Cedric Gracia joins Andorran based Forestal Bikes, to build… What? It kind of looks like an e-Bike doesn’t it?
We’ve been following Cedric Gracia very carefully since he announced he was leaving Santa Cruz, in fact, Andi has pestered him on a weekly basis, and finally, we’ve learned something about his future and what he has been working on.
It has been revealed today that CG is joining Forestal Bikes a startup based out of Andorra made up of a group of cycling industry veterans, motorsports engineers and even aeronautic professionals. The company claims to be developing innovative bicycles that will be manufactured in Europe and that they plan to reveal this new range of bikes in a few months time, for now, though we’re left guessing at what Cedric Gracia and the rest of the Forestal Bike team is working on.
“I’m a person who likes to go ahead and at 40 years old I think it was the time to use the 25 years of racing to the advantage of riders the world over. I have nothing against what I did before and this is just a new step in my life. I know it is a big and thrilling step, in fact some will think I’m crazy, but I have conviction and I’m a hard worker, a true entrepreneur. I’ve learnt as a pro rider where I’ve seen that when you have something right the outcome is just extraordinary. This feels right. I wanted to be part of something new, having the chance to be a developer since the very beginning. This was the time do it.” – Cedric Gracia
The press release provided to us today doesn’t go into any details about the products and the bikes that Forestal and Cedric Gracia will be working on, but a quick Google search reveals that Forestal isn’t actually a new company. Originally, Forestal Bikes seemed to be a component company only, designing and manufacturing stems. At that time the HQ for Forestal was in Barcelona.
The company seems to have been reinvented and along with the move to Andorra, Forestal Bikes has become a full-on bike brand. While lacking in detail, the press release does mention that the Forestal Bike range is made of self-designed, and developed bikes and that Forestal Bikes will be manufactured on the “European Continent”
Forestal Bikes: Is it an e-Bike?
While Cedric Gracia has been tight-lipped about his latest project, we have been asking around and from our sources, and we think we might have a couple of clues as to what to expect.
According to one of our sources, Forestal Bikes have Russian links. Whether this means Russian investors or that the bikes will be manufactured in Russia, perhaps both? We’re not sure. Our second tip is that Cedric Gracia and Forestal is working on an e-MTB or e-Bike. CG wouldn’t be the first rider to move into the world of eBikes, but it would be a surprise.
Looking at the clearest picture of Forestal’s first bike, it does seem to have a rather large downtube, surely big enough to house one of the current generation internal batteries we’re seeing released. The e-Bike rumour also seems plausible as all the press photos of the bike are either shot or cleverly edited to hide the BB.
Update: Oh yes, and there’s this! A photo showing a power button and charging port on the side of the downtube…
The only definitive detail we can take away from these photos is that the head tube appears to be adjustable, similar to Cedric’s old VIP Commencal frames and that he still seems to be sponsored by Production Privee, DVO, Abus, and North Wind.
Anyway, Cedric Gracia and Forestal Bikes have us intrigued so we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the official Forestal Instagram and Facebook Pages for more teasers.
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That’s a large entry port for the internal cable routing.