You've seen stages of the tour won on FSA components - have you ever wondered how those bits came to be on the bikes of the pros? Cyclingnewsasia speaks to Inigo Gisbert, the head Industrial Designer for TienhSien Industries, the company behind the brands FSA, Vision, Gravity and RPM.

Your new wheels?

Cyclingnewsasia (CNA): Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Inigo Gisbert: Yes, I am from Spain, from the Basque Country, from San Sebastian, and I am an Industrial Designer working for FSA, Vision and Gravity brands. I’m 33 years old.

CNA: How did you end up in Taiwan?

Inigo Gisbert: Well, I started design - I really like all kinds of product design - but cycling is my main passion - mountain, road, all kind of cycling. And if you work in this industry, you can put these two things together!

First I started working in a furniture company, but I wanted to get a job in the bike industry. So after finishing my studies, I got an offer to do an internship at SRAM in Germany, and after that original 6 months I stayed for another year there in the ID department. Then I went back to Spain and contacted a few different companies, and FSA showed some interest. And I saw some potential here, as a designer, and started working for them first in the US office, then in Italy, and then I came here, to Taiwan.

Full Speed Ahead - your headset being boxed

CNA: How did you originally get into cycling?

Inigo Gisbert: Cycling in Spain in general is popular, but cycling in the Basque Country is really really popular. Football is the first, but then cycling. Some friends of mine, when I was young, they got mountain bikes. It was 1990, the mountain bike boom time. Actually I didn’t have my own bike so I was borrowing my friends’ bikes, but I was using it more than them!

Then, another friend had two road bikes, so he wasn’t using one, so I asked if I could use it, he said OK, and I started going around the Basque Country, discovering things.

And the Tour, the first Tour I remember was 1988, when Pedro Delgado won, that was massive.

CNA: It was an interesting team that he had - Miguel Indurain was his domestique!

Inigo Gisbert: Yes, that’s right! What a domestique!

CNA: And you still cycle now?

Inigo Gisbert: Yes, for the last 20 years I’ve been cycling, riding my bike all the time. Here in Taiwan too I ride and race for a team that’s connected to a bike club, Modus Velo.

CNA: So tell us about the products that you’ve been designing recently.

Inigo Gisbert: Well for the past 3 and a half years I’ve been designing all components for FSA, Vision, Gravity...

On the floor where your latest components were probably made

CNA: So, you basically design the whole range?

Inigo Gisbert: Yes. The first thing that I did for this company  - which I saw that it needed   - was to have a plan for the industrial design. So I arranged the different brands to have different styles and different personalities based on their application. Because triathlon, and mountain biking and road racing, the people using the products for those products are completely different, the environment is completely different.

I wanted to organise the product design so that each brand would have a more distinct personality.

We have FSA for the road, Vision for triathlon [although some Euro road pro teams also use Vision products for road races- ed], and Gravity for mountain biking. We also have a brand called RPM, which is entry-level components.

CNA: What are the different criteria that you have to think about when designing for, say, triathlon compared to road?

Inigo Gisbert: Well we came up with an idea to design these brands with what we call a “Form Language.” We use different shapes and different design features for each brand, dependent on the function and the application.

For example, Vision is really designed to be and look fast, streamlined, super aerodynamic - because that’s its purpose, in a triathlon or TT. FSA is for road, so we have a few more visible edges, we use more asymmetrical shapes - all this is to bring it a different personality. The FSA brand for example has a dynamic shape, a certain ‘muscularity’ - it represents the strength of the product.

And from a product design POV, the requirements are different too - we get a lot of feedback from the different teams that we sponsor, which helps us to constantly improve our products.

We want to show people a product that is fast, strong and also looks good . . .

Tune in at this time next week for Part II of our interview with Inigo Gisbert, Head Designer FSA, Vision and TienhSien Industries.

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