Felt bike brand bought by ski maker Rossignol

French ski maker Rossignol is increasing its cycling portfolio. Last year it acquired Time Sport, well known for its pedals and bike frame technology and it’s now added US brand Felt Bikes, headquartered in Irvine, California and with a European headquarters in Edewecht, Germany.

Felt’s sales are worth over $60m globally and its F1x was ridden to victory by Wout van Aert in the Cyclocross World Championships last week. It was also responsible for the $26,000 left side drivetrain track bikes used by the US team at the Rio Olympics.

According to Bruno Cercley, CEO of Rossignol, “From day one of our contacts with the Felt team, it became obvious we have great things to do together. Cycling is a very natural extension of Rossignol’s business, given its overlap in participating geographies, consumers and distribution channels as well as complementarity in seasonality.”

Rossignol is looking to strengthen the Felt brand’s global reach and to launch a new range of Rossignol branded mountain bikes in 2018.

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Bill Duehring, President of Felt Bicycles added: “If you look at both companies we have a long history of supporting athletes, learning from our athletes and putting this knowledge into designing great cutting edge products. With similar consumers and markets it's very exciting to think of the great things we can do together."

With a wider bike portfolio and its global reach, Felt is probably a good complement to Time Sport for Rossignol. Time specialises in high end road bike technology, including its Scylon frame and ACTIV vibration damping fork. It also makes quite a range of road and MTB pedals, with the £400 Xpresso 15 weighing just 133g a pair.