While the mountain bike world went over the bars with confusion in early 2020, a few fortunate souls have seen it as a prime moment to shift things around and re-evaluate life goals. Tyrone Dines worked for Fox Europe for eleven years, where he helped develop new suspension tunes and to ensure that all of the brand’s service centers were up to speed on the latest procedures. Prior to that, he had worked for RockShox for five years wrenching and driving the World Cup race truck, and he ran a bespoke bike building service in the UK in between the two suspension gigs. The pandemic allowed Ty to make a shift back to his love of meticulously dialed bike builds, repairs, and suspension tuning.
Ty had grown tired of the corporate life, pining for the days when he was the boss and crew combined, making every customer’s bike just as unique and purposeful as his own. With no travel in the cards, the globetrotter also found himself with idle hands, unsatisfied by the computer keyboard. After a lengthy goodbye, it was time to part ways with Fox and partner with several other suspension brands to learn the nuances in their systems. He spent much of 2020 and early 2021 building relationships with those brands and meeting with their engineers to discuss tunes and specific system characteristics. Some, like Italy’s Extreme Shocks, even came up to his house to see where their gear would be serviced, and they were impressed by the level of professionalism poured into the former cow-shed that his new laboratory occupies.
Now working from his home in the mountains of Reggio Emilia, Italy, Ty’s full-service bike studio, adorably named The Unicorn Factory, services suspension and bikes from anywhere and everywhere. He has relationships with multiple bike shops in the area that need a “suspension guru” and otherwise builds, maintains, and restores bikes by picking them up himself or having them delivered. With strict Covid restrictions in Italy, a lot of customers are not able to drive and meet him for the handoff, so shipping has become a vital piece of the puzzle.
Alongside the usual bike shop services Ty also offers full suspension re-valve and tuning services where he conducts extensive phone consults with clients to learn what they want and what they have tried so far. After the parts are revealed and serviced, and the client has their bike ready to roll, the conversation is continued until the setup is dialed to the rider’s or racer’s liking. Once the pandemic calms Ty plans to do more of this setup and tuning work in the field, but for now, his customers are happy to get their setups dialed virtually.
The Unicorn Factory has been brimming with business, and Ty says that the main challenge has been with courier services. If the shipping companies take longer to return a client’s bike, or to deliver replacement parts, that reflects poorly on the shop — despite the fact that Ty has no control over it. Like everyone, he has also had trouble getting components and replacement bits, and it sounds like that struggle won’t subside any time soon.
In the world of bike-wrenching, there’s a broad spectrum of work between folks who just get the job done and those who do it with heart and passion. Tyrone is known by his friends as a bit of a detail snob — in a positive way. He’s someone who will tell you about the struggles and benefits of obsessive-compulsive disorder without being asked, as he feels it helps him with focus and precision in this detail-driven work. He’ll be working on bikes and components for Italian national champs and neighbors alike, and he can surely help you get the squishy bits dialed for the coming season. Just know that your parts will come back shining clean, functioning far better than before.
It’s lovely to see some positive stories coming out of these trying times, and we will continue to share the ways that folks have managed to make tea from the thistles. If you know of a positive pandemic story, please share it with us in the comments or shoot us an email. We would love to add more stories from your local community.
2 Comments
May 3, 2021
The dream is being followed by Ty and many out there. Ty has been wise to share his passion and knowledge with folks through his deeds, hats off to all that are doing this.
I call it stewardship.
May 4, 2021