It was billed as the first power meter you wear on your shoe and hundreds of investors, many of them Irish, backed it to the tune of almost €200,000. But now Brim Brothers has ceased trading.
Having been heralded as one of the emerging bike technology company operating from Irish shores, Brim Bros has ceased trading.
The company, which was developing what it terms the world’s first wearable power meters - the Zone DPMX - had earlier this year completed a successful funding round on KickStarter.
Investors piled in, with 292 in all giving a combined €183,133 after the company went to the investment market seeking €100,000.
According to its KickStarter page, 111 people pledged €390 or more. Another 173 backers pledged €780 or more.
All were investors who were ordering and paying for the product in advance, enabling the company to fund production.
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But now there will be no products and the company says it cannot give refunds.
The new system aimed to measure power and cadence using sensors in pieces of kit that fix to cycling shoes and cleats. See video below.
The sensor picking up power was located between the cleat and the sole of your shoe. And the cadence was picked up by sensors in the straps on shoes.
The kit was also intended to measure torque efficiency and pedal smoothness as well as left-right balance.
The fact the power meters were based on cycling shoes rather than fixed to bikes, they were billed as a breakthrough easier to use product and one that could be used on more than one bike.
Despite overshooting its KickStarter target in March the company has said today it has simply run out of time and money to bring the product to market or to go any further with it.
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Brim Bros, which is based in Dublin, said in a statement on its website that it had underestimated the level of testing and refining needed to perfect the product.
This had become clear to it recently when its first production batch of wearable power metres did not have the consistency of read required from a commercial product.
The statement, issued by Brim Brothers chief executive Barry Redmond, said it was “with great sadness” that he was announcing the company was "ceasing operations”.
“We have run out of time and money,” Redmond said in his statement.
“The difficulties we have had with production quantities, together with variable accuracy of the finished units when in use, mean that we are unable to deliver and we don’t have the resources to continue.
“Over the last couple of weeks it has become clear that putting an innovative product into manufacture has more challenges than we planned for, particularly achieving the consistent accuracy that a power meter requires.
“Our first production batch demonstrated that more time and investment is needed to test and re-test new production processes.
“This is beyond our resources, and our efforts to find new finance have not been successful.
“What this means for you as a customer is that we can’t deliver your power meter, and we can’t provide a refund.
“For me personally this is what hurts most, and I wish there was something I could do to change it.
“We attempted to create the most innovative power meter in the world, the only wearable power meter, and in doing that we probably took on bigger technical challenges than any other power meter design team.
“Over the last 8 years we solved so many of the challenges, and created new technologies, but we have fallen short at the last hurdle. We very nearly made it.
“To our customers, our employees, and the many people who have supported us in so many ways I say thank you, and I’m sorry we couldn’t deliver.”
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