Some unfortunate news to wake up to this morning is the announcement from Middleburn Cycle Components that they will be ceasing operations immediately. The UK bicycle component manufacturer has closed the doors of its Hampshire factory, which has been responsible for producing some of the most lust-worthy parts such as their RS8 cranks and hard-wearing chainrings.
What’s particularly interesting about the story is that Middleburn were due to exhibit at next week’s Eurobike Show in Germany, though the immediate news of their shutting down would suggest that there’ll be a vacant stand in their place.
The news story was broken by Cycling Industry News earlier today;
“Hampshire’s Middleburn Cycle Components has closed, the brand has confirmed to CyclingIndustry.News.
A favourite among custom bike builders and retro aficionados, the business started simply as an engineering firm and grew to become a specialist in the cycling market, becoming particularly renowned for its chainrings and cranksets. In 2011 the business moved its machine shop all under one roof and begun to experiment with new products and materials. Matthew Starey of Middleburn said that the assets will be sold off in the near future and is hopeful that the name may eventually re-appear.”
More updates as we get them…
Comments (12)
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Nooooooooooooooo! That sucks! I am a long time user of their cranks and for my money, they are still the cranks to have. Gutted!
🙁
Gutted love their stuff.
noooooooooO!!!!!! Middleburn cranks and UN72 are what keep me rolling 🙁
Seems a long time since they made anything new. Might be wrong, but you’ve never heard about them for the last few years. I thought narrow/wide chainrings and such like would be right up their street.
Really wanted a pair of polished RO2s for my fantasy Ti road bike. Would have looked amazing with polished White Industries hubs and a few other shiny pieces 🙁
Sad to see them go.
With you there, Sanny. Wonderful gear. Such a shame.
Hope you’re well.
Unfortunately the picture says it all it looks like it has come out of the library from the position of the bottle cage. It would seem that they had become a niche manufacturer. It always looked beautiful though. Also shimano etc stuff has become so good (ignoring the bb debate) it’s difficult to justify anything else.
I’m sure they’ll pop up on the Plannet X website in one of their sales soon enough…
“Unfortunately the picture says it all it looks like it has come out of the library from the position of the bottle cage.”
Er, that looks like a bang up to date current model Stanforth Kibo Rohloff to me, a proper touring bike, an area where square taper and ‘traditional’ but decent quality is still very much alive.
They might not have sold much cutting edge Enduro stuff (they did make narrow-wide stuff too BTW) but to say they weren’t still making stuff people want is a bit wide of the mark, there’s more to the biking world than this years new XT cranks…
Will be very sorry to see them disappear 🙁
Sad to see them go, loved my RS8 cranks.
Is there any update of what’s happening with Middleburn? It deserves better than to go out like this.