Vivelo originated from Damyan Nikolov’s decision in 2007 to provide a professional cycling team - that was sponsored by two companies co-owned by him - with a special edition road racing bicycle.
For this side project he relied on the knowledge and experience he got as a competitive road cyclist during the years 1987 to 1992, on the links forged during the years 1992 to 2007 as a sponsor of different cycling teams and on five of his employees with a strong engineering and cycling background who gladly joined him in this new challenge.

After months of work, four more employees joining the project and initial tests of a prototype showing promising results, Damyan Nikolov decided to put the new bicycle to real life endurance tests and gave few samples of the new road bike in the capable hands of the men it was initially intended for: the riders of the Cycling Club Hemus - 1896, one of the strongest road racing clubs in the south-eastern Europe.

The tests were so successful and the road bike managed to transfer every fraction of pedaling force into forward motion so effectively that it was named “Erg”, after the unit of energy and mechanical work in the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system of units. "This was the first result and realisation of a childhood dream of mine", Mr. Nikolov states.

Birth of the Company
After these encouraging results a Bulgarian based company named Bike Shop Vivelo was established in the early 2009, in order to take on the production of the high-end carbon-fiber bicycle frames and the cycling team Hemus - 1896 was equipped with Vivelo Erg road bikes, sponsored as a Vivelo factory team and turned into the UCI Continental Hemus 1896 – Vivelo for the racing season 2010. This team earned the 34th place in the overall UCI Europe Team Tour Ranking for 2010.

During the same season Vivelo became a brand of choice for a second cycling team – the riders of the Greek-Spanish UCI Continental Team Heraklion Kastro Murcia also rode Vivelo Erg during the 2010 season. One of them was well known Spaniard Francisco Mancebo (winner of the maillot blanc in the 2000 Tour de France, Spanish National Champion in 2004, sixth in the 2004 Tour de France and fourth in the 2005 Tour de France) who managed to achieve important victories in 2010 with his Vivelo Erg.

The Vivelo brand is becoming more and more popular and different riders with varied needs and abilities are interested in buying Vivelo bikes. In early 2010, Damyan Nikolov established the company Vivelo AD that took care of the production of the bicycle frames and bicycles of the same brand name. New models carbon-fiber frames were introduced to the market. Eos, Fever and Raw were meant for the road cycling enthusiasts and the MTB frame named m17 – for Cross-country riders with competitive mindset and for racing enthusiasts.

Vivelo also started with the development of an entry level range of MTB bikes with aluminium frames. Mid-range aluminum + carbon fiber road bike frames named Volt and Watt from the house Vivelo hit the market in the late 2010.

Outlook and strategy
The product range is annually updated following the trends of the branch worldwide and considering the specific requirements of our customers. We offer own design bicycles, produced by modern technologies with high quality components providing maximum comfort in riding.

The Vivelo brand is a registered trademark of ViVELO Inc. and the ViVELO collection is designed for a wide range of customers with different needs and riding purposes, the accent being on the Road and Mountain Bikes category, but in 2010 we can clearly distinguish increasing demand for city bikes from the comfort series which are more and more preferred for fast and comfortable transport in the intense city traffic as well as in the quiet village regions. The annual update of ViVELO collection guarantees the unique outlook and appearance of our bicycles.

In terms of Vivelo's future outlook, it's safe to say that the company is ready to take on new challenges to expand throughout the EU as a first step, provided the right distributors are found. Volume production wouldn't be a problem as Vivelo produces their whole range in Bulgaria.

If you are an interested party for representing ViVELO in your country, please send an email to sales@cyclingfever.com and we'll get you in touch with Vivelo Bikes.

Sponsoring 2011
For the season 2011 Vivelo became a technical partner of two UCI Continental Cycling Teams. The Turkish-Bulgarian KONYA TORKU SEKER SPOR – VIVELO and of the Romanian TUSNAD CYCLING TEAM. These teams chose the new Vivelo Erg RS frame set, a further development of the lightweight racing frame set Erg. Vivelo had recent success with winning the prologue in the Tour of Isparta and Danail Andonov Petrov became the new Bulgarian RR-Champion on his Vivelo Erg RS limited edition only last week.

For 2012, Mr. Nikolov is keeping his options open. On being asked the question "Would you sponsor a mens World Tour Team or a ladies World Cup Team if the chance occurred?" The answer is short and sweet: "Maybe"