Recently Tyler and Joe went out to Sea Otter where they worked with Mavic for the weekend running neutral support for the event. It was a lot of fun but a ton of work and they didn’t get to ride at all. While they were out there they attended the Bicycling Magazine Editors Choice awards. IF were up against Seven and Serotta for the Dream Bike of the Year.
Both companies are Independent Fabrication’s two biggest competitors and much bigger companies than IF. To massive delight they won the award for the new XS model. The best part is that although the XS looks amazing, it won on ride quality. As a result there is now a huge two page spread in the new Bicycling Mag (June).
There are some new spy shots of the XS here and it is running smooth in production. Orders have really picked up and IF are blasting them out as fast as they can (keeping quality in mind). Turn around time on any frame is about 6-7 weeks right now but that will most likely stretch out because demand is very high right now.
Unfortunately the Tungsten Electrode is a sore subject for everyone at IF. It is still going to be ready for production but because they are at the mercy of an Aluminum manufacturer for the rear end, production of complete bikes can’t start until the rear ends arrive and meet the close tolerances required. This is very frustrating for the Boston team but they want each bike to be perfect and so everyone must wait just a little longer.
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