To serious bicycle riders, he's a household name — synonymous with high-quality components and the Trek brand. Yet despite his surname being emblazoned on millions of bikes, Keith Bontrager is still surprised when he's recognized.
"It's interesting walking through an airport somewhere and somebody yelling at you and saying hi, or something like that," he said. "This is like celebrity on a 0.0001% level."
Find Your Angle Like Keith Bontrager
There's a raft of biking champions who went on to create or inspire brands aimed at the higher end of the cycling market. Giovanni Pinarello, Eddy Merckx and Greg LeMond are just a few. But Bontrager achieved his greatest two-wheel fame by focusing on perfecting parts and components rather than through his own bicycle brand.
From a cluttered workshop in Santa Cruz, Calif., Bontrager figured out how to lighten rugged mountain bikes by modifying wheels from road bikes. He came up with innovative shock-absorber solutions to cushion the bumps and grinds of trail riding. And he strengthened mountain bike frames by adding braces called "gussets" at critical joints in the tubing. He modified seats to make them more comfortable in the proper riding position.
Bontrager's name appears on helmets, lights, handlebars, cycling shoes, jerseys, tires and more. All are marketed by Trek, based in Waterloo, Wis. Trek bought Bontrager's then-struggling business in 1995 and elevated his brand name. Bontrager then went on to play a critical role in product development for Trek.
Now 69, Bontrager (pronounced BAHN-tray-gurr) is at a crossroads, having retired from Trek as of Dec. 31, with an enviable legacy.
Jenn Dice, president and CEO of advocacy group PeopleForBikes, called Bontrager "a legend in mountain biking, advocacy and the bike industry."
And in a handwritten note to Bontrager last year, Trek President John Burke hailed the inventor and entrepreneur for significantly advancing the company's products, quality and testing. "In all of your years at Trek, it was never about you. It was always about what was the right thing to do," Burke wrote.
Follow Your Passion
Bontrager's start couldn't have been more humble. He grew up under modest circumstances in Hawaii and took an early interest in motorcycles.
He recalls his reaction as a preteen when a motocross racer came roaring down the street atop an old two-stroke. It was love at first kick-start. "It was loud as hell and looks really gnarly with big tires and suspension that I'd never seen before," he said.
He began as a motocross racer himself, hanging out with a close-knit group of riders who got him thinking about how to make machines faster and stronger.
Get In On The Ground Floor Like Bontrager
As much as Bontrager loved motorcycles, he couldn't help but notice how mountain biking was becoming the rage.
He attended junior college and transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied physics.
In contrast to lithe road bikes, where racing success can boil down to the reduction of a few ounces of excess weight, trail riding demanded heavier bikes to absorb the pounding they took during steep descents and wider tires to grip soft dirt. The goal was to find ways to lighten the cycles while maintaining their strength.
Timing was everything. Embracing the challenge of mountain biking represented a chance to make a big impact on a sport in its infancy. It was ripe for innovation. Bontrager started on his own by creating bike frames, applying the engineering lessons he learned in motorcycle racing.
"Bicycles are a lot more about finesse than motorcycles," he said. "But the basics are pretty similar."
Focus On Strengths, Know Your Limitations
Hatching a business was trying. The early years involved pinching pennies and, just as he had as a motorcycle racer, trying to live on the cheap.
Though word spread on the mountain-biking competition circuit about the quality of his frames, the process to make them while maintaining his reputation for perfection was painstakingly slow. Consequently, Bontrager had trouble meeting the demand for his products.
He discovered his engineering prowess was far more developed than his business acumen. Bontrager said he took the attitude of "let's just see how much better we can make these things," yet "there never was really a cogent plan to distinguish a brand or me."
Looking back, Bontrager believes he probably would have succeeded more if he had stronger business skills or taken on a partner earlier. But at the same time, he also thinks that if the company had been more successful early on, he may not have been as hungry to develop the breakthrough products that would make his brand the stuff of cycling legend.
