Gravaa, the Dutch company which pioneered a self-inflating and deflating tyre system allowing cyclists to adjust and monitor tyre pressure while riding, has filed for bankruptcy – less than a year on from the brand’s technology being used by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on her way to victory at Paris-Roubaix Femmes.
On Wednesday, the Eindhoven-based company was declared bankrupt by a court in the Netherlands. The news was confirmed to road.cc this morning by a spokesperson for the brand, who attributed the bankruptcy to the company’s struggles to obtain enough orders in the “current market environment”.
First introduced in 2023 and officially launched in 2024, the same year it was confirmed as an official partner of the Visma-Lease a Bike men’s and women’s teams, Gravaa tasted success at the highest level of the sport last year, with its innovative self-inflating and deflating tyre tech.
The brand was understood to have been aiming to infiltrate the commuter cyclist market in 2026, plans that have been kiboshed by this week’s bankruptcy news.
2025 roubaix Pauline Ferrand-Prévot gravaa system 2 (credit: road.cc)
However, the spokesperson also told road.cc that the company could be revived in the future, following interest from within the cycling industry, while it is possible that Gravaa tech could still be used by professional teams and riders this season, with the company’s app and back-end remaining operational “for now”.
“Gravaa started serial production in the Netherlands since last year and things were going quite well,” the spokesperson said, when approached for more details on the future of the company and its links with professional cycling, including its partnership with Visma-Lease a Bike.
“Of course, the partnership and use of Gravaa by Team Visma-Lease a Bike helped us and there was concrete interest from other road teams and gravel racers. Gravaa was available for the consumer market as well, via our own web shop and retailers.
“But it was difficult to get enough orders to be able to scale turnover and make any margin. We all see the financial struggling the bicycle industry is still facing after [Covid-19], and this made it hard to get significant orders.
“Even though we have the option to produce Gravaa high-volume/low cost, it turned out that converting this capability into sustained OE orders proved challenging in the current market environment.”
2024 gravaa riding shot 2 (credit: road.cc)
The Gravaa spokesperson continued: “Some industry parties are showing their interest to take over the assets and restart the company.
“We are ready for it and hope this will lead to a stable solution and the success of Gravaa we aim for. Our app and back-end will stay operational for now and we have products on stock, which means teams and individual racers still can ride and use Gravaa in the upcoming races.”
Gravaa’s self-inflating and deflating tyre technology allows the rider to adjust and monitor tyre pressure while riding via a pump that’s integrated into the hubs, with a hose running to the valve, and using buttons on the handlebars.
At the core of the hub is the kinetic air pressure system (KAPS), which Gravaa described as a miniature patented mechatronic system. This system, said to weigh 450g, features a pump driven by the rotation of your wheels and a clutch that automatically engages and disengages the pump. For rapid deflation, booster valves are activated to release air quickly.
Tyre pressure inflation or deflation is activated using wireless shifters which resemble satellite shifters mounted on your handlebars.
2024 gravaa front hub 2 (credit: road.cc)
You can increase your tyre pressure by 1 bar/14 psi per km with a 40mm tyre, or decrease your tyre pressure by 0.5 bar/7 psi per second, according to Gravaa, and you can view tyre pressure via a Garmin or Wahoo head unit thanks to ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity.
In addition to manual activation, Gravaa is designed to detect pressure loss and automatically activate the pump as needed.
2024 Gravaa valve hose (credit: road.cc)
Gravaa’s system was first used in the professional peloton by Visma-Lease a Bike during the 2023 classics season, with Edoardo Affini debuting the KAPS tech at Dwars door Vlanderen before Dylan van Baarle and Christophe Laporte raced with it at the 2023 Paris-Roubaix.
Team DSM (now Picnic PostNL) had previously tested out a similar self-inflating system, the Scope Atmoz hubs, during the 2022 season.
After a brief period of inaction in the peloton, an updated version of Gravaa’s system was used by Marianne Vos as she secured the 14th rainbow jersey of her career at the UCI gravel world championships in October 2024.
That same month, Gravaa officially launched the system and made it available for pre-order, with wheelsets featuring the tech available for around £3,200. Alongside the launch, Gravaa was also confirmed as the official supplier of Visma-Lease a Bike.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, 2025 Paris-Roubaix (credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
That partnership paid off spectacularly last spring, when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos used the tech at Paris-Roubaix, with Ferrand-Prévot using it to solo to a superb debut victory at the Hell of the North, three months before her historic triumph at the Tour de France Femmes.
A month before that Paris-Roubaix success, Visma-Lease a Bike’s teenage British sensation Matthew Brennan also won the GP Denain while utilising the tyre pressure system.
The benefits of using the Gravaa system at a race like Paris-Roubaix, where 55km of the 259km route feature rough, jagged cobblestones, are obvious, enabling riders to inflate and deflate their tyres as they switch between road surfaces, increasing comfort and handling on the pavé while retaining speed on the asphalt.
Wout van Aert almost crashes in the Forest of Arenberg during Paris-Roubaix recon ride, 2025 (credit: VTM)
However, the tech didn’t always go to plan for Visma-Lease a Bike. In the build-up to last year’s Paris-Roubaix, Wout van Aert crashed in the Arenberg Forest during a recon ride, after puncturing at speed while testing out Gravaa’s system.