DUARTE, California — September 2003 — Dahon California, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of folding bicycles, today announced a design partnership with Joe Murray, a two-time mountain bike National Champion and original member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Joe Murray will work with Dahon to design a line of full-size portable mountain bikes. The first bikes, scheduled for 2004 introduction, will consist of hardtail mountain bikes with classic Joe Murray geometry and design details.
"Joe is one of the most respected mountain bike racers and designers in the industry," stated Joshua Hon vice president, sales and marketing. "It's going to be a blast working with him on our new bikes. Joe's ability to leverage his riding experience with technical insight and translate that into products makes him a bike designer virtually without peer."
"Working with Dahon will be a fun new challenge," stated Joe Murray. "They've got a huge stable of R&D engineers and lot of innovative new projects just waiting to be worked on. The cool thing about their portable mountain bikes is that with the right frame geometry and components, they'll ride just as well as any other hardtail mountain bike I've designed. Of course the folding feature adds some weight but for a lot of people, a few hundred grams of additional weight is a reasonable trade off for a super portable bike."
Joe Murray's racing career includes National Championships in 1984 and 1985 and 12 straight Norba victories (unmatched since) in 1985. Joe was one of the original 8 inductees into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame; a list that includes Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, Charlie Cunningham, Jacquie Phelan, Joe Breeze, Murdoch, Steve Cook, and Mike Sinyard.
Dahon will introduce a greatly expanded range of full-size portable bikes in 2004. Earlier this year, Dahon announced a partnership with Ritchey and plans to introduce a high-performance 700c road bike in the Fall. With partnerships with Ritchey for road bikes and Joe Murray for mountain bikes, Dahon is well positioned to develop very high performance portable bicycles.
Joe Murray Research & Design achievements
- Chief of Design for Voodoo
- Designed for Kona, Marin, and Merlin
- Designed world's first titanium mountain bike frame.
- Designed titanium mountain bike awarded "Best Products" 1989, Bicycle Guide Magazine.
- Designed 1993 Mountain Biking Magazine's Bike of the Year.
Hall of Fame web link: http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/inductees.cfm?page=99&mID=26