About

Montague Australasia

Since late 2008, Montague has been represented in Australia and New Zealand by Eureka Brands.

The original idea

The original Montague line of high-performance travel-friendly bicycles was designed during the 1980s by Harry Montague, a Washington, D.C. architect and inventor, as a result of more than ten years of research and development.

Harry discovered that there wasn’t a bike on the market that would keep up with his active lifestyle and being 6’2" tall and someone who enjoys keeping fit (even when travelling) he realised he needed was a folding bicycle. After trying small-wheeled folding bicycles he found they were not sturdy enough for his size and they were inefficient in getting him where he needed to be in a timely manner. He looked for a folding bike with standard 26 inch wheels but there was no such product on the market.

As an architect and inventor, Harry began designing a high quality bicycle that would suit his size; a bike he could take with him on his travels. He invented a full-size high-performance folding bicycle that accommodated both his height as well as his mobile lifestyle. For a number of years, Harry built and sold these custom-made bicycles out of his garage for people in the Washington D.C. area.

Montague Corporation

Inspired by his father’s early designs, David Montague formed the Montague Corporation in 1987 while studying Aerospace Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He formed the company to be focused on designing and producing full-size, high-performance bicycles that fold…bicycles that sacrifice nothing in performance and still provide the folding benefit for space saving convenience.

The first bicycle was dubbed the “Montague BiFrame” for its patented Concentrus system, which unites the two parts of the frame with concentric seat tubes, one nested inside the other. Since then, Montague Corporation won numerous awards, including the Popular Mechanic’s Design & Engineering Award. Over the last 20 years, both David and Harry have continued to work on perfecting the folding design of Montague bicycles. The Montagues have been awarded numerous patents and awards for their fine and innovative work.

Highlights over the years include the BMW/Montague Mountain bike being chosen as the Official Mountain Bike of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. They were featured in the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics. Montague bicycles became distributed through high-end consumer catalogs such as Sharper Image, Neiman Marcus, Hammacher Schlemmer and National Geographic.

In 1997, Montague won a two-year grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who recognised the importance of the folding technology, to work with the United States Marines in developing the Tactical Electric No Signature (TENS) Mountain bike. For this project Montague developed a new folding design, enabling the bike to fold faster for Paratrooper exit from military aircraft while also increasing its load bearing capacity. This gave rise to the Paratrooper®, Montague’s non-electric Military Mountain Bike.

In 1999 Montague launched a consumer line of bikes, the X-Series™, based on the original Military Bike design. Due to the success of the X-Series™ and the publicity surrounding the DARPA development, there was an overwhelming demand for the original Military Bike. Montague decided to manufacture and launch the Paratrooper® for professional and civilian use.

In 2002 Montague partnered with General Motors to design and manufacture the HUMMER Tactical Mountain Bike, a version of the military bike that folds to fit in the back of the new H2. This partnership demonstrates how Montague is spearheading a new and innovative approach.

In 2007 Montague released a new line of rugged mountain bikes based on the X-Series platform. SwissBike features more aggressive rider positioning and focus on performance mountain biking. The SwissBike XO is the lightest, most technologically advanced bike in Montague’s line up. The SwissBikes are a great compliment to the already diverse Montague line up.

In 2010 Montague debuts a new frame design and with it, an entirely new line of full size, 700c folding bikes. These bikes are designed for pavement oriented riders. The new frame design features more elegant lines and a redesigned folding mechanism that allows for a faster, easier fold. With the addition of these models, Montague is able to offer a bike for every style of riding.