“I just never understood why I should slow down once we leave tarmac. In the end, it is the same, only more exciting." Eero Hämäläinen
When we started thinking about a gravel bike, we first had to define its basic orientation. We were inspired by rally racing. We had a clear image in mind: the Finnish rally driver Eero Hämäläinen. Eero was known for incredibly fast lap times as soon as the road turned into gravel.
"When you go from tarmac to gravel, your impression is that your speed is much higher than it really is. This is exciting. I got into kind of a superhero mode, it felt unreal. The faster I went, the more this feeling of being an invincible superhero flying along the road grew. So I was just stomping it." - Eero Hämäläinen.
His Mini Cooper was only lightly modified, and the setup always looked the same - no matter how the track went. We talked to some people from his environment, such as his cousin Matti. Matti was often his co-pilot but, according to him, never had much to do because Eero did everything independently. And yet, he never felt insecure.
"It was bumpy and we could feel that very well. It was certainly loud, the motor switching between roaring and crackling. But at the same time, in a very weird way, it seems like we were gliding along the road in a very calm way, just at enormous speed. It felt comfortable, actually."
One of his competitors, Ted Hart, said about him: "Eero was a great guy to hang out with. But when it came to racing… we could keep up with him on tarmac, but he just smoked us on gravel."
Our gravel bike should be just like that: fast on the road, but equally fast off-road. It should be a nimble gravel bike that also provides enough security at high speeds. For us, it was clear: this bike would be called Eero.