Immerse Yourself In A Problem
Bontrager eventually did bring on a partner who compensated for his lack of marketing or sales expertise. The collaboration helped identify the need for a shift in strategy. Bontrager pivoted from making frames and whole bikes to more lucrative accessories and components.
Sure, the bike component side of the industry had giants like Japan's Shimano. Shimano holds a dominant position on the market for drivetrains — chains, derailleurs and gearing. But there were plenty of other basic items on a bike that cried out for a fresh look, leaving room for a small manufacturer to stand out.
Designing and making components was more profitable. And it played to Bontrager's strength of problem-solving. It was a talent that was all-consuming.
"That was an old habit from physics. I would study a problem-set all weekend and like, just grid away for eight to 10 hours a day trying to figure out" a solution, he said.
He not only had parts he was trying to perfect strewn around his workshop, but they could also be found all over his adjoining house.
"There's things laying around in the kitchen ... there's stuff that's in process everywhere — visual reminders of all the things I'm working on," he said. It's there to "just keep thinking about."
Bontrager: Invite The A-Ha Moment
He found that having those parts distributed around rooms kept his mind concentrated on the problem. But his active thinking did not always lead to a clever outcome. He found that sometimes it was best to just walk away and let his subconscious do the rest.
One of his favorite times to solve a vexing issue was after a bike ride, "when I start to relax and don't have to worry about where the wheels are pointed."
The holder of "about five" patents, Bontrager said one of his greatest early ideas came to him in the kitchen where he had a wheel from a road bike propped up. He envisioned shrinking the diameter of one of those wheels, removing four spoke holes from it in the process, and rerolling it into a mountain bike rim — one far lighter than those that had been in the market at the time.
Know When To Fold 'Em
Even with the improvements in the business, turning a profit was still a fight. It didn't help that Bontrager was based in a Silicon Valley-adjacent city that didn't lend itself to low-cost manufacturing.
When times got tough, Bontrager was reluctant to cut from his staff of 20 employees. He was suffering himself. "I was working 60 hours a week and not taking a paycheck," he said, explaining it was the only way to make payroll. "And there was no clear way out of that."
He had one good option: Sell his business to Trek. Bontrager is not sure what caught the bike maker's attention. Maybe it was his induction into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Marin County, Calif., in 1994. Maybe it was simply Bontrager's solid company reputation. Either way, he had no regrets. The sale allowed him to remain as president. He had to shut down factories, but was able to retain a development lab for parts and accessories.
"It wasn't a decision. It was, like, automatic," Bontrager said.
Roll In A New Direction Like Bontrager
Suddenly, his role shifted to mentor and truth-teller. He turned to guiding aggressive young engineers, steering them away from mistakes brought on by inexperience or lack of discipline. He wasn't afraid to make a fuss if a project started going awry.
Telling someone that their project is headed off the rails is "a hard message to delivery. But if you're in Santa Cruz and you're known to be grumpy and you try to run a tight ship technically, then it's a little bit easier." Over time, knowing he had the blessings of Trek's top executives, he earned grudging respect.
Once an avid mountain-biking racer himself, Bontrager dabbles in cabinet making and pretty much confines himself these days to urban bike riding and advocacy. He's had an impact.
Bontrager knows "the importance of giving back through bike advocacy and getting involved for better bike infrastructure and getting more kids on bikes," said Dice of PeopleForBikes.
Plug Into The Next Big Thing
Just as the mountain-biking revolution hit at the right time for him, Bontrager still sees ground-floor opportunities for others to exploit. One of the biggest: electric bikes.
E-bikes are powered by motors as well as riders' legs. "You don't have to worry about weight anymore, unlike a regular bicycle," he said. "So you can do all kinds of things that we would never think of doing on the design or the components because no one would want it to weigh as much."
His advice for young engineers? "Be patient, do your homework and try to get everything right."
Bontrager's Keys
- Founded the leading high-performance bicycle accessory company, bought by Trek in 1995.
- Overcame: Intense competition from lower-cost rivals.
- Lesson: "Be patient, do your homework and try to get everything right."
