Dan Wallace: Velduro Co-Founder on winning gold at the China International Bicycle Fair

Two entrepreneurs are bringing Kiwi ingenuity to the world stage. 

Dan Wallace and Anthony Clyde, co-founders of Velduro, have won gold at the 33rd Annual China International Bicycle Fair. 

Their ‘super light carbon’ e-bike beat out 600 other bikes for the prize. 

Wallace told Mike Hosking they entered the bike in February in the hope they would get some recognition and to put New Zealand on a bit of a stage. 

He says they found out the day they arrived that they’d won an award – and he got to stand up on stage surrounded by some pretty big leaders in the industry. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good news story from a couple of Kei entrepreneurs out

(00:02):
of Tarron and Dan Wallace Anthony Clyde. They've gone on
one gold at the thirty third annual China International Bike
Fair showcasing their super light carbon New Zealand bred e bike. Anyway,
the companies called Bell Duro. Dan Wallace is in China
and he's with us morning.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning Mike, How are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Congratulations on the gold medal. How crowded is the e
bike field at the end that you're at?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
So the China Bike Fair is mind blowing. It will
take you about three days to walk the whole thing.
We went up against six hundred different bikes with our
e gravel product that we put in. We put it
in February in the hope that would have some recognition,
recognition and to kind of put New Zealand on a

(00:45):
bit of a stage, and then arrived on Monday and
then found out that day that we had won an award.
We actually thought we had won a mention of an award,
and then we actually ended up winning gold. So I
got to stand up on stage as the only kind
of European surrounded by some pretty big leaders in the
industry so absolutely amazing, rarely really mind blowing.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Did you know going in that what you produce is
world leading? Or is the market so crowded you've got
no idea what's out there?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
The market is huge, so to give us some context,
trying to produce US four hundred and seventeen million.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Bikes per year, so it's hugely crowded.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
But the difference with us, we have a point of
difference is that we have a relationship and a partnership
with a motor company called Dji, and.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
That gives us a bit of.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
A pointed difference. And if you follow anything in the
Evoke world, Dji launched about eighteen months ago and they've
just kind of disrupted the industry, blinded away.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So we knew that we would. We knew that we would.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
There'l be eyes on us. We have used top designers
and top frame factories and collaborators with leading industry experts,
and we literally only had our bike in New Zealand
being reviewed by New Zealand Cycle Journal.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
One week before we.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Arrived in China, and so they gave it a really
an amazing review. So we knew we had something, but
I was not expecting gold to be honest.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
So what do you do now because this are you
local or have you been local? Or international? And if
you are international, can you scale up and produce or not?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah? Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
So the company was founded kind of end of last
year by there's two Kiwis in it and our trying
to partner as well that we've been we've all been
in the EBUK industry for some of us up to
eighteen years. So what happens now essentially is so that
what we won the award for was our e gravel bike.

(02:47):
We have two variants. I'm actually bringing back a couple
of bikes with me into New Zealand and production has
started for that. We've wanted to prioritize New Zealand perse
so the first you know production bikes.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Are available will be available.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
To New Zealand first. What happens at like a trade
show like this is you get multiple eyes on you
from all around the world. We ended up leaving with
we've got about nine countries that won our product. We
also have three more products that are being designed in
the process over the next twelve months. One is really

(03:25):
exciting because it's a full suspension mountain bike by bringing
back a three D print of that frame that we
had on show in the show as well. The actual
carbon frame arise on the tenth to June and that
gets heavily tested in New Zealand on New Zealand Terrain,
New Zealand Riders, New Zealand Collaborations, media, et cetera. And
then if it all goes how it's planned and how

(03:47):
the designers have done it and what we're expecting, then
that goes out to market as well.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
So yes, it's amazing, it's unbelieved, excited.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Well, I'm very pleased to hear it. Dan, good to
touch base with you. Good luck with it. All is
the company, have a look at it. The websites call,
apart from anything, the bikes are amazing. Thirteen grand, so
it's top end. You can get a slightly scaled down
version at eight grand and even cheaper still you can
buy a frame only and work there. They'll explain it
all on the website if you're interested in that. But

(04:16):
that's yet another a bay of plenty brain box doing
well in the world, and I got started to get
interested in that. But when Luxen was in Britain and
he was talking about the mount Monganui company selling the
sixty million dollars worth of military drones to Starmer. So
there's a lot going on in the Bay where some
good people are doing some good work. But to be
in China and do what he's doing and winning these

(04:39):
prizes is just yet another reminder that there's a tremendous
number of New Zealanders doing a lot of good things
that we don't hear enough about often enough.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
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