The Canadian-owned family business run by and for bike enthusiasts

XFIXXI BIKES INC, or XFIXXI for short, is a Canadian-owned family business run by and for bike enthusiasts. It started in 2015, supplying single gear bikes and parts in different brands. After years of hard work and careful selection, they solidified their own brand, XFIXXI, for the purpose of providing customers with high-quality Fixie Bikes, and sharing their favourite hobby with fellow cyclists.

This month we sit with Alvin, the founder and learnt more about their business and passion for cycles. We discovered that Alvin, started out as a bike engineer at home. As his enthusiasm for bikes and cycling grew over time, he transformed himself into a bike designer. With the assistance of many bike designers and professional riders, Alvin designed the first XFIXXI bike, the Premierè. Premierè is designed to meet the daily needs of metropolitan Canadians. A well-balanced, lightweight and durable aluminium frame, with hundreds of interchangeable parts and colourful combinations, XFIXXI’s Premierè is the first Canadian-designed, Canadian-family-owned fixie bike in Canada.

Alvin has never stopped designing and building, and there are newer, stunning and mind-blowing bikes to come. A few Prototypes are already running in the GTA. 

Read our exclusive interview with Alvin below which is really inspiring and interesting.

Hi, can you please introduce yourselves to our readers.
Hello, my name is Alvin, I have been a bike enthusiast since I was young. I’ve owned many different bikes in my life, such as BMX, MTB, Road Bikes, Single Speeds and Fixies, and became a bike engineer for almost 10 years. Out of all these types of bikes, my favourite must be the fixie. I love the simplicity of it, and it is perfect for many causal occasions. It is also a very good training bike that greatly improves my strength for road biking.

How did you get interested in bikes?
I love everything with wheels, especially bikes. I used to take apart my bicycles to investigate how every mechanical part related to the performance. I tried many ways to modify my bikes to have a better appearance and improve the performance of it. When I was 18, I worked for a family-owned bicycle store in downtown. During that time, I discovered more about bike tuning and repair technique. That made me improve my bicycle knowledge and engineering skill to the next level.

When and why did you decide to get into the business of bikes?
I never dreamed that my hobby and career can possibly be related. I investigated many business sectors, but nothing ended up working for me. Fortunately, enough, a friend of mine who is a bicycles and ATV wholesaler, hooked me up to take over some of their single speed bicycle that they wanted to clear out. They were mostly refurbished or return items. Since the price he offered was reasonable, and I didn’t mind repairing and reengineering them, I took over the lot and ended up selling almost 100 bikes in a short period of time. After that instant, I decided to turn into the bike business.

What is the local bicycling culture like?
Canadians love outdoor activities, many of weekend riders stay active by riding their road bikes, hybrids, fat bikes or MTBs for recreational purpose, and we have daily riders using their simple single gear or fixie to commute in the heart of Toronto. It is far more convenient than driving in the crowded area. Canadians simply can’t live without bikes.

When was XFIXXI BIKES INC. launched and how did you come up with the name?
XFIXXI BIKES was established in September of 2020. I wanted our name to be related to our product category (fixies). I am also a Christian and I believe God planned this business opportunity for me, which is why I wanted the cross of Christ to be embedded in my Company name. I ended up deciding on XFIXXI with the “X” symbolizing the cross.

What are single gear bikes?
Single gear bikes are simple, durable, low maintenance and affordable. The drivetrain simply operated by a single front sprocket and a single rear sprocket, a common ratio is 46:16, which is suitable for flat road in the city. Most single speed bikes’ rear wheel is laced on a flip-flop hub. It is a type of the wheel equipped with a single fixed cog on one side and a single freewheel sprocket on the other side. When the bike is set up with the freewheel called single speed setting. This configuration allows the bike to coast without peddling just like any other bikes. By flipping over the rear wheel around and using the fixed cog to eliminate the brakes, it is then called Fixie (I called it “Fixie-mode” of a single speed bike). This means that the rear wheel movement will follow the exact same speed as peddling. This riding style is more suitable for advance riders.

