Enduro bearings products

Their Story:

Born from the convergence of necessity, friendship, time, and, believe it or not, inspiration gleaned from a forklift.

Co-founder Matt Harvey was born in the East Bay, not far from where Enduro Bearings is currently headquartered. He spent his childhood finding creative ways to break BMX bikes, and by age thirteen, Matt was working in bike shops, learning not only how to repair his own broken bikes but also how to repair and build any other type of bicycle. This trajectory, along with a degree from San Francisco State University, led him to product design work at Gary Fisher Bicycles, then White Industries, and then Bianchi. Matt was involved in such notable projects as the Fisher RS-1 (one of the first legitimate full-suspension mountain bike designs), White Industries' bottom brackets and hubs, and the radical full-suspension Bianchi race bike that Johann Museeuw rode in the cobbled Paris-Roubaix Classic.

During his bike shop days, Matt worked alongside a guy named Mike Alders. They attended the same high school, went to the same punk rock shows, and, according to Matt, "worked crazy holiday shifts at Handlebar Bike Shop building Peugeot UO8s for last-minute parents who forgot to get their kids something." College called, Matt went to SFSU, Mike went to Cal, and the pair reconnected occasionally, usually at a live music venue. By 1995, Matt had been up to his neck for several years designing suspension pivots, hubs, and bottom brackets—long enough to have some ideas about the shortcomings of existing bicycle bearing technology. Meanwhile, Mike was working for his father's forklift business, Hydraulic Electro Forklift, and had taken to custom machining guide bearings for massive forklift masts. Bearings that were no longer available for older forklifts. Without access to the engineering drawings, Mike called his high school friend Matt to render the designs in AutoCAD. Matt immediately realized that the giant, ball-filled, ringless bearings he was designing could be perfectly scaled down for some of the high-load, relatively slow-rotation demands found in bicycles, resulting in dramatic improvements in reliability and lifespan. This soon led to the first Enduro Max bicycle bearings. A new business was born in the attic of Electro Hydraulic Forklift; a push-button phone, two Apple II computers, and a pile of bearing balls and steel rods. No longer in the attic, Enduro HQ occupies a 50,000-square-foot facility in Oakland, CA, with a friendly, experienced staff serving the bearing and component needs of global bicycle brands, distributors, retailers, and riders. Additional manufacturing facilities in Gilroy, Singapore, Taiwan, and a joint venture in China offer everything from budget-friendly ABEC 3 bearings to high-performance XD15 ceramic solutions. Enduro Bearings are installed on millions of bikes every year.

It's been over 25 years since Matt and Mike founded Enduro, but their business approach remains the same: “We listen to the problems and challenges faced by bike builders, mechanics, and riders. Then we create solutions that meet and often exceed their expectations.”

To meet the ever-changing needs of the cycling world, Enduro brings a lifetime of successful problem-solving to the table. Smooth, efficient, durable bearings tailored to your specific needs—that's Enduro Bearings.