about us

we're on a mission...

...to make mountain biking more awesome.

Here at Guerrilla Gravity, we build highly-refined mountain bikes that are optimized for speed. Our frames are designed and built right here in Colorado. This localized setup allows us to closely link the design and manufacturing process, maintain keen quality control, and provide riders with extensive customization options.

Guerrilla Gravity has been ten years in the making, check out our history below.

THE PRELUDE

It all started when three passionate mountain bikers bonded over a love for goin’ fast.

The trio’s backgrounds meshed perfectly. All three were lifelong mountain bikers and amateur racers: Will, a born entrepreneur, Matt, a race car and aerospace engineer, and Kristy, a community builder. 

Over long road trips down to Angel Fire, NM, they discovered their individual dreams of racing and engineering better mountain bikes, backed by a company with a focus on the community. About 297 miles later, the idea for Guerrilla Gravity was born.

2011: the inception

Sitting around a dining room table, with white knuckles and a beer in hand, the paperwork for Guerrilla Gravity was signed. From that moment onward, GG officially went from a passion-fueled idea to a full-fledged LLC. 

From the start, the fundamentals of the company were outlined:

- Made in the USA

- Rider Direct

- Community Driven

All of these were designed to contribute to GG’s mission to “make mountain biking more awesome.”

2012: Humble beginnings

Like so many great companies, GG started in a garage. Specifically, Chief Engineer, Matt’s garage, the birthplace of the first-ever Guerrilla Gravity bike.

With limited resources but a lot of ambition, they took the chop saws and hand tools to begin working on the very first GG bike. After multiple design iterations, lots of manufacturing prep (which included hand-filing seat tubes), and many long nights, they created their first raw aluminum downhill mountain bike: The GG/DH Alpha prototype. 

With 200mm of travel and a new high performance/low complexity combination, the GG/DH set the precedent for the company’s forthright motto: “I like Goin’ Fast.”

2013: NEW LEASE ON BIKES

As the GG/DH gained traction, they quickly outgrew Matt’s garage. The following 20 bikes were created in a makeshift manufacturing area in a buddy’s workshop, but it was obvious that GG needed a more permanent solution. A few months later, the lease on the first GG HQ was signed.

Situated in the shadow of Mile High Stadium in Denver, the new HQ allowed GG to combine a showroom with bike assembly and provided a larger capacity for its first true in-house manufacturing setup. It was a one-stop shop for all things mountain bikes, and it allowed GG to expand both the team and vision. 

2014/2015: THE FORMATIVE YEARS

Move over GG/DH, there’s a new bike in the family. In 2014 GG took a big step forward when its second bike was created: the Megatrail. Dubbed “The Big Mountain Liberator,” the 150/160mm travel bike certainly lived up to its name. The Megatrail was one of the first bikes on the market with modern length, and was the catalyst to GG’s diverse and complete bike lineup that would come out only a few short years later.

This time was a turning point for GG, when they received both the Chase for Business Grant and the City of Denver’s Jumpstart Biz Competition. These awards helped to fund the company's next phase of growth. With this, they expanded into the neighboring space, increasing production capacity.

2016: short on travel, long on fun

The GG lineup doubled in size in 2016 with the debut of two new bikes, the Trail Pistol and the Pedalhead. The Trail Pistol was the shortest bike in the full suspension lineup, with geometry from 5 years in the future that blew up the norm (77Âș STA and 1200+mm wheelbase). This bike had everybody asking how to ride a bike with such a steep seat tube angle and long wheelbase
until they rode one. In the present day, this is referred to as modern geometry.

The Pedalhead was built as an adventure hardtail on a unique platform that featured a squared custom steel tubeset. The poppy, fun, and dynamic ride quality earned it the nickname of the “adventure hardtail.” 

2017: the beginning of the modular frame platform

Matt’s early days engineering race cars inspired a new idea for the company. Race cars were built with a modular approach, where the vehicle features interchangeable components to be optimized for each track. He thought to himself, “wait a minute, can’t we apply that to mountain bikes?” And they could. With this, the current full suspension lineup (Megatrail, Trail Pistol, The Smash, and Shred Dogg) was built out with long and short travel modes on both 27.5” and 29” wheels, revolutionizing the industry standard of a “one-bike-quiver.”

This was also the year that The Smash was launched. As a 29er with 140mm of travel, The Smash was the middle child of the lineup. One that ensures you won’t forget about it. Over the next year, The Smash became GG’s best-selling bike.

2018: REVVING UP...

In the preceding years, carbon fiber was quickly becoming riders’ preference in the mountain bike industry. While industry trends hold influence, GG is known for doing things differently. The 11 person company went back to their original mission of making mountain biking more awesome and figured out a way to apply it to manufacturing carbon bikes. 

To start, Chief Engineer, Matt, and the newly-hired Director of Composites, Ben, built up the first R&D area and began testing proprietary manufacturing methods for a new type of impact resistant carbon fiber material just recently commercialized in the aerospace industry. After a few years of research, testing, and iterations, the new type of carbon was ready to be implemented in the manufacturing of GG bikes in 2018.

2019: ONE SMALL STEP FOR GG, ONE BIG LEAp FOR BICYCLE-KIND

2019 was a revolutionary year. Scientists released the first ever image of a black hole and GG launched Revved Carbon. 

The Revved Carbon manufacturing was a patented technological breakthrough. This material allowed GG to begin manufacturing carbon frames without sacrificing durability, cost, and domestic manufacturing. After extensive testing, Revved proved to be 300% more impact resistant than traditional carbon for mountain bike frames. The measured durability had a lot of positive implications for GG’s transition to carbon. With this, the lifespan of the bike outpaced your average carbon ride. It also rendered new levels of efficiency, reducing labor time sufficiently to continue building its domestic manufacturing operations. 

Boiled down, all this engineering jargon means you get on the trail faster, your bike lasts longer, and the trails you love are less impacted.

2020: pandemic pandemonium

In 2020, things slowed down for a lot of the world, but in the mountain bike industry they sped up. GG was growing rapidly, so they bid adieu to their beloved Mile High location. Looking to not only increase output but also their team, the search for a new GG HQ began. A new spot, just south of downtown, was identified, securing a 5x larger space to keep the momentum growing. 

a look towards the future

2021 kicked off with a bang, signing Yoann Barelli to join the team. A passionate rider with mutual values and a constant mission to push the limits of possibility.

Meanwhile, the build-out of the new facility continued, increasing capacity and efficiencies with a vision to become a beacon for the reshoring movement in the cycling industry.

We can't wait to see what the future has in store.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look into how our bikes are made.