We are delighted to welcome Samuel to the team – recently appointed as our US Market Manager he and the rest of the US team are happy to help with any questions you might have.
An alumni of a little boutique shop in Boulder where he built his skills as a mechanic, Samuel joins us with a wealth of experience having worked as a Sales Manager at SHIMANO for many years.
Samuel first got a taste for riding when his dad attached a BOB trailer to his aluminium Cannondale R500 and they set off to ride, self-contained across the state of Iowa for 7 days of RAGBRAI (a party on wheels with 50,000 other cyclists!). What better way to start?
Having been kicked off the varsity soccer team for skipping practice in order to train on his bike, Samuel used the time to really kickstart his mountain bike racing in the Midwest. Moving quickly on, endurance events like 24 hour races led to many opportunities and connections in the industry which he still maintains today.
Sadly his bike racing career ended with a crack at the World Championships in 2011 in Canmore Canada and then a run at the Tour Divide where an achilles issue stopped him in his tracks…Samuel still takes great pride in the fact that he was placed 18th.
Post endurance race life, a focus on his career/family/riding (for enjoyment rather than suffering) has brought him to us here at The Rider Firm.
Tom is HUNT’s Product Manager, co-founder and owner of Hunt and has a BSc Honours degree in Ergonomics from Loughorough University. With an eagle eye for detail and a drive to deliver purpose focused wheels, Tom agonises about every aspect of what we do here at HUNT | The Rider Firm. Having started out riding and racing downhill MTB back in the day, then finding XC/marathon MTB and road racing, and even the odd CX race he's covered most bases, probably just because he loved the excuse to get new bikes. Tom still mixes it up with regular road and MTB rides and events, his biggest day out so far was riding the 165 mile Tour of Flanders cyclo full distance a couple of years running. With a long history in the UK Bike Industry, including a strong focus on wheels and sourcing bike components from all around the world, Tom links HUNT to its manufacturers, the team here in Sussex and wherever our wheels are being ridden all over the globe.
Growing up riding trials and evenings spent mucking about at local skateparks, it’s fair to say Sam's most comfortable with riser bars and flat pedals, but happy to clip in and get the road, aka gravel, miles in too.
Working in the bike industry since school, he's covered various roles including mechanic, sales and shopfloor management. After not being able to resist the calls of the Canadian mountains any longer, he moved out to Whistler working as the Technical & Marketing Representative between a major bike brand and resort ensuring everyone from staff, patrol and one-off guests alike had a great brand experience.
Now back in the UK, Sam is excited to keep the BC momentum rolling, and scratch the travel itch at the same time, by exploring trails a little closer to home.
Dan just graduated from the University of Brighton, where he studied Product Design Technology. With his advanced technical knowledge from his degree, and many years experience working in the cycling industry, he manages our Warranty department to ensure our customers are kept rolling. Dan is a MTB lifer, and so has a key role in feeding into our product development on the gnarlier side of things. In addition, Dan acts as the primary contact for sponsored MTB athletes, keeping them happy testing our latest and greatest.
Al’s love of all things bike started with riding and tinkering with his Raleigh Commando out in the sticks of Leicestershire. These days you might spot him on a road bike, but his real love is getting away from the traffic and into off-road territory. After graduating from Brighton University Al somewhat bizarrely found himself managing tie-shops in London. After becoming disillusioned with the neckwear industry he landed a job in one of London’s premier bike shops. It was here that he was taught the finer points of bike mechanics under the tuition of the late, great, tech extraordinaire Pete Bolas. From here Al went on to manage workshops for Evans Cycles and set up their suspension servicing business. Al spent the next decade working for a couple of UK distributors in both sales and tech roles before joining the team at Hunt to lend a hand with all things technical. You may recognise Al from the maintenance articles and videos he’s been pumping out for MBR and Cycling Weekly since the mid 2000’s.
One of Steyning's original locals, from building and riding Steyning trails in its early stages at the age of 13, Dom's grown up with this place and its surrounding area. Racing from the age of 14, proudly claiming a successful Youth and Junior rally of wins and podiums, including Red Bulls urban downhilll race through the University of Plymouth, taking the top step in Junior. After graduating from Plymouth University, studying Graphic Design he went on to travel the world, riding season after season, from the French Alps to Queenstown, New Zealand. After slowly falling out of love with racing, Dom went on to start creating media content, using his degree, working with photographers, gaining a new purpose for riding his bike again. He gained article features in worldwide online magazines such as Pinkbike, Vital MTB and Spoke Magazine.
Dom will be floating in and out of Whistler for the next few years, creating as much content as he can, representing HUNT along with a few of his other sponsors, doing his best to succeed in both his career and riding.
An MTB obsessive, he is lucky enough to live at the foot of the South Downs, which is where he heads whenever he gets a chance. He spends most of his waking (and some of his sleeping) hours thinking about where and what to ride next. Robin has 20+ years professional experience as an illustrator/designer, which he still finds time for, but enjoys his days at The Rider Firm and being surrounded by all things bike and people who like to ride them.
