We’re saddenned to report that the new Bionicon Demo Center in Wofford Heights suffered a fire yesterday, Friday September 18, at about 4 in the afternoon.

A few hours after Paul had left the office to attend business in Bakersfield in the early afternoon, the neighbors noticed smoke coming from the windows and called 911. It took some time for the Fire Department to arrive by which time flames were shooting out of the store room and office windows; the building was fully engulfed.

On initial inspection it appears the building and everything in it is a complete loss. All of  the Demo Center’s inventory of bicycles, components, and the demo fleet were lost in the fire.

Preliminary investigations suggest the fire started in or near the shop’s air compressor, though fire officials have not yet confirmed the exact cause. The air compressor was in the store room along with the company’s inventory of bikes, components and parts. The intense heat of the fire was evident in the molten masses of aluminum that were once bicycle frames.

We were extremely fortunate that nobody was injured. Perhaps the most disappointing part is the amount of time and effort spent over the past three months to renovate and prepare the buiding for Bionicon, as well as the loss of personal effects and mementos.  The office and Demo Center officially opened only two weeks ago.

This is a major setback for the company, but a temporary one.  We will be re-opening and available for business as soon as possible. Please understand that phone lines are currently down, but we do have intermittent access to email.

The Kern Valley Sun posted a story with pictures of the fire.

We’ll continue to post as more news becomes available.

Kern Valley Sun

Bionicon’s Eurobike presence has been getting lots of attention, as usual. Singletrack Magazine (UK) interviewed Roger from Bionicon UK on camera. He shows off the latest BBoxx prototype and the New Bionicon Tesla, the latest Bionicon to take climbing efficiency and downhill freedom to their extremes. Click the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for the video, or visit Singletrack Magazine’s Eurobike Coverage.

The Bionicon coverage begins about ten minutes into the video.

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Bike Radar out of the UK, called the Bionicon Urban Road a “Stylish and functional geared urban machine” in their recent review of the bike. We agree!

Their conclusion was: “In spite of its apparent minimalism, the Urban offers quite a lot. All in all, this is yet another interpretation of what a good city-specific bike could look like.”

Read the original review on BikeRadar.com

Shot by Martin Bissig in Switzerland…

Bionicon’s Urban cargo was introduced in Europe earlier in the year, but most of our brethren across the pond are getting their first glimpse of it at Eurobike this week. Here in California there are already some Urban Roads out on the streets, and we’re looking forward to introducing the Urban Cargo at Interbike.

On Road.cc and UrbanVelo.com the Urban Cargo is described as “Part cruiser, part load carrier, part urban machine…” They also show off the Urban Road in a series of close-up photos.

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A great little video showing how the Bionicon system works, and how it functions on the trail.

More Bionicon-related videos can be found on our Video page.

MTBR today published a re-print of the Mountain Bike Tales review of the Bionicon Edison. This originally appeared in Mountain Bike Tales back in February, when we were just getting started with this blog. It’s a stellar review, and we definitely had some Bionicon believers after the month they spent with the Edison LTD.

Their conclusion:

In this day and age where riders continually seek one bike capable of conquering half a dozen different riding disciplines, Bionicon has answered the challenge unlike any other bike company in the world. After spending a month with the Edison, we believe we may have finally figured out why Bionicon doesn’t classify their bikes’ versatility as all mountain; the label’s simply too restrictive.

You can read the review here on MTBR or the original version from MountainBikeTales.com

BikeRumor and other web sites are today spreading word of the B-Boxx, Bionicon’s internal planetary geared front derailleur transmission, which is making it’s debut today (September 4, 2008) at Eurobike.

Bionicon’s presence at Eurobike is large, and the B-Boxx debut has been much anticipated. If you happen to be in Germany for Eurobike, stop by and visit the Bionicon crew in stall FG-A7/4.

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Millimeters Gear Review blog has just posted a very in-depth review of the Bionicon Edison LTD. Reviewer Matt Phillips compares the geometry change of the Bionicon’s on-the-fly system to other adjustable travel and geometry systems on the market. Matt is known for his thorough, thoughtful and accurate gear reviews. Read what he has to say at http://millimeters.mountainbike.com

WideOpen Dirt Bike Magazine out of the UK just released their latest issue with a review of the the Bionicon Ironwood. The current Issue #7 for August 2008 can be downloaded in electronic PDF form for free from http://wideopenmag.blogspot.com/2008/08/wideopen-issue-7-is-online.html

In it the reviewer says:

“On the trail I was surprised at how much fun the bike was and found myself chucking it into berms, off drops and through rock gardens with easily as much confidence as my familiar DH bike. I was even more surprised at how nicely the bike jumped and it felt really happy in the air, giving me loads of confidence to push it further.”