Eighteen years of making carbon behave.

Timeline

1. 2008

   • Velocite founded in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, by Victor Major, who had spent two years running Cycle Taiwan, the only active English language cycling site in Taiwan at the time.

2. 2009

   • First frames: Helios, Magnus, Isoflow and Flux, with NIOC32 and MONC50 wheels. Stronglight signs on as an OEM partner.
   • The Velocite sponsorship programme opens to amateur riders worldwide. Velocite Cycling Team USA, a Boston road team, is one of the first to join.

3. 2010

   • Public launch with the Helios, Magnus, Selene and Flux. By May more than fifteen sponsored riders and teams race Velocite, among them a Dutch Paralympic rider and triathletes in Spain, Switzerland and the USA.
   • Matthew Warner-Smith finishes third solo at the Race Across America. Rodrigo Borrego takes second in his age group at the Spanish triathlon championships.
   • Helios Aero unveiled, designed with Lewis Mathiske. Velocite receives one of ten Taiwan National Entrepreneurship Awards, chosen from 80 applicants.

4. 2011

   • First trade show, the Taipei Cycle Show. Team Erdinger Alkoholfrei Australia, an under 23 development squad in Queensland, rides Velocite for the season.
   • Power2Max power meters for Velocite teams on four continents. Taiwan Excellent Enterprise Quality Award. Velocite Europe opens in Norway.
   • Daniel Carruthers wins bronze for New Zealand in the match sprint at the World Deaf Cycling Championships, on a Magnus with Noir 50/90 wheels.

5. 2012

   • Helios Aero wins the iF Design and Taipei Cycle d&i award.
   • Research agreements with the National Center for High-performance Computing (CFD and genetic algorithm design on its GPU supercomputer) and with Oxeon on TeXtreme spread tow carbon. Acer servers run live CFD of a Velocite frame at the Cycle Show in Birmingham.
   • The Matrix Fitness women's team in the UK starts riding the Geos and wins the Johnson Health Tech Grand Prix series.

6. 2013

   • RT50, one of the first full carbon road tubeless wheels. The third generation Magnus goes into a wind tunnel to check the CFD against measurement.
   • Tjarco Cuppens wins Rund um Merken in Germany on Noir 50 wheels. Matrix Fitness dominates the Bedford 3 Day, with Hannah Walker in the mountains jersey.

7. 2014

   • Matrix Vulpine rides the Geos through the first Women's Tour of Britain. The team turns UCI professional for 2015.
   • Second generation RT50 and Tenax R wheels, and Velocite Gram straight pull rim brake hubs. The first filament wound carbon rim samples come off the machine.

8. 2015

   • Venn launched at the Taipei Cycle Show: the first bicycle rims made by filament winding. The Venn Rev 35 wins a Taipei Cycle d&i award, a Eurobike Award and a Golden Pin Design Award.
   • Syn aero road frame and Tor unveiled. Velocite joins the Flanders Bike Valley innovation centre in Belgium.
   • Lee Rodgers races the seven day Mongolia Bike Challenge on a Flux 29er with Venn Rev 35 TCD wheels.

9. 2016

   • Team3M, the Belgian UCI Continental team, races on Venn Rev 35 TUC tubular wheels.
   • The Syn goes on sale, its concave down tube is patented, and a low speed wind tunnel joins the aerodynamics service.
   • Ian To wins the first Hard Cro ultra race across Croatia.
   • Patent applications filed in Taiwan for the filament winding process behind Venn rims.

10. 2017

    • Venn filament wound rims win the first Flanders Bike Valley Start-up Innovation Award at Velofollies, Kortrijk. Venn Rev 507 wide rims launched.
    • Ian To takes second at the 800 km Race Across Italy and wins Hard Cro again, on a Syn with Venn Rev 35 TCD wheels.
    • Jean Biermans, 24 hour MTB world champion and 36ONE course record holder, races South Africa's ultra distance mountain bike events on Venn Rev 35 TCD wheels: fifth at the 361 km 36ONE MTB Challenge, then The Munga, 1,075 km across the Karoo.
    • Taiwan grants the first patent for filament wound carbon rims, TW I607894.

11. 2018

    • Venn Var, the second generation of the filament winding process, which winds thin slit carbon tape instead of single strands. The first Var rim, the Var 77, is the first rim profile designed entirely by a genetic algorithm: with Professor Matthew Smith of NCKU, the algorithm searched 675 profiles before 3D simulation picked the best.
    • A second Taiwan patent, TW I634964, covers the winding method for carbon bicycle parts more broadly.
    • Venn Rea hubs, Venn Red carbon brake pads and the Venn Crater carbon bottle cage.

12. 2019

    • Venn Rea S freehubs.

13. 2020

    • Venn Var 507 brings the Rev 507 to the Var process, for rim and disc brakes. Venn Var 37 TCD, an aero rim for road and gravel disc bikes.

14. 2021

    • Venn Var 67 disc brake rim.

15. 2023

    • Venn publishes its engineering notes: how computer controlled filament winding holds its tolerances, and how the pitching moment of a deep wheel affects aerodynamics and handling.

16. 2024

    • Venn Helix-01, a helical engagement ratchet hub.

17. 2025

    • vennwheels.com opens for complete wheelsets. Venn 360 C, 470 C and 590 C carbon spoke wheelsets, and a new range of 1k filament wound ultralight rims.

18. 2026

    • Sixteen new Venn rims, among them a hookless MTB range from XC to downhill and 32 inch rims for gravel and trail.

19. Today

    • Velocite and Venn are brands of Helix Engineering LLC.
    • Venn rims and wheels for riders, builders and brands, and engineering and production work for other companies.

Teams and riders

From 2009 Velocite sponsored amateur riders and local teams around the world, and later national, professional and ultra distance racers, in road, track, triathlon, para-cycling, cross country and ultra events. A selection:

Awards, patents and research

Eurobike Award 2015

Filament wound carbon rims

For winding continuous fibre around the rim profile instead of laying up cut patches. The same Venn Rev 35 rims also won a Taipei Cycle d&i award and a Golden Pin Design Award in 2015, and the first Flanders Bike Valley Start-up Innovation Award in 2017.

iF Design · d&i award 2012

Helios Aero frame

Combined iF Design and Taipei Cycle d&i award, bicycle category. Designed with Lewis Mathiske.

National Entrepreneurship Award 2010

Taiwan business awards

One of ten national entrepreneurship awards, chosen from 80 applicants, followed in 2011 by the Taiwan Excellent Enterprise Quality Award.

Patents

Filament wound rims, concave down tube

Taiwan patents TW I607894 (2017) and TW I634964 (2018) for Victor Major's method of making carbon rims by filament winding, the first of its kind. Three international patents on the Syn down tube that keeps a bike aerodynamic with a bottle fitted (Taiwan application 104104486).

Research partners

NCHC, NCKU, Oxeon, Acer

CFD and genetic algorithm optimisation on the NCHC GPU supercomputer (2012); TeXtreme spread tow carbon research with Oxeon; Acer high performance servers; long standing work with National Cheng Kung University.

Testing

EN standards, EFBe and CHC

Safety products tested to EN standards; frame stiffness validated by independent test centres.

The founder's own account of why Velocite exists