Jim spends most of his life dreaming about being back on the Tour Divide trail. A mountain biker for almost as long as there have been mountain bikes in the UK, he’s raced XC, 12hr, 24hr, Enduro and is happy as long as his tyres are in the dirt. These days, when he's not building up wheels here at The Rider Firm, you’re likely to find him coaching MTB skills, organising guided rides or sleeping under a bush somewhere on another bikepacking trip.
Mike is a Worthing local and has been an avid cyclist for over 20 years. Grew up riding a BMX and trials but now loving pushing what a gravel bike can do and as well as regularly bikepacking and riding his MTB. He's joined HUNT to help us get wheels to you as fast as possible and help us with any warranty queries.
Working within the cycle industry of over 15 years it all started like most young mountain bikers did with a Saturday job at Action Bikes in Ruislip. Alex has come to the HUNT Team to make sure everything is running smoothly. With store management and customer service being his main focus over his career. He has a huge passion for all things cycling, with a history of XC racing, he now enjoys the odd trail centre or exploring the South Downs on his mountain bike. Road cycling is massively important to him too, with cycle rides to discover new lanes of Sussex and setting new goals even now with road trips to the Alps. At the weekends when he does enjoy the odd event or two in running, competing in half marathons and trail running. Alex has always been a keen Trek fan and appreciates their level of development. He also has an unhealthy liking to a retro bike or two, with an interesting mix in his collection.
Matt has over thirty years racing experience from BMX, Cyclocross, TT, Road, MTB, Triathlon & Hill Climb. He even competed in the first ever UK MTB race and is a pioneer of 24 hour solo racing. Matt has tested bikes and products for numerous magazines and bike companies and was a key player in the 29er revolution with many days and nights spent chewing the fat with Keith Bontrager and Gary Fisher.
His favourite cycling moment has been the work he's doing with Sustrans - going into schools and seeing the look on kids' faces when they ride for the first time! He's now joined The Rider Firm to help with exhibitions and events and also give our dispatch team a hand to get your wheels ready and shipped as fast as possible.
Specialist in composites and aerodynamics, having wind tunnel tested her wheel designs with no less than 3 World Tour Teams.
Luisa Grappone hails from the motherland of cycling, pink jerseys and big mountain climbing (aka Italy), but has made the move to Sussex to further strengthen the Hunt wheel development team as our full time in-house wheel engineer. With an MSc in Aerospace Engineering Luisa has a wealth of experience in the bicycle industry having worked for a total of 9 years at Italy's two most prestigious wheel companies with much of her life spent sweating over hot CAD drawings, carbon fibre lay-ups and crunching wind tunnel data.
Chris is an all-out roadie who dabbles with the trails from time to time, loving the challenge of a climb but always after those sprint KOMs. A tinkerer and perfectionist with his engineering and bikes, he has spent the last 6 years upgrading his way to his dream alloy bike - a CAAD10. When it comes to racing he has stuck to the hills, competing in HC competitions on the grippy roads of Devon as well as representing the University of Exeter at the BUCS Duathlon Championships. He is looking to compete in his first crit races this summer and can’t wait to take on the local Box Hill!
Studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Exeter he specialised in Design and Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis techniques, investigating aerofoil optimisation using some interesting Genetic Algorithm techniques in his Master's dissertation. As a fresh graduate, he is brimming with enthusiasm and eager to use his CFD skills and ingenuitive thinking to design the fastest bike wheels of the future.
Chris works on keeping our operations and warehouse efficient and accurate as well as helping out with dispatch.
With about 15 years in the industry, working for some of UK's biggest distributors, Chris joined The Rider Firm to help us operate in the most efficient way. He rides a bit of road and MTB, but more off road in origin. Never won a race, but have a few slow and muddy memories. He also like the snow, with a board under his feet.
Peter is Hunt Wheels co-founder, owner and materials scientist with a Masters Degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, he even spent a summer in a lab at Queen Mary University having 'fun' with carbon nano tubes. Specialising in composites and metallurgy as well as having the answer to almost anything technically related to our wheels, Peter brings the edge to give you the best riding experience possible. Peter is also our encyclopedia for anything about pro-cycling racing… what he doesn’t know about the tour can be written on the knuckle of a Canary.
Describes himself as ‘just another cycling junkie’ but really does know his stuff. Stan Bolyarov is a Robert Gordon University Management with Marketing Graduate who races road and cyclocross. He has even raced the Bulgarian National Road and TT Championships. To say the least… he is very handy on a bicycle. With experience of Dutch and German markets, having lived in both countries, Stan’s role will lie in pushing forward our website usability to give you the best access to tech information, spares and support you need.
Shirley is one of the first employees here at The Rider Firm / HUNT clocking up a total of three and a half years. Previous to starting here, Shirley was a dry liner on a German building site so she sure knows how too keep everyone in line here. We are yet to get Shirley riding, but she is most definitely warming to the idea!
