The UK has a rich cycling industry, with a host of big names recognisable outside this little island’s shores.
Any mountain biker worth their salt will be familiar with Orange’s iconic alloy frames or Hope’s clamorous hubs. Elsewhere newer brands, including Hunt and Mason, have become household names.
But what about the brands that have continued to churn out quietly brilliant product to little or no fanfare?
Crud and Burgtec fall firmly into this category, producing some of the best accessories and components on the market.
Or, in the case of Muc-Off, it’s a brand that has grown from humble beginnings to become the biggest player in its market, while continuing to push ahead with new developments.
Here, we look back at these three core brands that perhaps don’t always get the credit they deserve.
Crud Products
Established: 1991
Based: Near Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire
Key products: Crudcatcher (1991), Dave’s Chain Device aka DCD (1993), Crud XL Fender (2019)
Current line-up: XL Fender, Crudcatcher Mk3, Raceguard XL Rear, Roadracer Mk3
Pete ‘Mr Crud’ Tomkins could be considered one of the godfathers of the British mountain bike industry. An avid rider since the pre-suspension days, he tells us how he got into riding.
“I rode my mate’s MTB in spring 1985 and knew I had to have one. I bought a second-hand Ridgeback while living in Brighton and, shortly after, my wife and I moved to Whitby with the babies, and my priorities shifted from surfing to MTB,” he explains.
Having found his new passion for riding bikes, Tomkins soon saw opportunity coming down his new garden path.
“I quickly became a regular on the race circuit and was a sponsored rider for Diamondback by 1991. That year, every race was a mudfest, and I looked into the possibilities of manufacturing a down tube splashguard.
“By luck and perseverance, I met the right people, discovered injection moulding, found a toolmaker and [the original Crudcatcher] fell into production.”
At that point, Tomkins was writing the occasional article for our sister title MBUK.
“Within a few days of my first advert in MBUK, I was in business as a manufacturer. This was 1991. There was no internet, MTBing was still a fledgling sport, and I had virtually no competition,” he says.
Even Mr Crud himself never imagined a simple piece of clip-on plastic would change his life. “My business plan was very basic and modest,” he tells us.
“I was painting houses for a living, and my big ambition was to sell enough mudguards to enable me to only have to paint three days a week, giving me more time to train and race my bike.”
He was onto something though, and mountain biking was ready for more simple magic from Mr Crud.
“That plan went out the window pretty quickly and, as the orders came flooding in, I started to realise the potential. I redesigned the Crudcatcher after six months, designed an aluminium Crud Claw [to scrape mud from cassettes] and was quickly making 10 times what I earned painting and decorating.”
Back then, the gravity side of the sport was still entwined with XC, and there were few specific downhill bikes or products.
Tomkins recounts: “MBUK promoted the downhill scene in the early days, and I was totally involved in this exciting sub-sect. I came up with what was arguably the world’s first downhill-specific MTB product, the DCD (Dave’s Chain Device).
“It kept your chain aligned no matter how rough the track. All the top riders got one for free, and it got great reviews.”
Interestingly, Tomkins didn’t design the DCD expecting a profit. “It cost me £6,000 to tool and prep, and profits were £5 per item. There were probably fewer than 2,000 downhill racers worldwide. I presumed I’d never get my investment back.”
Amazingly, he once again hit the sweet spot, having created something nobody knew they needed.
“We sold about 140,000 of them in total, before more sophisticated products from other manufacturers took its place. That’s when I bought the farm and the cottage next door.”
By 2010, Crud was a well-established player, and with cycling’s sudden boom, Tomkins had success in the drop-bar market with his Roadracer mudguards.
“It was at this point that I could’ve really cracked on and built the business up into something big, but ever since I started in 1991, I’ve never been motivated to chase growth. I’ve rarely worked more than a few hours a week – I’m really good at delegating.”
Crud remains a small family-run firm with local suppliers, which has been key to its success.
“This laidback, just-in-time approach has enabled us to go with the flow – to do well in the boom times, and to trim our sales and thrive even when times are tough.”
Despite now being in his early seventies, Tomkins is still out there riding bikes and boards, keeping one eye open in case that crystal ball of opportunity should knock again.
Muc-Off
Established: 1994
Based: Poole, Dorset
Key products: X-Lite Trimnell fork, X-Lite Ski Bend bar-ends, X-Lite Chicken Stix brake levers, X-Lite Cam Loc QRs (all c.1991), X-Lite Muc-Off bike cleaner (1994)
Current line-up: Dozens of bike cleaning and protection products, plus tools, riding packs and more
The company now known as Muc-Off was founded in 1991 by Rex and Marilyn Trimnell, but it started out making very different products from those it's known for today.
Alex Trimnell, the head honcho of Muc-Off and son of the original founders, explains: “The story goes back to 1990. My bike was stolen when I was at school, and when we went on a family trip to America, we visited a Klein dealership, where I convinced dad to buy one.
“It had an oversized aluminium frame and internal cable routing – way ahead of its time – but these were paired with a cheap chromoly steel fork.”
