One of France’s most recognised cycling brands is splitting. Time has confirmed that its pedal and bicycle businesses have successfully been acquired by SRAM and the Cardinal Cycling Group respectively.
Located nearly perfectly in the middle of France, Time has been innovating within the clipless pedal market since 1987 and since then, some of the most storied riders in modern cycling history have pedalled a set of Time pedals. These include Greg LeMond, Miguel Indurain and Tom Boonen.
Beyond its extensive pedal business (which tallies nine road and three gravel options), Time also produce three carbon-fibre frame models.
Acquired a few years ago by Rossignol, recent market conditions forced a reassessment of Time's business and two transactions have now been completed to change its ownership. The first gives American component powerhouse, SRAM, control of Time's pedal business across both mountain and road operation, while the Cardinal Cycling Group will take Time's road bike portfolio and carbon-fibre producing assets in France.
Closing a gap in SRAM's portfolio
SRAM’s purchase of Time's pedal division makes perfect sense, as this is an area where the American company has not successfully countered Shimano. With the acquisition of Time, there is an opportunity for SRAM to compete among the best road bike pedals, with an established range of products valued for their float and comfort.
This might also create an opportunity for SRAM to use Time's designs for a new range of pedal-based power meters, consolidated as a single product line.
The SRAM LLC group is already establishing itself in the power meter category. Its Quarq brand manufactures some of the best power meters available, and the company also acquired PowerTap - a brand known for its pedal-based power meters - in 2018, before recently discontinuing the range.