According to you what are the benefits of a family-owned business?
Once our business started, we realized a lot of customers prefer to support local or family-owned business because this type of business model usually has more interaction with the business owner who cares more about the service. Compared to dealing with staff members who work in big box stores, a purchase from a small business is typically more memorable. In fact, we really enjoy meeting with our customers in person to better understand their needs, and we are always more than happy to assist them to tailor made a bike that is unique and most suitable for them. Most customers that we met are super friendly as well, so we often make small talk for an hour or so. We really appreciate them as they give us good google reviews, send us referrals, and support xFixxi on their social media. A bonus of running a business like this is that we make a lot of new friends.

Any drawbacks?
Really not much of a drawback, but xFixxi became my family’s discussion topic all the times. I even turned my wife to be a bike-lover.

Tell us more about your invention of the Premierè bike. What are its main features and what makes it different?
We found that most of the single speed bikes available in Canada are very similar regardless of the brand. Usually, they are steel bikes are made with a black finish frame, black wheel and identical components, it was kind of boring. Thus, we invented something that can keep the simplicity of single speed bike but with a nicer, lighter (with Aluminium) and more unique finish. That is Premierè .

How is the feeling of being the inventor of the is the first Canadian-designed, Canadian-family-owned fixie bike in Canada?
I am proud to be the inventor of the first Canadian-designed, Canadian-family-owned fixie bike in Canada. I love what I have been doing so far, so I am very grateful for all the support from my customers and my family members.

How did the pandemic affect your business?
As everyone knows, the pandemic boosted the demand for sport related items, and we certainly got the benefit of this hit. However, the downside is that the chain reaction affects the supply badly, it caused unpredictable delays for many different bike components. Besides, inflation also followed right after the pandemic softened a bit, causing many buyers to be tight on money. Fortunately, we offer a 0% interest pay-in-4 program that helped a bit.

Now, tell us about your latest revolutionary bike run on belt-drive. What was the idea behind this and how does this feature help?
Most Single speed bike riders use their bike in the city for commute or recreational purposes. During the pandemic, we had more customers inquired for an affordable bike that is good for paved road and gravel. That is how we came up with the idea of combining the ordinary single speed bike with the gravel-ready and maintenance-free bike. We are proud to be the first Canadian bike brand to produce a bike with Gates Carbon Belt, which is 4x more durable than an ordinary bike chain. This drivetrain system is the best solution for riders who don’t want to take care of their bike as much. The carbon belt system is not just quiet and smooth, it also does not require for routine lubrication, thus, no greasy hand, or stained pants.

Where are you guys located and what services are offered?
We are an online store, but we have a workshop located at 62 Cornell Centre Blvd, Markham, near Markham Stouffville Hospital. During the peak season, every Spring and Summer, we spare out our own residential double garage space (like how Google started XD) for customer pick up as well as a place to see our product line in person. Besides sales, we also provide bike maintenance services and fully-assembled read-to-ride GTA deliveries. For any out of GTA orders, we provide semi-assembled free shipping for purchases over $500. We also provide customization options upon customer request, such as swapping different styles of handlebar, wheels, or different colour tires etc.

What are your expansion plans both within Canada and internationally?
Expansion internationally is our long-term goal, for sure, but we are not in the rush to do so. We are proud of having xFixxi be one of the Canadian designed bike brands. We hope to let more Canadian riders know about us and support us before we go onto the next step. Therefore, our short-term goal is to wholesale our bikes to some potential bike stores and sport chain, who cares about the services, and can partner and grow with us.

Your message for us at TOPS (TorontoPages) magazine.
Single gear/ fixie is a great style of bike and I encourage everyone to try it out. Although fixies are commonly seen in cities like downtown Toronto, I would love to see it grow in popularity in the suburbs as well. My goal is to share my passion and hobby to fellow Canadians who share the same interest.