Rex spotted an opportunity. “Dad thought he could reinvent the fork, and with his motorcycle heritage, he created the world’s first twin-crown rigid [MTB] fork. I helped by doing lots of testing in its development, even though I was still at school,” recalls Alex.
“This step led to dad being inspired by the MTB world, and we started looking at bar-ends, which were the hot product at the time, and set out to create the world’s lightest, all in our garage at home. That’s how X-Lite was born.”
X-Lite products were highly sought-after back in the day, yet Rex and Alex couldn’t help thinking there was a simple, yet glaring hole in the marketplace, for something to help people get the muck off their bikes.
The result was the original Muc-Off formula.
“We were the first bike-specific cleaner anyone had ever seen, so it was a challenge to make bike shops pay attention,” says Alex.
“The name helped, of course, but we found that once we demonstrated how well it worked, and the damage that household cleaners were causing (particularly to anodised parts), they were convinced. It was safe for the bike and user, and it was biodegradable from day one.”
Although that original pink potion would eventually eclipse the X-Lite brand, it was a long slog getting there.
“We were a small family business with precious few resources, so it took many years to grow the number of riders using it, to make it our flagship product today,” explains Alex.
Balancing meeting market demands with developing products that don’t currently exist is a fine line to ride. “Our core ethos, which runs through every product, is ‘Does it make a rider’s experience better?’,” says Alex. “In practice, we use a combination of both approaches.”
“An example of the former would be our new Ceramic Protection Kit. With bikes becoming more expensive and the riding more aggressive, cyclists need a way of protecting their bikes.
“They also want to make cleaning them as easy as possible, so we created a product to meet that demand.
“An example of a product riders didn’t know they needed is our Stealth Tubeless Tag Holder, which allows them to stash an Apple AirTag in their tubeless tyre, hidden from view of potential thieves.
“One of our team recovered his stolen £7,000 ebike using one. It’s an innovation which has been a game-changer in the bike security market.”
Over the past three decades, Muc-Off has become a global brand, operating in the motorsport as well as pedal-powered markets. Sadly, Rex passed away some time back, but Alex runs the company true to the Trimnell legacy.
Burgtec
Established: 2004
Based: Macclesfield, Cheshire
Key products: Penthouse Flat pedals (2004), Ride Wide 750mm handlebar (2007)
Current line-up: Penthouse Flat Mk5 pedals, Ride Wide/Ride High 800mm bars, plus stems, grips, axles and more
It was on the gnarliest of downhill tracks that Burgtec’s story began, as founder Dan Critchlow tells us: “I started racing as a teenager and progressed to eventually competing in the World Cup DH series for 10 years. At that time, there was no enduro category – it was either DH or XC.”
With all that riding experience, Critchlow knew exactly what he wanted when he set up shop in 2004.
“Burgtec’s products have always been led by a specific need,” he explains.
“We’ve always been pretty embedded in the race scene, and that’s evolved hugely over the past 20 years. We were one of the first companies to make products such as direct-mount stems, and definitely the first company to start manufacturing wider handlebars.
“Top riders have always been drawn to our products. World Cup teams know they can come to us and get support with specific products that differ from the competition.”
Feet-first is often the best way to jump into things, so Critchlow did just that. “The first [Penthouse] pedal was produced in 2003. We’d tried tons of different pedals at the time and thought we could make something with better grip, internals and durability than others on the market. It seemed a no-brainer.”
At the time, Critchlow was working in the right environment to get the pedals turning, so to speak.
“I was in engineering, so had some good contacts to get all the different parts produced. Dave Barton [Burgtec’s director] is my best mate from secondary school – we’ve known each other since we were 11. Richard Bourgoin [a former director] bought a bike off me and we met that way, hooked up and rode lots together.”
He continues: “My granddad was mega-handy at making stuff, whether on a lathe or welding – basically, he’d have a go at anything. So, I was quite inspired by that, and we just thought we’d have a go…
“We assembled the first batch of 50 pairs of Mk1s [pedals] on Dave’s mum’s kitchen table, so we were about as grassroots as it gets.”
Thanks to Critchlow’s connections in the race scene, Burgtec pedals soon found their way onto the bikes of the downhill elite, and it was all or nothing from there on in.
“The first products were the pedals and then came the fork crowns, which led to direct-mount stems and bars,” he recalls.
“We were (and still are) massive fans of the top riders, and them using our products proved they were good enough for us and the public.
Those two things kind of bounced off each other, because customers saw the products and wanted to buy them. Things naturally grew from there.”
Amid the current bike-industry (and world) turmoil, Burgtec is still managing to sell its kit in the UK and internationally. “We predominantly sell in the UK, but France, Germany, Australia and the USA are big and growing markets,” Critchlow divulges.
He reckons Burgtec has a bright future, with the development of ebikes and the quality of modern bike parks – “the UK scene is bubbling away”.
Is there a favourite product from the Burgtec line-up, or a most successful one from its 30-year history? “It’s got to be the Penthouse pedals, probably what we’re best known for,” says Critchlow.
It’s hard to argue with that when they’re the flat pedals of choice of UK legends Steve Peat and Josh Bryceland, among many others.