WHY WE DO IT So this is the part where we say we are passionate about bikes just like every other bike company. The truth is everyone says it but do they really live it out? We like to think so. To start, we love all types of bikes. We are all avid road bikers, fixed gear and singlespeed lovers, bike commuters, mountain bikers, downhillers, dirt jumpers, cyclocross racers and BMX freestylers. Kevin even used to ride a recumbent back in the day when he worked for Vision Recumbents in their fabrication department and we have all recently learned how to ride unicycles just because it has a wheel. We hear it all the time from people in the bike industry, "I am way too busy to ride as much as I used to." Comments like this are why we have mandatory riding goals every month that put a huge priority on spending time on your bike. It is the reason we got into this business and why we we won't compromise our time on our bikes no matter how busy we get. Isn't that why lights were invented? A standard question we hear all the time is, "Why did you start a bike company." Well, like most businesses you start it because you see a gap in the industry. We have always been huge fans of steel bikes but there seemed to be a giant space between production overseas handmade steel bikes and custom North American handmade bikes. We loved everything about the custom made bikes but realized the price tag can be a huge barrier. Our goal was to produce unique frames with features you would see a custom builder use and do it in a production environment. We also felt there needed to be more choices for customers wanting steel frames, especially something completely different than the current offerings. We strive to create niche products that are forgotten by larger companies like our singlespeed race cyclocross bike the Crusade. HOW OUR BIKES ARE MADE Sure there are a ton of factories in the world that make bikes but we can honestly say that ours is unique and it makes all the difference in the world. First off, the factory where all Traitor Cycles are produced is owned by a man from Holland who has over 30 years of custom bike building experience. He also happened to be a pro road racer back in the day and raced against the likes of Greg Lemond so he knows not only how to build them but how well they should perform. Every employee is hand picked and trained by him and all quality control goes through him as well. This is no mega factory and by Asia standards it is absolutely tiny. This allows the factory to focus only on high end low volumes where quality and uniqueness is the biggest concern. THE TRAITOR NAME We get a lot of questions about where the name came from. To be honest it just came to us one day riding in a sea of traffic. Mainstream culture teaches that on the roads the car is king and if you are on your bike you are basically a traitor to the car culture. We don't mean Traitor in a negative way but a symbol to celebrate how we are different from the norm and that as cyclists we need to stick together. TRAITOR CYCLES 2641 Delta Ring Rd. Ferndale, WA 98248 USA (360) 366-5123 info@traitorcycles.com HOME BIKES PARTS DEALERS ABOUT Warranty/Register GALLERY STORE