PHILOSOPHY

Having a run-of-the-mill production line spitting out the same bikes day in and day out is not for us. After all, the world of bikes so colourful and so beautiful! Why limit ourselves to just a few selected components and one or two colours? All the more so in the world of recumbents where just a small number of bikes is produced every year, this world must fight for its place in the sun where classic pushbikes rule and do not like to budge. Our philosophy is based on several clear points on which all our actions are based.

Your happiness is our happiness

We love building recumbents for you. That is why most of us are in AZUB and why so few people leave AZUB. And because we really enjoy it, we do not want to spoil what we have here by arguing with people or brushing them off. Our aim is for everyone, and we mean every single person, to feel good about dealing with AZUB in any way. And it does not matter whether they are our dealers, customers, suppliers, or job applicants. True, there are times when we cannot live up to our expectations, often through no fault of our own, but to work, to feel good about it and to have a peace of mind is very important to us.

Friendly attitude

We “meet” most of you only via our computer monitors, but we are people of flesh and blood and we will be happy to meet you wherever it might be possible. Most often this opportunity comes at trade fairs or at recumbent gatherings. These times always fill us with positive energy and boost our spirits to carry on in our endeavour. We try to be friendly, over time many of our customers have become true friends. They might find things are a bit more difficult for them then, as “ordinary” customers come first and friends after.

Modern technology has its place in the world of recumbents

Much more money and people are involved in the world of classic bikes that push forward the development of whole bikes as well as details. Every year, top global brands bring hundreds of new products on the market. Some of them are meaningful and will catch on and others will fade away. From this point of view, the recumbent world is a little bit behind and there are years when nothing fundamentally different appears. That is what bothers us. We believe that it is necessary to explore the world of classic bikes and notice the innovations that might be useful to us too. Anyway, that is what we try to do. To give an example, for us it has been the Syntace axle, using traditional shifters or experimenting with some new things like the Shimano Metrea. However, we often go with the open minds of our customers and set out on non-traditional paths we think are perspective, such in the case of the Pinion. Nevertheless, not even we can predict what will succeed and what won’t. One product that flopped was our e-HUB. Even the name! Who in their right mind would at a time of electric bikes emergence name something so not electric with the letter “e” at the beginning… We had it on offer for less than three years.

Recumbent community

We care about recumbents a lot. We therefore strive to improve their image as much as we can, promote them whenever possible and move the whole industry a step further. One of the ways we like to do so is sponsoring long-distance expeditions, and there have been many indeed. However, the most impressive thing has to be the moments when two or three or four of our recumbents “bump” into each other somewhere in the world. Even though nowadays this happens several times a year, we are still awestruck by it. And we also believe that recumbenters need to have opportunities to meet, for example at recumbent get-togethers. Every five years we organize one of the larger ones close to our place of business, but we try to support others as well. Trade fairs too are very important for us. We have been taking part at the SPEZI since 2003 and at the Recumbent Cycle-Con in the US since 2011, its very first year when only 400 visitors turned up. And at all these events we want the visitors to have fun. For instance, at the SPEZI 2017 we organized a small recumbent reality show where our mechanic Miro Ozimý built two tricycles in two days exactly as he does here in our workshop.

First-hand experience

How else to create a good product than by testing it yourself and getting first-hand experience during the development phase as well as after it is marketed. This is certainly true for bicycles. Our sales and marketing manager, Honza, has travelled through dozens of countries and tested not only several two-wheelers but also a tandem and some tricycles. Equally, our designer Tomáš rides an AZUB MINI, Miro the mechanic even builds his own ones and our accountant won the district round of Cycle to Work scheme in 2017 with her AZUB Bufo. So our own experiences are combined with yours that are sent via e-mail or Facebook. Rest assured, without them we would find it hard to move forward.

Home-made

In the beginning, there was no other way than to make everything right here in Uherský Brod and nearby. Aleš Zemánek even welded the first few frames by himself. Today, it is our philosophy to produce the complete frames, well, the whole bikes really, here, in the Czech Republic. We oversee the whole manufacturing process and although our frames are not made directly in the AZUB building, we know most of the people who bend, weld or paint them for us in person. We like to give jobs to people from our region, as we believe it’s fair and effective. It is also the reason we do not expect to move our production further east anytime soon.

Colours brighten up the world and the mind

Since we have talked about the variety of components, we must also mention the variety of colour. We love colour! Colour makes the world more beautiful, which is why we have created the Colorshop. And because our bikes are almost completely made in the Czech Republic, we can apply to final finish in accordance with the customer’s wish. So you may choose from many basic colour variations and countless other shades at an extra cost. What is more, you can opt for different colours of individual components. True, sometimes we can’t get our heads around your choices but hey, there is no accounting for taste. And it is like that with everything, we strive to meet our customers’ wishes.