The stems and seat posts of the Canadian premium brand Syncros adorned many high-quality bikes at the beginning of the 1990s. And if you'd been raiding your piggy bank, you could sometimes even afford a set of the elegant steel cranks with matching bottom bracket. However, because the bike enthusiasm of the old crew around Pippin Osborne and Peter Hamilton was far more pronounced than their business acumen, they had to sell their luxury brand to the Californian bike manufacturer GT at the end of the 90s. Shortly afterwards, when GT also got into financial difficulties, the Taiwanese bike giant Pacific Cycles took over the helm. As a result, Syncros parts appeared on fewer and fewer bikes - with the exception of the rims.

Following Tom Ritchey's announcement that a Syncros headquarters with its own development department is to be rebuilt in British Columbia, fans of the Canadian premium parts can rejoice - provided they are not lightweight fanatics. The Pacific coast north of Vancouver is considered one of the world's most challenging biking areas, and the imaginative "North Shore Trails" in particular - often dizzying wooden constructions on the steep, densely wooded slopes - have gained worldwide fame. According to Tom Ritchey, the new Syncros team will now use this biking area as a real-time laboratory for the development of components for which no load is too heavy. In other words, the old motto "Hammer and Cycle" is being revived, and freeriders, downhillers and trail shredders can rejoice.