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Industry<\/a><\/p>\n After 13 years leading design at Specialized, Erik Nohlin walked away from the bike industry’s biggest megaphone \u2013 and from a farm in rural Sweden, found he had more to say than ever.<\/p>\n Erik Nohlin<\/p>\n The cycling industry is full of interesting people, most of whom spend their careers working largely behind the scenes: marketing, designing, creating, optimising. In contrast, Erik Nohlin, the influential lead designer best known for his 13 years at Specialized, doesn\u2019t naturally exist behind the scenes; he\u2019s one of cycling\u2019s best-known designers, in part because he helmed big projects at a prestigious bike brand, and in part because he is thoughtful and outspoken about his work and the industry that contains it.<\/p>\n Selected highlights from his resume: leader\/founder of Specialized\u2019s Adventure category (he designed the Sequoia steel gravel bike and the AWOL, as well as the company\u2019s bikepacking range); heading the Tokyo Olympic and several Peter Sagan collections, covering bikes and apparel; lead designer for the forward-looking Roubaix SL6; managing the development and release of the Globe e-cargo bike, which won Bicycling\u2019s Bike of the Year award in 2023 and quickly gained a 28% category share in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n I last spoke to Erik back in the CyclingTips days<\/a>, where we chatted about his elaborately custom-painted S-Works Aethos that he\u2019d built as a \u2018forever bike\u2019. It was ill-fated: he was hit by a car minutes into the maiden ride, writing the bike off and denting both Erik\u2019s health and enthusiasm for riding. In the years since, we\u2019ve checked in from time to time and I\u2019ve followed his moves on social media.<\/p>\n He got back on the bike, and he got back to work on some big projects.\u00a0And then, last year, there was what seemed from the outside to be a dramatic pivot: he moved home to Sweden, walking away after 13 years at Specialized. He now lives a radically different\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and slower\u00a0\u2013 life on a beautiful organic farm in the country\u2019s rural southeast.<\/p>\n I wanted to understand that process: the human journey from living in San Francisco as Specialized\u2019s principal designer, working at the cutting edge of cycling as a corporate and creative space, to forging a totally different path, on his own terms, in creative partnership with his wife Sofia at Nohlin Studios<\/a>. Kind of consulting, but not. <\/p>\n Together, the Nohlins have a utopian vision for a new way the cycling industry could operate: finding time and space to think big things, unconstrained by the corporate hustle. From their property, “we do the long walks, we go for the rides, we go for the runs, we pick the vegetables in the garden, we cook them together, we drink wine together, we laugh …. we make the time to listen and build relationships and partnerships.”<\/p>\n We caught up for a wide-ranging chat, about life at Specialized, life after it, and just life. I found it a thought-provoking and inspiring discussion, and wanted to share it with you.<\/p>\n This post is for subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Iain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Iain-Treloar-150x150.jpg\")
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