WE ARE ONNIT

IWhat first started off as research into finding an appropriate competition bike for his young son Josh has

led to the birth of Onnit bikes, however the story did start quite some time ago. Tim McParland’s youth was spent quite a few years ago, along with what seemed like half of the kids in Silsden, Yorkshire, riding adapted

bikes which we called ‘trackers’. These were bikes that, with the help of hacksaws, welders and numerous trips to second-hand bike shops, their dads were able to modify for them, enabling them to emulate the

motorcycle trials riding heroes of the time.

t certainly developed

their trials skills, and led to some of Tim’s friends going on to win various motorcycle championships, from Centre to World, all from the grass roots of push-bikes. Such was the enthusiasm and passion to provide push-bikes for their needs that in the early 1980s his dad actually made a full suspension bike with rear linkage using a ‘rockshock’ and a front from a Puch moped… It was very, very heavy, but it worked. Things soon progressed when Montesa Cyclo trials bikes landed on our shores and they didn’t need to have homemade bikes again, or so they thought.

“There was quite a gang of us in Silsden who spent all our spare time on our bikes, when they weren’t being repaired, as the early Montesa bikes were forever snapping in various places! In stepped Keith Horseman, the well-known Silsden motorcycle engineer whose son Lee also rode a Cyclo trials bike. Keith made an ultra-light bike which was named the ‘Sapphire’. It had teething troubles which were resolved, but sadly only the one was made. So back to the now; and thinking back to all this and with more thought it seemed the natural thing to do after all the work our fathers did for us.