BIKE AID the first time in Thailand
Last fall, Team BIKE AID traveled to Thailand to compete in a bike race for the first time. 14 days of single room quarantine brought the motivation kettle to boil over, hardly let out BIKE AID with Nikodemus Holler won the Tour of Thailand.
Wintering without Corona
Lucas Carstensen and Adne van Engelen took the chance to escape the Corona daily routine and decided to spend the winter in Thailand, surrounded by dream beaches and tropical temperatures. So they got connected to the cycling scene, met someone here and there and quickly belonged to it. The cycling world just.
Hello, my name is Adne
It is mainly thanks to Adne van Engelen that a contact was made with a bike manufacturer from Thailand, which is certainly still completely unknown in Europe. Those who know Adne are aware of his tireless communicative temperament. No matter in which corner of the world, no matter which language is spoken there, Adne approaches everyone with an open mind and is immediately engrossed in conversation.
So he stumbled into the office of KAZE Bicycles in Chiang Mai and started talking about BIKE AID. A company, which was represented with its bikes so far exclusively on the domestic market in Thailand.
Thailand´s bike brand Nr. 1
KAZE bicycles is a Chiang Mai based company founded in 2014. The roots of the company go back to 2010 when current CEO and founder of KAZE Bicycles, Kanate Mekaew entered the cycling industry by importing high-end bicycles to Thailand. Mekaew observed that many young riders did not have access to affordable and decent material. Therefore he founded KAZE Bicycles. Initially producing affordable aluminium bikes to give young riders the chance to compete in national events. But over the past six years the company has grown substantially, however the goal of producing high quality bikes for affordable prices has not changed. “Our goal is now to become visible worldwide, to get more people in touch with our brand. Team BIKE AID offers us this opportunity due to their extensive racing schedule and broad media coverage.” says Mekaew.
BIKE AID team manager Timo Schäfer is also excited about the new partnership: “I am very happy that we have been able to start a cooperation with KAZE Bicycles. They are highly interested in giving us the opportunity to continue our growth of the past years.”
KAZE Bicycles co-owner and engineer Vasawat Mekaew sees great opportunities for his brand to develop the bikes to the next level. “We will use the feedback from the riders to keep on developing our bikes. So far we never worked together with a professional cycling team, so I am very excited! The demand of professional riders is high, so it is a great test to prove the quality of our bikes. We will support the team with our newest 2021 Kansai 2 aero frame. I can't wait see our bikes in action for the first time soon!”
Aero is everything
The bikes in matching special paint also convinced the riders. "Aero is everything" is currently the motto in cycling and the BIKE AID riders wanted to take the next step in terms of material. At the training camp currently taking place in the Black Forest, the final fine-tuning will take place before it then goes directly to the first races.