NuVinci Cycling is doubling the production capacity for its continuously variable N360 bicycle transmission to meet strong demand from Europe's eBike manufacturers.

“This capacity increase is in response to significant demand growth and will allow our cycling division to maintain short lead times for our bicycle products,” said William G. Klehm III, vhairman and CEO of Fallbrook Technologies Inc., which owns Nuvinci.

Nuvinci is based in Austin, Texas, but began relocating production of its Harmony and Harmony H|Sync intelligent auto-shifting systems to Zwolle, The Netherlands last year to ensure short delivery times.

“The expanded capacity is key to keeping up with the increased demand we are seeing in the fast-growing eBike market,” Klehm explained. “We gain more than increased total capacity. We are also able to offer higher flexibility with shorter lead times and consistent quality. The expanded production facility will include new test machines that enable us to continue our procedure of functional testing on 100 percent of our production.”

“Our customers need flexible ordering options, together with predictable and consistent product delivery,” noted David Hancock, Executive Vice President  of NuVinci's Cycling Division. “Our expanded production capacity will meet those needs not only for our existing products but also for other product offerings that we plan to announce later in 2015.”

In addition to the increased production capacity, Fallbrook's NuVinci Cycling division has augmented its sales, service and support staffing.

Wim de Koeijer has been appointed to a new position of Service and Support Manager – Global. De Koeijer is responsible for managing and enhancing the NuVinci Cycling support function. A cycling industry veteran with extensive service experience, de Koeijer most recently served as the Benelux Dealer Service Manager for SRAM, LLC, before rejoining Fallbrook.

In support of this new structure, Bart Bakker has been promoted to Technical Service Manager. He will lead the European customer service and support team in Zwolle and will be reporting to de Koeijer. Bakker has worked for Fallbrook since June 2014 and was originally hired as a Senior Service Technician.

Philip Plagens has joined the NuVinci Cycling team as Sales Manager for Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, reporting to Sales Director Roland ten Brinke. Plagens will be responsible for building long-term relationships with key customers, dealers and industry contacts. Prior to joining Fallbrook, he was a Sales Manager for Pinion bicycle gearboxes.

Plagens is a passionate mountain biker with a university degree in sales and marketing. Working from Southern Germany, he will also represent the NuVinci Cycling team at trade and customer shows and generate new opportunities through business development initiatives.

Fallbrook Technologies is the developer of the patented NuVinci continuously variable planetary (CVP) technology, which can improve the performance and efficiency of machines that use a transmission, including vehicles, stationary equipment, bicycles, and others.

Nuvinci uses a set of rotating spheres between the input and output components of a transmission. Tilting the spheres changes their contact diameters and varies the speed ratio. NuVinci CVPs can be configured to replace multiple planetary gears, providing significant efficiency and performance improvement in a compact package.

Major automotive transmission suppliers have licensed the NuVinci technology for the development of automotive class drive trains, and a market-leading supplier has licensed the technology and is developing NuVinci Optimized transmissions for electric and gasoline light vehicle applications.

The first commercial products incorporating the technology are the currently available N360 bicycle transmission and the Harmony auto-shifting system for bicycles, which includes the N360.