Clint Powell and Dawson Wheeler sat down with Brad DeVaney, head of Product Development at Litespeed Bicycles.
Mr. DeVaney's life on the bike began at 5 and at eight years old he went from top regional BMX racer to national level talent, traveling the country on a national circuit as a factory team rider for Schwinn. As Mr. DeVaney grew, so too did his love of riding; if there was a start line and finish line, Mr. DeVaney was in. He raced for a road team in the mid ’80s that provided the team with used Team 7-Eleven bikes—providing Mr.
DeVaney his first experience riding a titanium bike. In the late 80s, he discovered a penchant for triathlon, and mountain bike racing.
While working in shops, doing wheel builds and even his own custom frame painting job on the side while in college in the late 1980s, Mr. DeVaney would occasionally build show bikes for Litespeed in Chattanooga. The work led to a part-time gig, and with a mind full of concepts and ideas, he challenged the company—during an era of pretty staid round-tubed designs— on how to change the shape of titanium tubes in the interest of improved performance. It wasn’t long before Litespeed offered him a full-time job on the design team.
It wasn’t long before Litespeed—and Mr. DeVaney—became in-demand with in-the-know pros. Mr. DeVaney was the man in charge creating many of the rebadged Litespeed bikes that riders like Lance Armstrong were riding under different auspices. Once passing muster of the pros (and Mr. DeVaney), many of his progressive designs made their way into production and came to define the point of differentiation between Litespeed and any other titanium bike manufacturers.
“I was creating benchmarks, and always wanted to do something remarkable with titanium,” Mr. DeVaney said of his job. ”And I still do.”