Mad Fiber wheels – which filed for bankruptcy last year – could be resurrected by Bob Stapleton, the one-time owner of Mark Cavendish’s highly successful HighRoad team.
Stapleton bought the patents and trademarks of the novel Mad Fiber Wheels company in a recent bankruptcy auction. The former tech entrepreneur outbid SRAM, who also showed an interest in the technology.
Production at Mad Fiber stopped in November 2013. In December it filed for bankruptcy alongside its holding company, the Divine Cycling Group (DCG).
US trade site Bicycle Retailer reported that entrepreneurial Stapleton, who made his fortune selling his company, VoiceStream to T-Mobile, said, “I am at the talking-to-smart-people stage, and will build from the innovation already done."
Mad Fiber gain a reputation for radical wheel design and production from its Seattle-based headquarters. There is no indication of when Mad Fiber wheels could reappear.
Another company, Econ, bought Mad Fiber's tooling and remaining non-intellectual property.