Philosophy
At Funk Cycles, we aim to deliver innovative, simple and elegant bicycle designs that are fabricated and finished to the highest standard in the industry. Our road and mountain frames are all made from the finest quality seamless, cold-worked and stress-relieved titanium tubing. Each frame is crafted by hand in the front range of Colorado. The many great qualities of titanium allow us to build you a frame that is light, strong, and beautiful, and yet tough enough to provide you with a lifelong partner for your adventures. We are proud to back this statement up with a strong warranty that covers the lifetime of a non-suspension frame, and five (5) years for a suspension frame. We are happy to work with you to determine the best bike and sizing to fit your needs. We offer custom geometry at no extra charge because it’s vital to us that your Funk frame fits you perfectly. Our standard frames have an attractive, durable media-blasted finish, with brushed logos and matching hand-made white-bronze head-badge. If you want to customize your bike’s appearance, we can also provide a brushed frame finish with mirror-polished logos and matching stainless steel head-badge. We can even anodize the frame decals if you want to add some color and uniqueness to your bike.
History
Funk’s signature creation was a mountain-bike frame that was tig-welded from over-sized Easton aluminum tubing. At a time when most of the industry still built with steel in narrow tube-diameters, the Funk frame had monstrous 2-inch diameter tubing to create a much stiffer and lighter platform. The bike had elevated chainstays and a shorter rear-end for more tire clearance, and a sharper, more nimble ride. This style of bike, and the performance it provided fast became all-the-rage: during its heyday in the early-’90s, Funk Cycles was hand-building over 100 frames per month. The bikes were primarily for sale in Europe (under the Scott brand) and to the high-end crowd in the USA. Funk was also a frame sponsor to a handful of small domestic teams, including Mojo Wheels.
Titanium & Full Suspension
In early 2001, Daryl Funk began work on a new design for a cross-country mountain bike. The benefits of building from titanium were widely recognized – light-weight, smooth ride-quality, durability – but the only titanium bikes being built were either hardtails or short-travel softtails, like the Moots YBB designed by Kent Eriksen. The titanium softtail designs generally offered insufficient travel for large bumps, and significant pedaling-feedback / bobbing. John Castellano at Ibis had recently made some notable improvements with his Silk-Ti design that used chainstays made from 1/4 inch titanium plate, yet this bike still offered limited travel and did not address the issue of pedaling-feedback. Daryl’s insight was to combine some of these ideas with the platform shocks that were being developed to create a true pivotless full-suspension Titanium frame that would remain active under pedaling loads without bobbing
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We continue to strive to improve the La Ruta, incorporating the latest advancements in the industry like rear thru-axles and taking advantage of the wider platform and tire setups that come with Boost and Super Boost.
