport modes and users is some kind of grand (communist?) conspiracy?
A bloke I worked with on a few projects once raised Elon Musk's ire on Twitter by calling out his nonsense. It was pretty funny and it was then that I realised he's just an entitled manchild rather than a genius. Anyway end of rant.
Doesn't include ebikes, which makes some of the charts look apocalyptic. It would be interesting to see some solid data on how much of the market has gone to eebs.
And the floor is not 0, it's 2 million. God I hate graphs that are misleading by nature...
I agree that is a misleading graph, but that is still a cliff dive. 😮
Fixed it for you
nice! that's way less depressing 🤣
Has anyone got any information about Giant? I've heard some things that make me think they could be in deeper trouble then I could have predicted. My LBS used to lean heavily into giant in the sub 3k segment and lately, giant bikes have been no where to be found on their floor and they have been looking to bring in new brands to fill that segment. When I inquired about it, there was a passing comment about how they couldn't get bikes from Giant at the moment. When you go to their site, relatively new models that seemed like potential hits like the trance sx 29 are missing and stock seems non-existent with pricing/clearance all over the place, yet not at all on other bikes.
I also know that there is a transition from Thousand Oaks to the stages building in Colorado happening, and most, if not all of the people involved in the leadership of Giant USA have turned over in the last 18 months.
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