In my new series of blogs, Kogel Cares, I will flip the communication and put you: our readers, riders, and friends at the center of attention. I want to know how you feel. Give me your take on each week’s topic and submit your responses here. 1 person every week will win a $100 Kogel Gift Card.
- Ard Kessels
Custom Colors for Premium Bike Products
The Kogel Custom program has been a success since we launched it, and even before that, our colored pulleys have been in great demand. Riders just love giving a personal touch to their two-wheeled wonders! While most cycling product companies don't give their customers a chance to personalize their performance bike products our philosophy at Kogel puts you in complete control!
Our First Customized Product for Cyclists
One of our first custom projects was making blue bottom brackets for the UnitedHealthcare cycling team in 2015. As a one-year-old company, Kogel was punching well above its weight in the sponsorship game, supporting the only US-based pro-continental team with 200 bottom brackets. The team was known as The Blue Train since every crit race in America seemed to end with five laps of riders in blue jerseys pulling to the front and sweeping the podium.
In retrospect, making blue bottom brackets for a team in blue kits, riding blue bikes did not help Kogel’s visibility. So for the next year, we made the bottom brackets red to stick out like a sore thumb on the UHC bikes.
Kolossos - The First Customizable Oversized Derailleur Cage
In recent years our website offers options to fully build your Kolossos and preload adjusters from scratch! Pick every component in three, five, or seven colors. Sometimes we go to the next level and experiment with Cerakote: a super strong ceramic coating that comes in 200 different colors. It applies like paint, so we can even make multi-colored designs with it. That is probably the one feature that sets it apart from anodizing.
Innovative Product Customization for Performance Cyclists
In order to maintain our inventory levels acceptable, we have always stuck with a limited amount of colors in our collection: black, red, gold, blue, and recently RAW. Working with the members of the Kogel collective, we have done some cool new shades: champagne pink, stormtrooper white, and even pulleys coated in the colors of the French national flag.
Your turn...
I think it is time to release these awesome options to the public in limited edition small batches. So here is the million-dollar question for you. Which colors would you like to see? I am eager to hear what is popular!
I would love to hear from you! Please share your colors and cycling performance issues at this link to inspire our product team and hopefully soon we can set you up for your best cycling experience ever - AND a $100 Kogel gift card.
