1985
The birth of Avanti – a New Zealand bike brand with an exciting future!
The first Avanti bike takes the market by storm – the locally assembled 10 speed Strada series – check out the gold handle bar tape!
THE RIDE STARTED IN 1985.
When we started in 1985 no one dreamed you could operate a world-class bike brand out of New Zealand, and definitely not one that could deliver uncompromised performance, style and value.
Well, we never worried too much about what others said couldn’t be done.
Here's our journey.
1980s
Avanti is born and we establish ourselves in the ‘land of adventure’ firstly with road offerings and soon after a locally assembled mountain bike for the trails.
1986
Triathlon emerges as a serious sport and the highly successful Sprint series and the awesome Evolution become favourites amongst athletes for leg two.
1987
Instantly successful the Revolution causes ‘a bit of a stir’ as the first locally assembled mountain bike in New Zealand. Keepin’ it Kiwi!
1990s
A busy decade! We Leapt across the Tasman to Australia, introduced Path & Trail bikes, created our first carbon fibre bike and developed full suspension mountain bikes.
1990
Time for the Kiwi to spread its wings. We leap the Tasman and enter the growing Australian market. The lucky country welcomes Avanti with open arms.
1990
A new decade and a new innovation. The locally assembled, cro-moly Illusion was launched with ‘the comfort of a mountain bike yet the speed of a racing bike’ - a completely new cycling concept. Illusion opened the door to a whole new range of Avanti Path and Trail bikes.
1991
Getting racy with our catalogues! Remember the 90’s?
1992
The Montari becomes our most popular model and dominates the celebrity race at the iconic New Zealand Top Town competition. At the time it was the place to be. It’s still the bike to ride.
1993
A new monster sized catalogue introduces the new Avanti logo.
1993
Avanti launches some striking bikes like the Tuatara which had the classic strap line of ‘shock your grandmother with this beast!’ And we bet you did.
1994
We start fully assembling bikes in Australia and at the same time enter the full-suspension market for the first time with the interestingly named ‘Shocker’ to rave reviews.
1998
Avanti goes large with the monster 185mm rear travel Moto series down-hill bike. It was one of the first downhill-specific bikes to hit the Australasian (& world-wide) bicycle market.
1999
The Cosmic F1 takes off. Made in Italy with the best in carbon fibre, this was one hot looking hard-tail (we would say that) that just happened to be light, compliant and quick.
2000s
Olympic gold medals, Ironman victories and World Championship Track titles. Avanti helps riders climb aboard the top of the podium!
2000
As we enter the new millennium the Avanti range goes 21st century and expands to 27 different models (Just ten years later and we now have well over 100. Look out 2020!).
2002
Technology becomes increasingly important as carbon enters the road range on our Corsa Carbonio models with carbon chain stays, forks and seat posts reducing weight and increasing compliance.
2003
The ever-popular Blade hits the streets for the first time. The Blade ‘sport road’ bikes remain some of our best selling models to this day. Light, quick and comfortable to ride – who wouldn’t want one?
2004
Hamish Carter and Sarah Ulmer both win gold at the Athens Olympics while Bevan Docherty takes silver. Brilliant!
2005
The two years of development effort for Sarah Ulmer’s gold medal winning track bike is adapted to create a new range of high performance road and hard-tail mountain bikes. Carbonio and Competitor introduce Avanti customers to the performance advantages of carbon frames.
2005
Avanti rider and Australian ironman hall-of-famer Jason Shortis wins three Ironman championships in one year i.e. Japan, Australia & Florida
2006
Twenty years of building bikes is celebrated with the limited edition Team Carbonio. A road race machine with stunning nude carbon and orange highlights finish. Outstanding in a bunch sprint and the mark of a real milestone for Avanti.
2007
Avanti goes global as bikes start to be sold in China and Singapore. Meanwhile tube to tube carbon technology takes our Competitor mountain bikes to the next level.
2008
After a four year development program the new Chrono Team ‘time trial’ machine is launched complete with all new M.O.D.S. chain stays and Oval jet stream forks. Awesome power transfer and a world first in aerodynamics.
2008
Hayden Godfrey becomes World Omnium track champion on his Avanti Pista.
2008
The Savings and Loans team continues to dominate the Australia racing scene.
2008
New Zealand Team Pursuit Break New Zealand Record and claim Bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
2008
Chris Jongerwaard takes out the Oceania MTB Championships, the Australian MTB Championships and the Benelux Cup in Belgium in a stellar year aboard his Competitor Team.
2009
We adapt learning from the development of Chrono and unleash two new carbon road weapons - Quantum and Cadent. Our team of pro riders achieve great success riding both these bikes and magazines feature complimentary reviews.
2009
The Subway-Avanti team take out the top four places astride their Avanti’s at the NZ Elite National Road Championships.
2009
Ali Shanks becomes World Champion at the World Track Championships in Poland with a new personal best of 3min 29.8sec on board her Team Pista.
2010s
25 years of Avanti celebrated as we move deeper into the Asian markets. It’s been an exciting journey so far and it only continues to get better.
2010
Cameron Brown takes out his ninth New Zealand Ironman with his best ever bike split on his new Avanti Chrono
2010
Asia becomes increasingly important and our bikes are now sold in Thailand, Malaysia and Japan as well with 19 professional Japanese triathletes selecting Avanti Chrono and Quantums.
2011
Celebrating 25 years of Avanti! Thanks for buying or riding an Avanti. Life’s full of amazing journeys and we’re grateful that you’ve chosen us to be part of yours. We’re proud to still be an Australasian based business that designs all of its own bikes from the ground up to give you the best riding experience possible.
2011
We form a partnership with New Zealand based cycling team, Pure Black Racing, with joint vision to be on the world stage at the Tour de France.
2011
The Pista and Chrono Evo II are launched to achieve great success; Project Evo II (Chrono and Pista) wins Gold at New Zealand Best Design Awards, and the Chrono also takes home an internationally coveted Red Dot design award for product design.
2012
The Corsa DR (Drag Reduction), is launched. Designed with the proven performance of the Corsa SL, and the aero features of the Chrono, the Corsa DR wins Gold at New Zealand’s Best Design Awards.
2013
The Ridgeline Carbon is launched, adding a carbon development to Avanti’s full suspension mountain bike offering. The Ridgeline Carbon scoops up Silver at the New Zealand’s Best Design Awards.
2013
A new addition to the Corsa family, the Corsa SL launched. This is our lightest bike and achieves our best stiffness to weight ratio ever. The Corsa SL receives a Silver at wins New Zealand Best Design Award.
2014
We partner with the Avanti Racing Team. The team’s tagline, Team Work Wins Races, proves true with their success as Australia’s number one Continental and NRS cycling team.
2014
Cameron Brown wins his 11th Ironman in Taupo. Not only is this quite the haul, but with this win Cameron also broke two records – becoming the oldest Ironman champion, and the Ironman with the greatest number of wins from the same Ironman event.
2015
Celebrating 30 years of Avanti. 30 years of pioneering and pushing innovation in cycling has been quite the ride! We couldn’t get to this milestone without you, thank you for your support in helping us achieve this.