What began in the early 1980's as a curious engineer's infatuation with improving the established bicycle wheel has evolved into one of the most innovative and successful bicycle component brands in the world today.
In early 1996, Rolf licensed Trek Bicycle Corporation to manufacture and distribute his wheel designs under the "Rolf Wheels" brand name. By late 1997, Rolf's unique and patented paired spoke design came to fruition and rapidly gained worldwide acceptance. The Trek relationship produced a successful line of road and mountain bike wheels and firmly established the Rolf brand as the recognized leader in high performance bicycle wheel systems.
Although it all started with Rolf's patented Paired-Spoke Design™ technology, Rolf began to realize that pairing spokes at the rim was not, by itself, enough to achieve the ultimate in performance and strength. It was clear to Rolf that he needed to have full control of an environment with a singular focus on wheels in order to realize the full potential of his designs. So, by the end of 2001, Rolf ended his relationship with Trek and formed his own company, Rolf Prima, in partnership with Blair Winter, Brian Roddy, and TJ Walsh who all worked in Product Development at Trek during the Rolf Wheels years.
Winter was Product Manager for Wheels and directly involved with bringing Dietrich to Trek. Roddy was a principal Design Engineer on the Rolf and Bontrager Wheel teams. Walsh worked as Product Manager, heading the Bontrager components team.
Rolf and the newly formed team, quickly began work on an extensive project list to advance the development of his wheel designs. The effort produced several new design patents that contributed to substantial improvements in strength, weight and aerodynamics. Once again, Rolf's revolutionary ideas had set a new standard in high performance road wheels.
Rolf Prima is a company of dedicated cyclists, committed to providing our customers with the best products and service in the industry. We're focused on developing innovative technologies and products that push the envelope - even if we have to develop tomorrow's technology to do it. Every Rolf Prima wheel system is hand built in our Eugene, Oregon facility.
All Rolf Prima wheel systems are engineered to advance lightweight aerodynamic performance and were developed for individuals with top-level performance in mind. All Rolf Prima wheel systems are hand-built in Eugene, Oregon and are protected by numerous patents in the US and other countries with several non-exclusive license agreements in force.
