The motorsport company Brembo just announced that they are entering the cycling industry through providing brakes for the Specialized Gravity Team. Brembo is the second component manufacturer to come over from the motorsport industry to sponsor the Specialized Gravity Team. This felt out of the ordinary to me, and with some deeper research I discovered that Brembo recently acquired Öhlins in January of 2025. So, this new entry of Brembo into the MTB market is less surprising. Despite the cycling portion of Öhlins’s business being only a small fraction of their overall business, it is good to see that the new owners of Öhlins still see value in the cycling industry. Brembo is taking the entryways that Öhlins has provided to the cycling market and is doubling down on this by bringing another potential product category in the form of brakes.

My Takeaways

There are a few main takeaways that I deduced from this news. Firstly, that this increased commercial interest in downhill sponsors is a telling sign that there is still more opportunity in downhill. Secondly, the fact that Brembo, a motorsport company, chose a non-e-bike discipline to spearhead their entry into cycling has some takeaways. Finally, the choice of Brembo to expand upon Öhlins’ presence in the cycling world says things about the expectation of the future growth of the cycling industry. Join me as I expand upon these points.

Commercial Interest in MTB Racing

Wow, I have been surprised by the continued growth of commercial interest in MTB racing. I could likely write a whole article on why this is so surprising. In short, the media broadcast rights to the UCI World Cup recently changed hands, and most people in the community are not too happy about it. This meant that the historically free-to-stream broadcasts are now behind a paywall. This means that fewer MTB enthusiasts have the means to watch these broadcasts. Additionally, the new owners of the rights, Warner Bros., have made some changes to the format of the racing in attempts to make them more appealing to a mass audience. These changes have not been widely appreciated by the MTB enthusiast market. However, the market shows that these changes have, in fact, increased the expected future reach of MTB racing. This can be shown through the recent sponsorship increase by specifically non-cycling industry companies, and Brembo is another example of this.

Brembo Choosing DH Over E-bikes

One of the most obvious trends in cycling right now is that e-bikes are here to stay and are going to be an important part of the industry moving forward. This market segment has attracted several companies from the motorsport industry. Yamaha offers motors, GasGas, who make dirt bikes, made a big push with an e-bike line, and even companies like Ducati, who make exotic performance bikes, have an e-bike line. There is a more solid connection between the motorsport background of these companies and e-bikes than pedal-powered bikes. For this reason, it is surprising that Brembo has targeted a non-e-bike segment to be their foray into the sport. I believe that this is because they view downhill as the ultimate proving ground for bike tech. Ten years ago, this was arguably the case, but these days it is less clear with the popularity of e-bikes and enduro. The path that Brembo chose confirms that downhill is still the king of cutting-edge tech.

Bullish Forecast For The Cycling Industry

The final and most important takeaway that I was able to gather from this news is that the doubling down in the cycling market by Brembo is a signal that companies still have an optimistic outlook on the cycling industry. The last few years have been tumultuous for the cycling industry. Therefore, it is exciting that these companies who historically have not been in the cycling industry are choosing to enter it. Developing products and marketing to a new segment both take money to do, and these companies would not be spending the money unless they are expecting to be able to see a return on this money spent.

Moving Forward

Moving forward, I’m excited to see how this story continues to unfold. It will be interesting to see if the Brembo/Öhlins brand will continue to push further into the mountain bike market. It looks like on the moto side of their business, they make an Öhlins motorbike fork with built-in Brembo calipers. A similar innovation like this would cement Brembo/Öhlins as brands who are on the cutting edge of bike tech and are dedicated to moving the industry forward.