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Argus Bicycle Company open for business
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Hello everyone. There have been many posts on this forum lately about the fate of Aegis and whether or not owners would be able to get their Aegis frames refurbished. Because of that, I would like to announce that all of the designers, fabricators, and other employees of Aegis are now employed by Argus Bicycle Company. With them they have brought their expertise in and passion for making quality carbon fiber bicycle frames.

Please check out our new website:
http://www.argusbicycles.com

The site is a work in progress, but we wanted to get it up and running quickly so that we could begin to serve customers.

We encourage you all to check back often for developments, and if you have any specific concerns or needs, please call us at (207)868-2200.

Thanks, and happy riding!

Dan Madore and Robert Bouchard
Argus Bicycle Company
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Oh, just one more thing. The Argus site is a little slow right now. Our webhosting company is working to resolve the issue.
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Good for you. Now please tease us!
What is your TT frame going to be like? Something different from the Aegis designs or similar?
Will they be fabricated in the same manner?
And finally, when will you start production?
SteveMc
p.s. BTW best of luck!
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Outstanding news! I keep seeing Aegis bikes on the roads around here and I'm definitely intrigued to find out what kind of nice stuff Argus will come up with. (Did Argus purchase/inherit the recently developed Zaero mold? The bike looked fantastic when I saw it at Lobsterman last year.)

Best of luck! Sounds like you guys are on the right track.
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [Milano] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks Milano.

To answer your question about Aegis and the acquisition of Aegis designs, specifically Zaero...

Argus did not purchase any of the property of Aegis. The Zaero is a very difficult frame to design/fabricate, and we are hoping that at some point we can offer the features that the Aegis Zaero offered, but for right now nobody is offering that frame since, as I understand it, Aegis is no longer in the business of making bikes (how can they, since all their fabricators work at Argus?).

So our position on frame development is that for now, our only offerings will be the Apollo and the Pegasis, and we HOPE to begin fabricating frames by the end of this week (May 8th, 2009).

I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can answer anything else for you.

Dan Madore
Argus Bicycle Company
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [SteveMc] [ In reply to ]
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Our best frame for TT would be the Apollo. It will be SIMILAR to Aegis design, but will feature internal cable routing, the rear stays will be more aerodynamic (more like an airfoil), will have a 1 1/8 inch headset size, and will feature replaceable dropouts. The seat tube angle will be 76 degrees. Sizes will range from 52 to 58 cm.

We will be looking to explore a more agressive TT frame at some point that will offer an 80 degree seat tube angle to give your calves a bit of a break, but that comes later.

The bikes will be fabricated very similarly to the way Aegis bikes were made, as they will be crafted by all the same engineers who made the Aegis frames. We hope for production to begin right after Mother's Day, 2009 (next week).

I hope that helps tease you!

Dan Madore
Argus
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Hello everyone.

I've added charts on the products page of the Argus site to give more information on the available sizes and dimensions of the Apollo and the Pegasus.

Here's the link:
http://argusbicycles.com/index.php/products.html

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Dan Madore
Argus
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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This is how excited I am about Argus. :-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSn0SbQJQI

customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [Mr. Tibbs] [ In reply to ]
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I'm glad you're excited! Also, thanks for the link. I had "Mother" in my head all evening!
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Hi Dan,

Any future plans to make a small frame for vertically challenged people similar to the Aegis Swift? I would love to be able to purchase another small carbon frame made by the same hands that made my Swift. Unfortunately there are no choices out there as far as good quality, tiny carbon frames without having to go custom. The freakishly small people of the world will appreciate it.

BiciPiccola
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [BiciPiccola] [ In reply to ]
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Hey there BiciPiccola,

I indeed understand and appreciate your situation, however, for right now the short answer is no. We are currently only producing the Apollo and the Pegasus. That being said, we do recognize the need for smaller frames for smaller riders, and I am not eliminating the possibility that such frames may be developed in the future. Right now, however, Argus's priority is buy-in and acceptance of their 2 production frames, and continuing the refurbishing services.

Stay tuned though, because we hope to grow!

Dan
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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For those interested, I have updated the site with a few more photos of production frames. I intend to have fully painted frames up for display by the end of the week. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend (if you were fortunate enough to have one) and got plenty of good riding in.

Dan Madore
Argus Bicycles
http://www.argusbicycles.com/
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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I was fortunate to visit the company last week when I took my victory up to be refurbished. It's a real place with real people. I got a mini tour and they answered a lot of questions about my bike. I got to see a couple of the new frames under construction, and a couple of the refurbishing jobs they were doing.

Looks great, I wish them good luck.
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [prnnarsto] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
I was fortunate to visit the company last week when I took my victory up to be refurbished. It's a real place with real people. I got a mini tour and they answered a lot of questions about my bike. I got to see a couple of the new frames under construction, and a couple of the refurbishing jobs they were doing.

Looks great, I wish them good luck.

Great first post - thanks for signing up for Slowtwitch today just to tell us that!


Christopher Kautz
Director of Technology, Product Development, and Education
GURU Sports, a division of Cannondale Sports Unlimited
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [ckautz] [ In reply to ]
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"Great first post - thanks for signing up for Slowtwitch today just to tell us that!"

Is that not better than a first post from a guy flaming on a company? Jeez, you just can't win on ST...
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [cincytri] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks cincytri. I do know that it seems odd that someone would choose to comment at this particular point as their first post, but according to my shop manager, someone did come in recently because they wanted to hand deliver their frame. I can only assume that was prnnarsto. If that is the case, we appreciate him putting out a good word for us. It just looks as though he were planted on here by us, which I would never do (having seen other people do it on other forums).

