New bike company starts up in Northfield
January 3rd, 2008,
Local cyclist Eric Johnson informed me of this exciting news for my hometown: Northfield, Minnesota, resident Sean Virnig has established Rawland Cycles, a new bicycle company. Rawland offers two different steel frames, the Olaf and the Sogn, the former for fixed-gear or single-speed bikes and the latter for geared bikes. Both frames are designed to use 650B wheels, a newer size that is supposed to be more versatile. Information on complete bikes is available by request.
Like Virnig, I am of Norwegian descent, so I appreciate the Viking motif designed into one of the bikes: the decorative allusion to the sea serpent on the rear dropouts (the spot where the rear wheel attaches to the frame).
Judging by the News and Updates section of the Rawland web site, there has already been a lot of coverage of Rawland in the cycling world since the company debuted at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas last September. Strangely enough, I haven’t heard anything about the company in the local and regional media.
I hope to find out more about Rawland, and I wish Mr. Virnig good fortune with his new company.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:01 am
[...] Last Thursday, January 10, Eric Johnson and I met with Sean Virnig of Rawland Cycles, the new Northfield, Minnesota bike company (see my Jan. 3 post for more on the company). That’s Eric in the foreground above and Sean behind him. We met Sean in downtown Northfield and got to see and test ride Rawland’s two bikes, the Olaf and the Sogn. (The Olaf frame is for fixed-gear or single-speed bikes, and the Sogn is for geared bikes; both use size 650B wheels and tires.) We also sat down at Goodbye Blue Monday, a local coffee shop, and conversed with Sean. Because he is deaf, we did so by typing on Eric’s laptop computer. [...]
February 6th, 2008 at 11:36 am
[...] StarTribune reporter Sarah Lemagie has written a nice article about the Northfield, Minnesota-based bike company, Rawland Cycles, and its founders, Sean and Anna Virnig. See also a January 3rd post I did on Rawland and also my conversation with Sean. [...]