Michael Howes is custodian of one of the worlds’ oldest bicycle brands, Malvern Star.
As he explained, he’s very mindful of Malvern Star’s 111 year history and drawing upon this for inspiration for new models.
Michael is certainly not a novice in the bicycle industry, having worked for a range of different bicycle manufacturers wholesalers and retailers over many years.
In a previous role at Giant, he had significant input into the design and styling of their global range of bicycles.
But now he finds himself in charge of a genuine Australian cultural icon.
“I’m a Kiwi originally, but I’ve been here 20 years and I’m married to an Aussie, so I’m genuinely very respectful of what I’ve been given to take care of and to evolve,” he said.
“There’s not many bicycle brands out there, you’ve got Schwinn and maybe Raleigh, who can lay claim to similar sort of heritage. It’s quite a responsibility really so I’m thrilled to be able to take the brand in directions like this which I think just remind people of what’s behind the name and how deeply it is entrenched in the psyche of the Australian cycling community. For example I’ve got one of my dealers down here, Gordon Lawrence. His store was part of one of the old factories, I believe.”
“Things have started to settle down a bit after the acquisition (of Pacific Brands) and all the brands are starting to quite nicely work out where each one needs to sit in the market,” said Michael. “We’re really trying to make sure we focus each of the brands on where it’s most appropriate for the consumer that’s interested in that product.
“For Malvern Star, obviously a big part of our focus is family and lifestyle. So we’re really just making sure that kids categories, ladies and lifestyle categories, the entry level mountain bikes are really sharply focused on sub thousand dollar product. We’re making sure that it’s a really good quality, nicely put together and well represented product that offers exceptionally good value for money and is backed up with what you’d expect from a quality brand in the industry including lifetime warranty and sourcing from quality factories.
“That being said, the range does extend up into the road bike areas with carbon road bikes up to Ultegra level still. We’ve capped that a little bit lower than last year. Just again all with a view trying to make sure we put product into the market that really is appropriate for each of the brands.
“When I did the alloy Malvern Star road bike last year I ‘familied up’ the look of it with our existing carbon bike which was new into the range when I started. It’s an endurance geometry bike. So I shortened up the top tubes, all the things you expect, taller head tube, longer wheelbase, a bit more comfortable riding.
“The research that we get access to still shows that in the Australian market Malvern Star still has the highest recall rate of any brand,” Michael continued. “I’d say this would be skewed to an older demographic for sure. It’s something we’re working on towards the future. Making sure that we still promote the long history of the brand, but we try to link it into a more contemporary sense in terms of the product and marketing and what consumers are being exposed to.
“The longer delve deeper into the brand, the more I’m trying to make connections to the heritage product.
“Last year we brought out the Malvern Star Wisp ladies bikes, which are a retro steel ladies bike. That was a model name from back in our day and it’s been a very successful product for us as well into that ladies market. Just comfortable, lifestyle, retro, nice looking product that’s functional and one thing that I really like to make sure of is that it’s affordable as well.
“It’s got to have all the look and the styling and the fashion elements, but it has to work and it has to be achievable for the average consumer as well. We’ve got to take care that we’re true to our heritage.
Introducing the Path Racer.
“The Path Racer is a brand new segment that we’re looking to introduce later this year. It will be a late launch 2015 product.
“I looked at the retro fashionable, particularly steel market that’s out there and a lot of brands have really good strong broad offerings for the ladies market and I wanted to bring a unisex product in as well. Pretty much if it’s other than fixies in the steel men’s market or steel unisex market if you like, there’s very high end boutique European brands offering something with a bit more styling to it and then there’s guys who are just restoring that old frame out of their back shed or dumpster diver kind of rebuilds that they’re restoring or whatever.
“Much like we did with the Wisp for ladies, I really wanted to bring something into the men’s market that genuinely makes sense under the Malvern Star brand. They’re still a moving target because I literally just got these to the show on Sunday morning when we started and we built them out the back in the container so I’ve got a few things I need to fix.
“I’d been looking for a year or two for a product that offered something a little bit different in the market for men. I started seeing the old photos in some of our Malvern Star history folders of the path racer style of bike and did researching online.
“They’re from around the 1930’s and 1940’s. It’s what the guys used to race on the weekends. They run these North Road style of bars that they could race on the track on the weekend and then they’d flip them up the other way around and ride them to and from work every day of the week. So they were sporty and practical and I kind of liked that link as well.
“I then started looking more closely at, ‘What was the geometry of the original bike and how did it fit with the more modern day rider?’ I had to tame them down a lot. This is steeper. It was 68 degree angles originally—seat and head tube, with 120 or 130mm rake forks! (laughs)
“These prototypes are about 70/70 (degree seat and head tube angles) and the fork rake has been tamed down to about an 85 to 90mm rake.
“I wanted them to be authentic and to definitely have all the styling cues of the originals. They’ve got similar shaped, North Road handlebars, which I find kind of amusing because in a Melbourne sense all the hard road rides start at North Road every day of the week.
“In line with where the brand is positioned as well I wanted to make them affordable so you’ve got a chromolloy steel single speed bike that starts at under $500.
“We’ve had a lot of good dealer response to it. There’s a few little details I still need to fix up. The fork crowns for example are polished on the sample and they’ll be chrome for the production bikes, but there’s some nice little links. It’s something that I thought just fitted perfectly. We relaunched our new head badge last year, so you see the 1903 head badge up the front. Lots of little features like stainless steel hose clips so it’s got a really nice clean retro look. Fastback seat stays… it’s just something I’ve had a lot of fun working on.”
