I'm Mike Flaherty and my company is Atomlab. I started Atomlab at the end of 1996 and have been at it ever since. I have a wife, Lisa,and two kids, Jeremy (5) and Jillian (7). I'll give you a little on where I came from so you have a better idea of what Atomlab is all about.
Way, way back in the late 70's /early 80's I started racing BMX. I loved it and pretty much became obsessed to the point that I did very little else. I lost interest in school, other sports and had almost no social life. I was living in Northern Virginia at the time, so even though I wasn't all that great, the scene was just starting and I was able to do well just because I was so committed. Eventually, all that time on the bike started to pay off and I became a pretty decent semi-pro. I realized I was never going to make a living as a pro, though, so in '85 I finally had to quit racing and get on with my life. I moved to San Diego to go to college and spent years having a good time partying and taking classes. San Diego rocks! I guess I had a lot of 'social life' to catch up on. It was a lot of fun.
I started doing graphic design back in '88-'89. Around '91 I got another BMX bike and started a BMX number plate company with Darryl Crews called Sonic Speedwerx. We did pretty well for a new company. Darryl's now a top Semi-pro DS / 4X rider, movie and TV stuntman, and
still does Sonic Speedwerx. In 1994 I started working in the graphics department of Answer Products. It was an amazing job. I was able to do a bunch of ads and catalogs, but almost all of it was for the motorcycle side of the company. I wanted to do more stuff on the bicycle side, but they had a bunch of engineers and used an outside advertising agency so there wasn't much of an opportunity for me.
I had a bunch of ideas for BMX products that I really wanted to bring to life so I quit working at Answer and started Atomlab. With just a few ideas and almost no capital, my wife and I took the plunge. Over the first few years I did a lot of freelance work to keep things rolling. Over the years I've done product design for everyone from Giant to Schwinn to companies I'm not allowed to mention and designed everything from grips to forks to ads and catalogs. I still ride as much as I can which, unfortunately, is not much. Somehow I manage to get by though.

2) So what's new from Atomlab in '05?

There are 3 really big things that are new for us this year. We have a new rim which is stronger than our Trailpimp and 170g lighter - It's called the Trailpimp DHR. It's based on our Trailpimp profile and has been beefed up at the sidewall and lightened at the box section. Last years DHR was just an Aircorp rim made out of a really expensive alloy. We are also finally ready to start shipping our Quikstep clipless pedal. It took much longer to get this finished, but it is definitely right. The third thing we are introducing is our new General Issue product line. It seems like all of the low-end MTB products out there are just cheap versions of the hi-end products.

With the General Issue product line, we've simply taken a different approach. By starting with different materials and a different outlook, the General Issue product line is reasonably inexpensive, but as strong or stronger than hi-end products. For example, MTB bars are typically aluminum and taper up to 25.4 where the stem clamps. That works great for high end bars like Pro-Tapers or Monkey Bars, but the only way you can do this on the low-end is to really cut some corners. We took a completely different approach. We used Cromoly at 22.2mm all the way through to create bars that are as strong as hi-end bars, and are super cost effective -especially since the material is not tapered at the stem clamping area. You can use a 'clam-shell' adapter to use them with an MTB 25.4 stem or you can use one of the hundreds of great quality BMX stems on the market.

We also offer a super strong forged BMX style stem to go with the bars. The bars and the stem are only $30 US (each) and will definitely take as much of a beating as anything else on the market - if not more. We have fully sealed General Issue hubs that use super strong, cromoly axles instead of flexy and easily broken aluminum skewer axles. They come with a good, strong, steel cassette and are only $50 US for the 9mm front and $70 US for the rear or 20mm front. I created the General Issue product line because I think the only way our little niche of mountain biking is going to grow is if all the young groms who are down can afford to stay involved. Most of the young guys who get into MTB dirt jumping or street are bending rims and smashing their bikes on a regular basis because they are trying new things all the time and not always pulling it. Sure, down the road they won't settle for less than the really good hi-end stuff, but when they are starting out they shouldn't have to spend $70 for a set of handlebars or $500 for a wheelset.

3) For the record, how many people is Atomlab made up of?

Believe it or not, the actual company is just me and two super important people making things happen on the production side. Atomlab is incorporated and there are other shareholders besides myself, but I am the company's only employee. Froggy Khu runs the trading company that handles all of our production overseas. He and I are basically the ones running everything. Gavin Vos is a South African surfer boy who now runs an advertising company overseas. He works with Froggy and I to troubleshoot and follow up on quality control.
I do all of the product design, do all the ads and marketing, handle distributor sales, handle management, website creation, etc. Our suppliers and distributors do a bunch though. It's not like I do the work of 20 people or anything, it's more like I do what I do and my suppliers and distributors do a lot to support Atomlab. It actually works out well since everything is focused. I have a clear vision of what I want to do. I don't need to have a bunch of meetings or a complex communication system between people or departments. It can be very efficient. I've seen and experienced how bogged down and inefficient things have to get as they become a bureaucracy and I really want to keep things simple. I have a great team in place now and I am pretty excited about how things are going.