So prnnarsto, thanks for the good word, and I hope you will stick around and be a contributing member to the slowtwitch community.

Chris Kautz, I can certainly see where your sarcasm comes from, and I appreciate you looking out for the integrity of the forum as well, but I believe prnnarsto WAS in our shop recently and he's probably just excited about the product enough to post on it.

So....everybody cool? Good. Let's keep this thread a happy place.

Dan
Last edited by: maboot38: May 29, 09 16:56
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Hey Dan, don't feel like you have to respond to every ying yang who posts something negative. There's not enough hours in the day to keep up with that.

Good luck with Argus.

jime
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [jime] [ In reply to ]
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Dan just letting you know how immensely cool it is that a person in a position such as yourself at a bike company would take the time to join and post at a community such as this. It does make a huge impact on how we think of a brand. I know Emilio DeSoto posts here as well and it's really cool being able to directly interact with guys who work at these businesses.

---
KyleKranz.com
Win a pair of SKORA Running Shoes!
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [ckautz] [ In reply to ]
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Wow I thought you were sincere. I guess your not. First off I have been reading your forums for several weeks. Not enough apparently to realize that some of you are negative. In any case I am a real person as well. I went up for one reason my bike needed repair and I didn't want to just mail my bike to a company that I had never seen before, and that had been in business for a few weeks. I thought my post would be helpful to readers that had some of the same doubts I did.
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [prnnarsto] [ In reply to ]
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I don't think kautz likes competition.............
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [ipull400watts] [ In reply to ]
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Watts, thanks man. For the most part, I'm here to learn. This is a great community of athletes, and I'll be much more educated just taking away a fraction of the knowledge and experience on here. If I can educate people about our brand in the process, I don't feel the least bit guilty about that.

prnnarsto, I REALLY appreciate your input. I know there were a few people in the beginning who had called the shop but were reluctant to ship off their frame to an unknown shop (heck, I would be!!!).

AS for Chris Kautz, I don't think he was trying to be mean. Sometimes tongue in cheek remarks and sarcasm can come across as much more rude than intended, and it is also much easier to be harsh on others in such an impersonal forum, so I'll totally give him the benefit of the doubt.

Back to the bikes....we have some painted Apollos and Pegasuses at the shop, and I'm expecting a nice photo shoot tomorrow. I'm currently 8 hours south of the shop, so they'll have to email me the pics so I can put them up for you all to see, but I would expect them to be up by Sunday evening at the latest.

Dan
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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We now have photos of our Apollo and Pegasus frames on our website. If you click on the Products section, you can view pics of both.

http://www.argusbicycles.com/

I'd love to hear feedback about the frames. Keep in mind that these are just example colors, and that the decal work is also customizable/optional.

What do you think?

Dan
Argus
http://www.argusbicycles.com/

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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations on the new frames, I think they look nice, I am personally happy to see hand made US production, Its a tough battle in many ways, and I wish you all the luck and good fortune the new company brings you.

Feel free to contact me if you have any unanswered industry questions on need any insight to the game.

All the best

DGG

http://www.elitebicycles.com

http://www.elitecustom.sg
http://www.elitebicycles.com
http://www.elitebicycles.com/forums
http://www.elitebicycles.com/blog
http://www.twitter.com/elitebicycles
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [maboot38] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
I'd love to hear feedback about the frames.[/quote]
Dan, what is the targeted msrp for these frames?

since you are asking for feedback, in all honesty, i don't think you will have an easy time selling these frames. who designed them? have they actually examined or ridden any of your competitors' bikes? the apollo might have been an interesting design if it came out 10-15 years ago. but today, you need to take a very close look at what your competitors are doing to see the state of the art. but that said, there are still HUGE opportunities for truly innovative and aerodynamic design in the tri market (especially for a small and nimble US-based manufacturing company), but few companies have the guts to try out truly cutting edge designs (but some do). and most of the "new things" to develop would not even increase your costs very much, as most design innovations would simply be a change in the mold shapes.





Where would you want to swim ?
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Re: Argus Bicycle Company open for business [Elite Bicycles] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks David. I appreciate your input and encouragement, and I hope to be able to speak with you soon.

GregX, thanks for the valuable feedback. Right now our aim is to try to get a base started with the Apollo and Pegasus, which are very comparable to tried and tested frames. Our builders have been building frames for Aegis for years, and now that they are building for Argus, they are translating what they know into quality frames for a similar audience. Believe me, it is not our intent to make one or two products and then ride them (literall and figuratively!) for decades, but rather, get our quality fiber frames out in the market, and then LISTEN to feedback and use that to build a better bike for the people who ride them.

As we discover innovative ways to improve our frames, we will do so. I'm as excited as anyone about ways to improve the frames. My goal is to have a rider base that feels confidently in love with their frame, so taking their input and using it to build a better frame SHOULD become part of our development model.

I know there are many people who really enjoy riding their current Aegis frames, and people who are currently looking for that kind of ride will be very happy with the Apollo and Pegasus. There are a few innovations in our frames that the Aegis frames did not have, but apart from that these rides are very comparable. We really do want to try out some new ideas, but we are hesitant to jump out into market with something like that without ample time to research (did somebody say "New Coke"?). I'd rather start by offering products that I KNOW people like, and then build from there.

Does that make sense? As we build a rider base, I welcome as much input and suggestion as possible, so we can do exactly as you said.

Thanks again. Your feedback means the world to us!!

Dan Madore
Argus
www.argusbicycles.com
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