Ridley Australasia offer a unique Custom Painting opportunity

Brisbane based Bicycle Frame Painting market leaders Paint My Bike and distribution experts FE Sports have combined to form a partnership with Ridley Bikes Belgium creating Ridley Australasia. 

Ridley Bikes, a brand that immediately conjures up images of harsh Belgian cobbles, gruelling Spring Classics racing and powerful sprints thanks to the exploits of the iconic Belgian Lotto-Soudal Team and Andre (The Gorilla) Greipel as well as world-class all-rounders like Thomas De Ghent and Australia’s Adam ‘The Crocodile Man’ Hanson. After a slight disappearance over the past couple of years, Australian customers are seeing a considerable increase in activity from the Belgian brand thanks to the appointment of new distributor FE Sports and their partnership with Paint My Bike forming Ridley Australasia who have been given full authority to paint and customise their bikes on site. This innovative distribution model for Ridley bikes in Australia means shorter lead times, quality work, and effective communication when it comes to producing the desired products for the paying customer.  

CEO of Ridley Bikes, Jochim Aerts has complete faith in FE Sports’ ability to uphold his company’s reputation saying that, “after working with the Paint My Bike and FE Sports staff at our facilities in Belgium, we are confident that they can provide the same quality as we do”. Ridley’s company motto is: ‘What you want, how you want it’ and this rings true with the FE Sports’ distribution model. “We had never anticipated distributing bikes in Australia,” said FE Sports’ Danny Brkic, “but we realised that with a different style of business model we could actually add a lot of value to the industry, the retailer, and the consumer.”

 “The reason why this was so appealing to Ridley is that they actually see it as a business model which gives customers and retailers a product exactly how they want it. This is actually how the owner of Ridley started his business – he started as a frame builder and a painter, so this new project is very near and dear to his heart.” Said Brkic. Ridley was founded in the 1990’s solely painting frames but after a few years decided to design and build frames of their own. By the late 90’s Ridley Bikes were born and quickly became the market leader in Belgium for racing bicycles. 

Customers have the choice of three options when ordering their Ridley:

1. Stock factory paint scheme
2. Pureline. A choice of two colours (decals and frame) for a small up-charge
3. A Complete Custom design priced by Paint My Bike through Ridley Dealers.

Ridley Pureline is an incredible service that sets a new standard in customised bicycle painting. FE Sports is the only distributor worldwide permitted to paint Ridley bikes outside of the company’s Belgian headquarters. President of FE Sports, Branko Brkic said that his company needed Ridley to have a point of difference saying, “we wanted to provide the discerning Australian cyclist the same level of customisation and personalisation available from the factory in Belgium.” Perhaps even more impressive is the ability to customise frames in just 5-7 days from order to delivery, a time-frame significantly faster than any other custom painting program currently available.  

It is a big investment but Ridley and FE Sports believe their partnership can deliver the Australian and New Zealand market with high end, custom bikes with short lead times at a terrific price.

Ridley Bikes are Available Now through the carefully selected FE Sports quality dealer network.