Ass Savers: from daily commuting to Red Hook
It’s not easy to ride in the rain. That’s why Staffan came with his great idea: Ass Savers
Rain, a real nightmare for any daily cycling commuter. Dressing awful waterproof trousers has the result of protecting you from the water outside but with the effect of getting you completely sweat in the inside. But there are some smart solution to avoid to become wet and dirty from the neck to the ass. An Ass Savers, and here is Staffan Weigel, the man on top of it.
I saw a lot of creative inventions to cover your back from mud and water, nothing really special though: was this lack of definitive solution that made you decide to go for perfection?
It was a coincidence brought on by necessity. I don’t like normal mudguards on my bikes and one day, when I was about to ride home from my workshop, it started raining. I found a piece of cardboard and stuck it under the saddle with the only ambition of getting home just a little bit drier. Once I arrived at home I realized it had done the job much better than expected. The thought of having a mudguard so small and easily attachable really intrigued me and I started to experiment and prototype on my way to success.
Now your product is more than an icon into the urban bicycle world, but also a lot of professional cyclists are using it, how did you get into the Peloton?
The day we first appeared in the UCI peloton was crazy. We had just done some custom Ass Savers for Selle San Marco. Federico, their former marketing director, texted me the day before Milan Sanremo and said they were gonna put some Ass Savers on the bikes of their teams because it was supposed to be really bad weather. I thought “Cool!” but didn’t really understand what that would mean.
The next day I was out for dinner with some friends and my phones suddenly started going “Ding, Ding” like crazy (back then I had a notice every time someone placed an order on our web shop). Soon friends started calling “Lars Bak went clear” — they said — and Eurosport’s commentators are talking about the Ass Savers he has at his saddle ”…new type of saddle mudguard, called Ass Savers”, crazy!”. Probably that was when it really dawned on us that this product had so much potential outside the fixed gear world.
Let’s talk about the typical Ass Saver user.
Basically it’s ourselves. To categorize: passionate cyclist between 25 and 45, somebody who cares about the look and overall performance of his bikes. The reality is that our users are a very wide group of enthusiastic cyclists from all rides of life and that’s what really motivates me. I’ve never been much for splitting cyclists into sharply defined categories. My relationship with bicycles is an ever evolving one. It started with mountain bikes 25 years ago and went nuts about it, switched into fixed gear and that’s when we started the company. Through Ass Savers I’ve gotten to see so much more of the different aspects of cycling and currently I find my peace on really long gravel rides. I think fascination and passion for the bicycle is something that the most of Ass Savers users have in common. You have to care enough to make a choice about your mudguards.
How come the handover of Fendor Bendor?
I got to know Olaf Wit (father of Fendor Bendor) shortly after Ass Savers was founded and we got along really well from the start. Both designers, we simply made a gentlemen agreement that we wouldn’t copy each other products. Later, we even went to Eurobike together and battled with sales pitches in front of the same potential customer. They thought we were bonking mad. Apparently, that’s not the way business was done. Nevertheless, we really synced on our mutual ideas about what it means to be an entrepreneur and running a company, having a really good connection ever since.
When Olaf mentioned to me that he was getting so many requests as an independent bicycle designer and he had a hard time keeping up with the Fendor Bendor stuff, I immediately offered to take over the product. For us, Fendor Bendor has always been a good alternative to the Ass Savers when it’s really wet. It was a win-win. He was really happy that his baby was in the hands of people that would care for and continue to develop it and we were really happy to have a great product to expand our range.
Who are your testers, before the product comes into the market?
We do most of the testing ourselves, although we have certain riders connected to us that we evaluate prototypes with. The final judgement is always done by ourselves. If we don’t believe that we would buy it ourselves as users, we kill it.
Do you have any new product in pipeline?
Yes.
Nothing for me to spot?
No :)
Now some personal questions: Do you have a favourite cyclist? (Cyclocross, Road, Crit, …)
I’m not a sport fanatic so I don’t really idolize cyclists in that way. Through Ass Savers I’ve had the fortune to meet a lot of talented people, including a number of cyclists and one rider that always impressed me, regardless of his results. I’m talking about the fixed gear rider Stefan “Fish” Vis. I really like his riding style. It’s very tight and somehow restrained. He’s almost like a machine on the bike, always sitting down, focusing all his power through his legs. It’s so understated, like a silent brute force. His journey back into cycling after a few rough years is also an achievement that deserves respect.
How many km are you usually ride in one year?
There’s a saying in the bicycle industry: “If your earning a lot of money, you’re not riding enough” and I try to keep my salary down by getting at least 5000 km done per year.
Smart! And how many bicycle do you have?
I have about 3–4 good bikes for different disciplines and a few cheap scrap bikes that can survive the streets of Berlin on a night out.
The bag always on your shoulders for the urban commuting
I’ve used my Mission Workshop Rambler for every single day in the last four years and it’s become a part of me. Indestructible, never fails to swallow whatever I need to carry (including a table, a huge roll of bubble wrap, cases of beer, etc)
Same feeling with my Rummy. Three accessories that cannot miss for your urban commuting
The above mentioned bag, my kryptonite lock and of course, an Ass Saver.
What do you think about the new spring of the vintage cycling?
Like I said before, I love cycling in all its forms and vintage is no an exception. I’m not a hard core collector in any way but I did a tweed run once, on a restored a 60-years-old bike. ’cause basics of bicycles hasn’t changed much since the introduction of the diamond frame, there is a lot of old knowledge still valid today and vintage cycling is a way of safe guarding that knowledge and even reinventing it.
Your favourite bicycle brand?
I generally tend to favour brands and people I have a personal relation to, but, who wouldn’t? I have two bikes that I use almost daily. One is custom built by a manufacture in Ohio and the other is a standard frame made by Specialized and I love both the same although they represent two different ends of the bicycle brand spectrum. I think it’s important to know the people behind the brand or at least what their ideas and values are.
And bicycle clothes brand?
I’m not so picky about the clothes I wear on the bike but I really like what our Gothenburg friends at VOID Cycling are doing. Nice and stylish for Scandinavian climate.
The city where you would love to ride and the one where you would never ride your bike.
It’s a very special feeling to ride your own bike in a new city, almost like a home away from home and you instantly feel like you are more than just a visitor. I really cherish that experience and try to bring a bike as often as I can. I would love to ride Tokyo or NYC but the question is if I would be able to handle Mumbay…
Nightmare!
