HUNT BIKE WHEELS | The Rider Firm People

Specialist in composites and aerodynamics, having wind tunnel tested her wheel designs with no less than 3 World Tour Teams.

Luisa Grappone hails from the motherland of cycling, pink jerseys and big mountain climbing (aka Italy), but has made the move to Sussex to further strengthen the Hunt wheel development team as our full time in-house wheel engineer. With an MSc in Aerospace Engineering Luisa has a wealth of experience in the bicycle industry having worked for a total of 9 years at Italy's two most prestigious wheel companies with much of her life spent sweating over hot CAD drawings, carbon fibre lay-ups and crunching wind tunnel data.

Tom is Hunt’s Product Manager, co-founder and owner of Hunt and has a BSc Honours degree in Ergonomics from Loughorough University. With an eagle eye for detail and a drive to deliver purpose focused wheels, Tom agonises about every aspect of what we do here at HUNT | TheRiderFirm. Having started out riding and racing downhill MTB back in the day, then finding XC/marathon MTB and road racing, and even the odd CX race he's covered most bases, probably just because he loved the excuse to get new bikes. Tom still mixes it up with regular road and MTB rides and events, his biggest day out so far was riding the 165 mile Tour of Flanders cyclo full distance a couple of years running. With a long history in the UK Bike Industry, including a strong focus on wheels and sourcing bike components from all around the world, Tom links Hunt to its manufacturers, the team here in Sussex and wherever our wheels are being ridden all over the globe.

John helps design, test and produce your wheels.

Asides from being the father of Tom and Peter, John is one of our in house engineers. Heavily involved with our Research and Development department as well as being able to hold his own during time trials (sub 23 minute 10 miler and he's over 65!). John brings experience to the table and makes sense of all the details behind how your wheels perform. He has some serious history with the black stuff and was a Production Manager at Advanced Composite Components who produced one of the first F1 carbon fibre chassis for Alfa Romeo (who are coming back into F1 now). John also made carbon under-bodies and wings for Indy Cars and managed the production of the first carbon fibre spinnaker poles for ocean racing yachts. Periodically John spends time in the Isle of Man as well as down here in the South of England. John also hammers his wheels through all types of weather and riding conditions to push our 4Seasons mantra to the limit.

Dan just graduated from the University of Brighton, where he studied Product Design Technology. With his advanced technical knowledge from his degree, and many years experience working in the cycling industry, he manages our Warranty department to ensure our customers are kept rolling. Dan is a MTB lifer, and so has a key role in feeding into our product development on the gnarlier side of things. In addition, Dan acts as the primary contact for sponsored MTB athletes, keeping them happy testing our latest and greatest.

Shirley is one of the first employees here at The Rider Firm / HUNT clocking up a total of three and a half years. Previous to starting here, Shirley was a dry liner on a German building site so she sure knows how too keep everyone in line here. We are yet to get Shirley riding, but she is most definitely warming to the idea!

Tom comes from a wealth of experience riding and racing all kinds of bikes. Having competed in everything from Downhill to TTs as well as successfully completing an 'Everesting' attempt of Knights Hill in West Sussex. Tom recently received his 3rd Cat License by winning the final race at the SDV Goodwood Race and taking 2nd from a breakaway in the race previous. This coming winter, Tom has his sights set on cyclocross as the next discipline to try his hand at in the near future. When Tom is not riding or talking about bikes, he's always hunting for those extra watts to try and better his 10mile TT PB of 21:43. Tom will be part of our customer service team and ready to answer any questions you have.

Growing up riding trials and evenings spent mucking about at local skateparks, it’s fair to say Sam's most comfortable with riser bars and flat pedals, but happy to clip in and get the road miles in too. Sam has been working in the bike industry since school, covering various roles from mechanic, sales and shopfloor management. After not being able to resist the calls of the Canadian mountains any longer, he moved out to Whistler working as the Technical Representative between GT bikes and resort ensuring everyone from staff, patrol and one-off guests alike had a great brand experience.

Now back in the UK, Sam is excited to keep the BC momentum rolling, and scratch the travel itch at the same time, by exploring trails a little closer to home.

An MTB obsessive, he is lucky enough to live at the foot of the South Downs, which is where he heads whenever he gets a chance. He spends most of his waking (and some of his sleeping) hours thinking about where and what to ride next. Robin has 20+ years professional experience as an illustrator/designer, which he still finds time for, but enjoys his days at The Rider Firm and being surrounded by all things bike and people who like to ride them.

Jack helps you find out more about our wheels and oversees any direct communications you may have with the rest of the team here.

Jack, AKA ‘Twed Flanders’ for his recent tash addition and uncanny resemblence, is currently a road mile basher hitting up 150+ miles just on his weekly commute! Jack grew up on the trails of Derbyshire on his MTB, moving up to Downhill racing through BMX, so he’s pretty much covered all bases and has wide knowledge of bike tech. A veteran of several years working for one of the UK’s leading cycle specialists Leisure Lakes, Jack most recently worked as an award winning customer service expert at American Express who have a huge focus on world-class customer care. Jack also has an impressive education including a 1st class honours degree and a Masters in Social and Political Thought so you can imagine the levels of care Jack goes to make sure he does his best for customers!

Sarah first got into mountain biking after being convinced by her husband to start riding. Six years on she now has more Strava achievements than him! Sarah mostly rides mountain bikes and after a few years of upgrading and moving on she has managed to land her dream bicycle - a Santa Cruz Bronson, and she also has a rather sweet carbon Trek road bike too. At TheRiderFirm, Sarah is the main point of contact for our OE clients as well as clothing manager.

After semi-retiring, Lee has come to team from a background in IT management wanted to rediscover his passion for bikes. What better way to do that than by working at TheRiderFirm! Lee will be helping out across all of the teams here at Hunt, making sure you get your wheels on time and answer any questions you may have!

Former manager of South Downs Bikes, Alex has come to the Hunt Team to make sure everything is running like a Swiss watch. But like a Swiss army knife his riding switches between the MTB and road. You can find him taking on the Roubaix Sportif one weekend then smashing laps at BikePark Wales the next. As a self-confessed Trek fan and collector of retro bikes, his stable is certainly one to be jealous of!

One of Steyning's original locals, from building and riding Steyning trails in its early stages at the age of 13, Dom's grown up with this place and its surrounding area. Racing from the age of 14, proudly claiming a successful Youth and Junior rally of wins and podiums, including Red Bulls urban downhilll race through the University of Plymouth, taking the top step in Junior. After graduating from Plymouth University, studying Graphic Design he went on to travel the world, riding season after season, from the French Alps to Queenstown, New Zealand. After slowly falling out of love with racing, Dom went on to start creating media content, using his degree, working with photographers, gaining a new purpose for riding his bike again. He gained article features in worldwide online magazines such as Pinkbike, Vital MTB and Spoke Magazine.

Dom will be floating in and out of Whistler for the next few years, creating as much content as he can, representing HUNT along with a few of his other sponsors, doing his best to succeed in both his career and riding.

Matt has over thirty years racing experience from BMX, Cyclocross, TT, Road, MTB, Triathlon & Hill Climb. He even competed in the first ever UK MTB race and is a pioneer of 24 hour solo racing. Matt has tested bikes and products for numerous magazines and bike companies and was a key player in the 29er revolution with many days and nights spent chewing the fat with Keith Bontrager and Gary Fisher.

His favourite cycling moment has been the work he's doing with Sustrans - going into schools and seeing the look on kids' faces when they ride for the first time! He's now joined The Rider Firm to help with exhibitions and events and also give our dispatch team a hand to get your wheels ready and shipped as fast as possible.