Ari Bikes is a cycling brand founded in Orem, Utah, in 2005. It is headquartered in Lindon, Utah.
In 2016 the bike company then called Fezzari worked out of a Lindon industrial park across from a steel company, on a road that ended at a dump. Nobody could see it from the freeway, and nobody needed to: more than 70 percent of its customers never set foot in the shop. The company still sells direct from Lindon, now under the shorter name Ari.
Chris Washburn left a corporate job at Lee Iacocca's electric bike company and built the first frames in his Orem garage in 2005. The first batch went to Costco. Two years later he went after the high end. Bike shops turned him down, so he took the bikes online. Every order gets a 23-point custom setup built from the rider's measurements, and the company offers a lifetime warranty.
Washburn is still the CEO. The flagship Timp Peak was named for the mountain visible from the Lindon office. On March 5, 2024, Fezzari became Ari, which the company says means to exist or be. Washburn said the old DNA would show up "in every detail down to the name," and it does. Ari is the last three letters of Fezzari.
In 2016 every Fezzari shipped with a note in the box signed by the tech who built it, a job that took 90 minutes to three hours depending on the model.
People love these bikes, and they ride great. Ari did a lot for Utah biking, especially through COVID.
Alex
