Czech bike maker Equator Cycling rebuilds after fire with Edice 34

This summer, a fire took quite literally everything from Milan Šimek, co-founder of the Zlín-based titanium bike maker Equator Cycling: the warehouse, the workshop, the showroom and the unique titanium frame prototypes the company had spent sixteen years creating. A few months later, his family business hasn't just recovered — it has launched a special limited collection in memory of the building that burned down.

The fire destroyed part of the famous Baťa industrial complex that housed the company. While rebuilding was under way, Šimek took client calls straight from home, and the company's mechanic, Ivo Caudr, assembled new wheels on his knees on his own terrace. The company put the damage at several million crowns, and the insurance dispute still hasn't been settled.

Despite losing all of its physical assets, Šimek decided not to give up. "In the hardest moments, we realized the fire had taken our premises, but not the most important thing — the brand, the experience and the community of people around us," the entrepreneur recalls.

In October the company unveiled a new product: the limited Edice 34, named after the number of the building that burned down. Every bike in the series carries a special logo referencing the layout of the destroyed building, and buyers receive a certificate with a serial number. The collection includes both carbon models, deliverable as early as December, and hand-built custom titanium bikes with a lead time of around six months. Orders close on 31 October 2026, and the company has no plans to repeat the series.

Rebuilding the business meant starting almost from scratch — the Šimeks had no spare premises to move into right away. "The decision to keep going was the easiest part. The practical side turned out to be much harder: finding a suitable space, re-equipping the office and workshop, rebuilding stock and getting production running again so that clients would wait as little as possible," Šimek says.

The company is building its new infrastructure around a different strategy: instead of a single central base, the business decided to spread out in order to reduce risk. Since September, the office and showroom have been gradually opening on the fifth floor of a building in Zlín, while the service department, workshop and warehouse have been moved to nearby Otrokovice. For the first time, when choosing premises the company seriously looked at evacuation routes and fire safety — a lesson learned the hard way that has changed its priorities.

Today the company's online store is running normally again, and clients are returning to Zlín for in-person consultations — when building titanium bikes, Equator still relies on an individual approach, working with each customer to choose the frame size, geometry and the smallest details. For the Šimeks, the past few months have been a serious test, one that examined not only the company's internal resilience but also the relationships built up around the brand over sixteen years. "We realized just how fragile a foundation built over years can be. But in the end, this experience turned out to be largely positive — we saw just how strong the community around us really is. And Edice 34 is our way of giving everything we went through a lasting meaning," Šimek concludes.