Ep. 193 ~ Tim Krueger, Esker Cycles CEO
Bikes or Death
Patrick Farnsworth
4.8 • 563 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2024
⏱️ 154 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tim Krueger has been in the cycling industry for almost three decades. He got his start at a local bike shop breaking down boxes as a teenager. After college he landed a job at Salsa Cycles as the Product Manager during the birth of the "Adventure by Bike" category. A pivotal time in the bike industry that ultimately led to an entirely new market and category of Adventure Bikes. After his time at Salsa he went on to start his own company, Advocate Cycles. Advocate featured a rad lineup of steel adventure bikes with a unique business model that donated all of its profits to philanthropic institutions.
After attempting that business model for a couple of years it became clear to Tim that businesses needed their profits to sustain their employees and grow their company. It was at that time that the decision was made to transition the brand into Esker Cycles that we know today.
Tim's contributions and commitment to the cycling community and influence in the cycling market at large has been nothing short of impressive. I've been following his career, and awing over the cool bikes he's helped bring to market, for years. It was a true honor to get to pick his brain about longstanding questions and curiosities I've had about him and some of the bikes he's brought to market.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Bikes for Death podcast. As always, |
| 0:05.1 | my name is Patrick and I'm your host. And on today's episode, my guest is Tim Krieger, who is the |
| 0:11.8 | CEO and founder of Esker Cycles. And this is a special episode because not only did I get to |
| 0:19.4 | meet and interview Tim in person, but he also hand-delivered |
| 0:24.2 | my brand new Esker Hayduke titanium bicycle. Kind of a fun story. I contacted him about getting a |
| 0:31.4 | bike, and it just so happens that he was getting ready to leave on a road trip across the country and he was going |
| 0:39.6 | to be passing through Texas and so we were able to coordinate so he could hand deliver my new |
| 0:44.9 | bicycle. We went on a little ride and then we recorded a podcast out at Lake Brian, which is my |
| 0:51.7 | old stomping ground. So it was a extra special episode for me and a really fun one. |
| 0:58.1 | If you don't know, Tim, he has been in the cycling industry for almost 30 years. |
| 1:04.3 | He was the product manager for Salsa Cycles during the time that they transitioned to the |
| 1:10.3 | Adventure by Bike marketing campaign and the bikes that they transitioned to the adventure by bike marketing campaign |
| 1:13.1 | and the bikes that went along with it think the original salsa Fargo and the entire category |
| 1:19.0 | that that created in the bike packing space. After his time as salsa cycles, he went on to |
| 1:25.0 | create his own company, advocate cycles, and that transitioned |
| 1:29.7 | into what we know today as Esker Cycles. So on today's episode, we are going to hear all about |
| 1:36.5 | Tim's history in the cycling industry, learn about Esker Cycles, and we have an overall |
| 1:43.4 | conversation about the state of the cycling |
| 1:46.1 | industry as it sits today. So that is what we got for you on today's episode. But before we get |
| 1:53.0 | to it, let's take a moment to thank the people that made it possible, starting with our latest |
| 1:57.8 | patrons. So this week, we would like to Daz and Richard Hart for signing up to be sustaining |
| 2:05.4 | members of the Bikes for Death podcast. |
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