Asides from being the father of Tom and Peter, John is one of our in house engineers. Heavily involved with our Research and Development department as well as being able to hold his own during time trials (sub 23 minute 10 miler and he's over 65!). John brings experience to the table and makes sense of all the details behind how your wheels perform. He has some serious history with the black stuff and was a Production Manager at Advanced Composite Components who produced one of the first F1 carbon fibre chassis for Alfa Romeo (who are coming back into F1 now). John also made carbon under-bodies and wings for Indy Cars and managed the production of the first carbon fibre spinnaker poles for ocean racing yachts. Periodically John spends time in the Isle of Man as well as down here in the South of England. John also hammers his wheels through all types of weather and riding conditions to push our 4 Seasons mantra to the limit.
After semi-retiring, Lee has come to team from a background in IT management wanted to rediscover his passion for bikes. What better way to do that than by working at The Rider Firm! Lee will be helping out across all of the teams here at HUNT, making sure you get your wheels on time and answer any questions you may have!
A long-time local rider to us here in West Sussex, Simon has spent decades riding the Sussex lanes and South Downs MTB trails. Simon is also somewhat of an accomplished triathlete having completed full distance Ironman events. Simon has also rolled the boards completing the Paris Roubaix challenge. Simon’s definitely the gentleman of the office and that comes through in his politeness and expertise when helping serve riders with an eternally positive attitude.
Adam works on keeping our operations and warehouse efficient and accurate as well as offering excellent after sales service for your wheels.
Adam has an extensive history working in bicycle stores all over the UK. The knowledge he has attained from years spent on the shop floor as well as being in the workshop means he is extremely handy at tuning wheels as well as having an extensive knowledge on all the components which make up a wheel system. Adam devotedly rides a single-speed road bike to and from TheRiderFirm, but also enjoys days spent out on the road and MTB trails.
Simon started his career in the cycling industry as a trainee mechanic at M&J Cycles in Brighton. After a short break, he joined Southdowns Bikes as a Store Manager at Storrington in 2011. He went on to qualify as Body Geometry Fitter in 2013, going to gain Level II and became a certified fitter over at Morgan Hills HQ in 2015.
Simon loves all things bike related and sees himself as a bit of a versatile cyclist. He's raced at National level on road, track, MTB & TT and he's in his 30th consecutive year racing! Whether it's racing, training, commuting or hitting the trails for some off-road fun, he basically loves just being out on the bike and tries to ride whenever he can as opposed to taking a car.
His palmares includes winning the European Masters Road Race in the 40-45 category. He's also won the Vuelta Mallorca Masters stage race 40+ in 2018. In the same year, he finished a 25 mile TT with a 47:45 which was fast enough to finish 20th in the National Championships. His best ever 10 miler is 19:04 and he's been a multiple Sussex TT Champ. To say the least, he's now one of the fastest members of the team.
Daniel has worked within the bike industry for the last 9 years, formerly leading the Cyclescheme business in the UK as a part of his board and leadership positions within the Grass Roots Group, an Employee Benefits and Engagement business. Having worked across multiple business disciplines Daniel works directly with the owners of the business to support the acceleration of the businesses product and people strategy. Daniel is a keen road cyclist (and Brompton commuter), riding Paris-Roubaix and also competing in triathlons to Ironman distance amongst other things.
Rich has come to The Rider Firm with a wealth of experience from racing at elite level. In the years leading up to his racing career best of 16th at the British National Champs, he started out like many of us on a XC MTB back in the 90s. Sick of cleaning a bike and riding inappropriate hardtails, he “saw the light” as he says and switched to road permanently. Outside of the tape, Rich started off in the bike world at Boardman where he was Sales Manager for the South of the UK. 2017 brought him to I-Ride (a UK bike distributor) where he was Brand Manager. He also likes to casually mention that for a brief moment he was a ‘model’ in a Boardman commercial shown during the Tour de France almost every ad break and having more air time than some riders! Being a great climber, he also likes a hill climb TT where he finished a respectable top 10 in 2012 at the UK Hill Climb Champs. Needless to say, he now holds position as having the quickest time up Ditchling Beacon at The Rider Firm (by a long shot too).
Julie is our numbers person. Taking care of the books and making sure everything is correct is what she does best. She's got a distinct passion for numbers and solving problems but that doesn't stop her from going out for a ride every now and again.
Ian started riding in 1983 with Clarence Wheelers, whose founder Alf Whiteway advocated using low gears and pedalling quickly rather than mashing big gears. So he would win medium gear timetrials and races on the track but not much else. His most memorable ride though was when with Ray Hughes he won the National Tandem Club Championship in 1987 using a 60t Chainring, memorable because he cramped up in both calves with five miles to go and Ray wasn’t waiting for him, extremely painful! Although Ian used to climb quickly and perform well in Hill Climbs, now he is rather too fond of bread pudding and anything sweet so labours up the hills he used to race on, a proper ‘Mamil’! These days he does not race but still enjoys trips to the French Alps where he prefers to plummet down mountains rather than ride up them!
After spending many years in the cycling industry working for one of UK's biggest distributors, he joined The Rider Firm to help with customer service and provide you with technical knowledge.
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