Cebu "Vellum"

A few months ago, I wrote about VELLUM Cycles, a bike frame company owned by Chris Aldeguer, son of Cebu's boxing patron, Antonio Aldeguer. Last November 12, Chris invited me to the impressive launching of the 2006 models of VELLUM framesets at the VELLUM office at the Regency Crest Condominiums, Maria Luisa Road.

Like any Aldeguer endeavor, VELLUM's framesets are well thought, well researched and well marketed products. There are three models for '06 and all are 99% carbon fiber (CF). (I probably can run out of superlatives about it so I'll just have to say that they are up there with the top of the industry standards.) While Chris is actively involved with the family business, he still felt that he had to come up with his own. A former nationally ranked triathlete, it was natural that he gravitated to the bike industry. And on March, 2004, VELLUM Cycles (www.vellumcycles.com) came to life.

Even though there are local artisans (like Moises Pongasi of Lapulapu) here making custom steel frames, putting up a business of this scale- high-end and global- is probably scary (at least for me), considering the amount of investment involved. It is difficult to make a forecast in this kind of business since there is no precedence. A simple analogy perhaps would be to put up a local car company with foreign technology that could compete with the Ferrari's and the Lamborghini's.

Chris said he was inspired by the Italian frame maker KOUTA that is into triathlon specific framesets. When German Norman Statdler won the 2004 IRONMAN World Championships in Hawaii aboard a KOUTA frameset, KOUTA's popularity and sales hit the roof.

Just what makes VELLUM high end? Two magic words, "carbon fiber". CF today is cutting edge and if you're a frame maker and you're not into CF, then you can just kiss your business goodbye. The beauty of CF is that it can be manipulated to suit specific ride characteristics while keeping the weight less than a fourth of conventional steel bike. Designed and manufactured in Taiwan, the makers of VELLUM are the same people who manufacture the CF bikes of Bianchi, Pinarello, Isaac and Moser, all venerable bike companies.

While the cradle of bicycle frame-making is still Italy, Taiwan is now the place to be in order to survive in the business. Almost all of the big players- Colnago, TREK, Merckx - to name a few, are now moving east. The exotic bike ridden by your favorite cyclist may have an Italian name but if you look at the fine print, it's made northwest of the Philippines. Technically, VELLUM is a Taiwanese based company whose heart and soul is two hundred percent Cebuano. Just ask VELLUM owners Atty. Jong Sepulveda, Sasay Salazar and Mayor Ramonito Durano and they'll tell you what I mean.

Next year, VELLUM will be sponsoring 3 international cycling teams, all US based. (A German team is also being considered). Locally, they are involved with Juvani Delica, SEAG-bound triathlete Arland Macasieb and the PAGCOR-Casino Filipino pro team.

Chris's ultimate goal is for VELLUM to go to the Tour de France. Winning the Tour, too, wouldn't be bad.

Feeling like Maurice Arcache

Some of the people seen at the VELLUM launch included Danao Mayor Ramonito Durano, Vellum's Industrial partner Mike Flores and BIKEHUB's Sankx Ontanillas. Also present were Cebu's bike cognoscenti's and wives - Jong Sepulveda, Sasay and Lalaine Salazar, Noel Ting, Joel and Ati Concepcion, endurance athlete Nonoy and Amalie Jopson, CIT's Neil Duhaylungsod and Dexter Lapuz, Ome ROdriguez and Dan Wistihuff III.