4) The component business seems like a tough one to break into. What made you want to get into it? And what separates you from the others?

I grew up riding BMX and spent a lot of the time dirt jumping and riding quarter pipes and stuff when I wasn't racing. I always had the idea that products could be made that were strong enough for dirt and street that would be excellent for racing. When I started this company,
BMX and MTB component companies were either making super light, hi-end racing parts that didn't hold up well or super strong, cheap products that were just too heavy. I wanted to make burley, hi-end products that could be used for everything. That's still what drives me.
There are now quite a few companies that are doing the same thing. I really like the what the guys at E-13, Diety, and SIC are doing to name a few. There are many little things that separate all of us though. We are all approaching the same thing from a slightly different prospective and creating slightly different products - and we're definitely making things that are different from the more 'mainstream' companies. We're definitely evolving. I think the most important thing all of us can do is work to build our niche of the market rather than go after each other. There is plenty of room for all of us and I think we can do a lot to improve what's going on. I'm stoked to see new companies who are genuinely interested in the burlier side of mountain biking. You'll find that most of our riders are sponsored by some of these other companies and that Atomlab sponsors a number of their pros. It's not some big love-fest, but we all know and respect each other and I think we all see the big picture.

5) How difficult is it dealing with the web as a manufacturer? With the proliferation in websites like Pinkbike, NSMB, Dropmachine, etc. . .
has it gotten easier or harder to maintain your companies image? I know we haven't made your life easier. How do you keep from snapping when you read negative stuff?

The problems created by the web are also opportunities. When Dropmachine had a problem with one of our rims, you got frustrated and said some negative things - but at the same time, you gave me an open forum to address your issues. There are probably some people that didn't buy Atomlab products because of this, but there are probably other customers who did buy them because of this. This kind of dialogue tends steer people away from products that aren't right for them and toward the products that are. The more people know about us and the more they know about our products, the more likely it is that they will buy something they will be happy with. The more we know about customer frustrations, the easier it is for us to address them. The web just amplifies the process.
Our pedals are a great example. I've heard negative things about the bearings we were using in our pedals. The typical one being 'I paid $100 for these pedals and its bullshit that the bearings blew out within a year' or 'or within 3 months' or whatever. Our pedals are built for people who want the performance of a really thin pedal and the long lifespan of a pedal that is fully re-buildable with replacement parts that are readily available. I wasn't about to start making big, thick, clumsy pedals just so they could fit a beefier bearing. Most of our customers understand what they are buying and are extremely happy. That's why our pedals sales continue to grow, but on the flipside, the negative comments pushed us to find a better system. Our old bearing system used the same bearings as all of our major competition, our new bearing system is beefier and by far the most durable on the market.
Last years DHR rims were a good, quality product, but issues that Dropmachine had with our '03-'04 DHR rims directly affected the development of our '05 Trailpimp DHR rims which are arguably the strongest rim available.
The wide reach of the web is scary, but overall, I think it is very positive for the sport and for companies that are trying to make the best products they can.

6) Right. You're sitting there, and you have an idea to design a new product. What traits are always present in your head when you're designing?

Performance and strength. I usually start out with a key feature that I think is going to provide superior performance - whether its just the feel, extra strength, or something completely new. Then I draw it out with nice beefy design. At that point weed off as much of the 'non-structural', excess weight as possible. You'll notice a lot of I-beams and windows in our products which lighten the product without affecting strength. If I do it right it will usually look pretty sexy as well.

7) Why "Atomlab"? Where did the name come from?

I originally called the company Atomic Industries, but when I went to register that I found that Atomic skis registered that name in bicycling. That was pretty shady because they claimed that they made and sold bicycles or bicycle products in the USA. When I realized that it would cost me a fortune to reverse their claim to "Atomic" in the bicycle industry, I changed the company name to Atomic Laboratories and began using the brand name "Atomlab", which I was able to register. I've named a ton of products and a number of brands over the years, but I have no idea where they come from. It's like naming a kid. You just run through a bunch of ideas and one just sticks.

8) So what can we expect in the future?

We're going to continue to do more of the same. I'm really happy with our current product line. I don't see increasing it too much. We may add a new rim here or there or do another seat, but our biggest goal is just refining the products that we have. I always see room for improvement. Our other major goal is increasing our distribution so Atomlab products are easier to find. I love the fact that we are a niche company and I am a really excited about where the dirt jumping/street/freeriding market is going. I just want to grow the company and do what I can to grow our niche. . . and, oh yeah, ride as much as possible.