Independent Fabrication's flagship carbon/ti XS model

Today, I joined Gary Smith and Joe Ingram from custom bicycle framebuilder Independent Fabrication for a Tour of Austin ride sponsored by Bicycle Sport Shop. This ride was part of a roll out of Independent Fabrication as an offering at BSS which now joins Freewheeling as part of the IF dealer network.

Gary Smith is former president of The Timberland Company’s outdoor group who purchased a majority share in Independent Fabrication in 2008, and Joe Ingram is IF’s CFO. I spoke with Ingram on the ride and sat down with Smith afterwards.

Independent Fabrication was started by three framebuilders who had worked at Fat City Cycles, one of the frame building pioneers of mountain biking. These founders had a social vision of the company as employee owned and run. Through the years only Lloyd Graves remained at IF from this group.

Gary Smith’s introduction to IF came 5 years ago while still at Timberland. His company was approached by CNN to take part in a show called the The Turnaround where executives from established companies give advice to startups. Timberland was paired with Independent Fabrication for the show where Smith found IF’s biggest problem was undercapitalization, as is common with many startups. Smith liked the company and invested in IF to help solve this problem after leaving Timberland.

Gary Smith with IF talks before the ride. Behind him is a display of IF bikes currently at Bicycle Sport Shop Central including a very cool track bike.

So will the introduction of an outside corporate executive ruin Independent Fabrication? Hardly. “A good bike is an extension of the rider,” Smith said. “We want to improve the company by making our delivery more consistent.”

Ingram echoed this when I asked him about the company’s biggest challenge. “I would like to get where we consistently build 4 frames/day,” Ingram told me. “Right now some days we build 6 and some days we build 1. It’s the nature of custom building where every order is different, but we’d still like to improve on this.”

Smith indicated that an IF customer is touched in someway 12 times during the ordering process. This includes frame material selection, consideration of riding style, paint choices, fitting, and component build up. The average order takes about 2 months from initial customer  interview to delivery of a completed bike.

“We are not the first bike a cyclist buys,” Smith continued. “We rely on feedback from the customer about riding style and what they want out of the bike to craft something that will meet their desires.”

IF currently offers a range of models covering road, mountain bike, touring, and single speed, and they are not limited to materials. While steel is their most popular material, bikes can be ordered built in stainless steel, titanium, or carbon as well. While their model line up has remained the same for some time, that doesn’t mean they aren’t improving the product.

“We aren’t blindly chasing the latest trend just to roll out a whole new product every year,” Smith stated. “We’ve kept the same models but continue to tweak them to yield a better bike.”

Smith compared it to the auto industry. The Toyota Camry has been around for decades, but today’s Camry is far different from one in 1984. They are looking to improve their flagship XS, which is currently carbon tubing with titanium lugs. IF is looking at making a full carbon XS but will put it to the test to ensure it performs as well as the current model. In addition, their stainless steel SSR now uses super light Reynolds 953 which was developed in the last few years for the military.

The well attended lunch Tour of Austin ride stops at the Capitol for a group pic.

I also asked about how the brand has been promoted. Independent Fabrication began promoting their bikes by having racers ride and win races on them and has also been well received at Interbike and the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. They have developed a cult status with their customers who have their own IF Owner’s Club site, which was established and run without any involvement from the company.

“We have a better brand than marketing,” Ingram said as well sped down the road. “We don’t even have marketing staff. Much of our success can be placed at the feet of our customers” who have promoted the bikes extensively the last decade.

While the recession has effected many companies (one of the guys on our ride just got laid off from Continental Airlines after 16 years of service), it doesn’t appear to be hurting IF.

“I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but our sales have been strong,” Smith said. He indicated 2008 was a banner year and winter sales have exceeded last year at this time. Yet, they do not want to grow any larger at this point, instead focusing on improving efficiencies. To this end, it took Bicycle Sport Shop two years from first contact with Independent Fabrication to become a dealer.

Finally, I asked both cyclists what their favorite model. Ingram immediately answered the XS, but Smith demured, “That’s like asking which one is my favorite child!”

So it looks like IF’s financial picture is strong and their products are still top notch. For those wanting to see what the buzz is about, Bicycle Sport Shop currently has a display of IF bikes at the Central store (517 S. Lamar Blvd) and is ready to order just the right bike for you.