Highs n Lows – Sam Burkhardt
We catch up with Sam from Transition Bikes to see what his highs and lows were in 2013
Full Name – Sam Burkhardt
Job Title – International Sales and Product Manager for Transition Bikes
What does that mean? We’re a small enough company that everybody does some of everything, but I manage all of our orders with our international customers, I do all the bike geometry & parts spec. I also work with Derren who does all the graphics, and colours and frame designs, and with Kyle who interfaces with the engineering overseas. Kind of everything to do with managing all the little details.
High of 2013 so far? I went on a really sweet float plane trip in Northern BC, but that has nothing to do with Transition! We did a lot of testing with 650 stuff, and we were kinda a bit secretive about that, but obviously that’s the way the industry is going with stuff – pretty excited that the stuff we were testing this year was working well and seeing that coming into the 2014 production bikes.
Low point of 2013 so far? Er… we are pretty happy people all round, so no low points!
Highlight of the 2014 line up? For me it has to be the Covert 650b with the X01 build is going to be our real hot popular bike, but we’ve also been working on the new TR450 – that’s going to be a bit of a later delivery, it’s due this spring.
Best ride of 2013? Float plane trip in the Chilcoatins!! But there has been a ton of fun rides – we are close enough to BC that I’ve done a load of trips up there, and mixing it up with some motorcycle rides as well.
What’s caught your eye at the show this year? Honestly, not a shocking and overwhelming year – not really seen anything that’s jumping out at me, but it’s cool to see that folk are settling in on some stuff. There’s some wild hybrid electric bikes out there!
Where do you get your inspiration from? We just think about what we’re doing and what we want to ride. It’s pretty much us and our friends, and we see what’s working for us, and getting a lot of time on the bike to narrow in on what you want on your bike.
Thanks Sam!
Check out the new TR450 Prototype