Jason Rekve, general manager and president of Aero Design Ltd. is on his way to Las Vegas on Friday to meet up with Sundance Helicopters to sell more bike racks.
They're waiting for the U.S. certification to fall into place, but once that happens, Aero Design will serve the Canadian, U.S. and international market.
In fact, the Powell River-based company has already captured a global audience.
"The interest has been outstanding actually," said Rekve. "We had a list 30 deep of interested parties at the time of Canadian certification and that list has now expanded to well beyond 50 globally."
Rekve said he's shipping them as fast as he and his crew can build them.
"We currently have sets in Whistler/Pemberton, Sechelt, a couple in Nelson, a couple in Revelstoke, Spain, Austria, Iceland and the list is expanding all the time."
The racks cost $6,500 per side and to have the Aero Design mounting system installed, it's an additional $11,000 per side.
So far, the system only works on the Airbus AS350 helicopter and the team is working on developing other models.
Initially, Rekve wanted to find a way to change out the cargo baskets and then the bike racks came to mind. It took a while to fine-tune the concept in order to fit four-inch wide tires at 26 to 29 inches in height.
"We worked through multiple concepts that weren't quite simple or sexy enough until I finally came up with the current locking mechanism in the shower one morning. Once we had that in place, our whole team participated in the development until we have our current design."
Rekve said the bike racks has connected industries well beyond what they could have hoped.
"It has allowed us to minimize environmental impact for an industry that is growing and expanding and is hopefully making it more accessible to the masses. It's been a real pleasure to be part of it."
The project took about two years, from concept to the end of the certification process. Aero Design received its certification at
Crankworx in Whistler last year.
So what does it get you? More importantly is where the bike racks get you. Similar to heli-skiing, the heli-mountain biking experience takes riders high up in the mountains and away from the crowds.
Revelstoke's already on board with Aero Design's new set up and is using it in the
Revelstoke 3-Day ride that takes place in September. The three-day experience costs $900 per person and sells out at the first 110 riders.
