Adam Miller recently bought Revel back and is moving its HQ to the Front Range. (Courtesy Revel)
Adam Miller is packing up his saddle bags and riding into Golden.
The founder and owner of Revel Bikes, who recently bought the business back from private equity, is moving the company from Carbondale to the foothills. He will join a stable of Golden bike brands like Yeti Cycles and Spot Bikes when he gets his warehouse up and running at 150 Capital Drive.
“After buying the company back, I knew that it was all about resetting and building the company into a modern, direct-to-consumer e-commerce business by making our fulfillment and operations far more efficient,” he said.
“We’ve done that in so many ways,” he continued. “But a warehouse in Carbondale to build and ship bikes does not fit that.”
Being on the Western Slope since the company started in 2016 had its perks: mainly the easy access to trail riding and mountain-town feel. But as Revel expanded, the remoteness of Carbondale made it more costly to do business – especially shipping costs. Plus, it added two days to ship compared with Golden, mainly because of the distance to DIA.
The company also fought weather-induced shipping delays when sections of Interstate 70 closed. Miller said that happened multiple times a winter and would push back shipments three to five days for a Revel bike, which costs between $4,000 and $11,000.
“It’s just more expensive to ship a large bike from a mountain town that doesn’t have any shipping lanes,” Miller said. “And we’ve had to pass on costs to customers and take cuts into our profitability.”
Revel has a manufacturing and distribution facility in Taiwan, which it will keep, Miller said. That’s where the business makes its prototypes, along with international shipments, and Miller said the move to the Front Range will help grease the wheels of efficiency on new product launches.
“It costs more money to ship that (prototype) from Denver to Carbondale than Taiwan to Denver,” Miller said. Sometimes, that would lead him to drive the nearly six-hour round trip to pick up a bike.
The high costs extended to Miller’s staff, too. Carbondale’s real estate prices exploded in the past several years. And even though Miller said he pays his employees more than the average bike brand, living in the town has become increasingly unaffordable.
Miller will bring three of his six Carbondale workers with him to the new HQ and hire six more.
“Part of building a successful business is employees are happy and excited to go to work every day,” he said. “And having basic housing is a stable step in that.”
Adam Miller founded Revel Bikes in 2016. (Courtesy Revel)
In Golden, Revel will have a showroom so customers can come and demo the bikes. About 1,200 square feet of the property will be dedicated to that and office space, while the remaining 6,000 is warehouse. Miller hopes to get the warehouse up and running by March 1 and have the showroom open in the weeks after.
He signed a five-year lease for the property and also looked in Denver and Boulder before settling on Golden. The new HQ is also nicer than Revel’s Carbondale spot, Miller said. There, he had to contend with leaky roofs and other distractions of an older building.
He still plans for Revel to have a Carbondale presence, likely with a showroom.
Miller said compared with last January, when the private equity firm Next Sparc was still running Revel, sales are up 300%. He said 2025’s revenue was up a few percentage points from 2024’s $10 million, though that figure was a “significant drop” from the years prior.
In the coming years, his goal is “healthy” annual growth in the 20% to 40% range.
“We settled on what so many other bike companies figured out before me by being right in Golden,” he said. “It checks all the boxes because it’s smart from business-sense, there’s a great population here and you can pedal your bike to world-class trials right from the office.”
Adam Miller recently bought Revel back and is moving its HQ to the Front Range. (Courtesy Revel)
Adam Miller is packing up his saddle bags and riding into Golden.
The founder and owner of Revel Bikes, who recently bought the business back from private equity, is moving the company from Carbondale to the foothills. He will join a stable of Golden bike brands like Yeti Cycles and Spot Bikes when he gets his warehouse up and running at 150 Capital Drive.
“After buying the company back, I knew that it was all about resetting and building the company into a modern, direct-to-consumer e-commerce business by making our fulfillment and operations far more efficient,” he said.
“We’ve done that in so many ways,” he continued. “But a warehouse in Carbondale to build and ship bikes does not fit that.”
Being on the Western Slope since the company started in 2016 had its perks: mainly the easy access to trail riding and mountain-town feel. But as Revel expanded, the remoteness of Carbondale made it more costly to do business – especially shipping costs. Plus, it added two days to ship compared with Golden, mainly because of the distance to DIA.
The company also fought weather-induced shipping delays when sections of Interstate 70 closed. Miller said that happened multiple times a winter and would push back shipments three to five days for a Revel bike, which costs between $4,000 and $11,000.
“It’s just more expensive to ship a large bike from a mountain town that doesn’t have any shipping lanes,” Miller said. “And we’ve had to pass on costs to customers and take cuts into our profitability.”
Revel has a manufacturing and distribution facility in Taiwan, which it will keep, Miller said. That’s where the business makes its prototypes, along with international shipments, and Miller said the move to the Front Range will help grease the wheels of efficiency on new product launches.
“It costs more money to ship that (prototype) from Denver to Carbondale than Taiwan to Denver,” Miller said. Sometimes, that would lead him to drive the nearly six-hour round trip to pick up a bike.
The high costs extended to Miller’s staff, too. Carbondale’s real estate prices exploded in the past several years. And even though Miller said he pays his employees more than the average bike brand, living in the town has become increasingly unaffordable.
Miller will bring three of his six Carbondale workers with him to the new HQ and hire six more.
“Part of building a successful business is employees are happy and excited to go to work every day,” he said. “And having basic housing is a stable step in that.”
Adam Miller founded Revel Bikes in 2016. (Courtesy Revel)
In Golden, Revel will have a showroom so customers can come and demo the bikes. About 1,200 square feet of the property will be dedicated to that and office space, while the remaining 6,000 is warehouse. Miller hopes to get the warehouse up and running by March 1 and have the showroom open in the weeks after.
He signed a five-year lease for the property and also looked in Denver and Boulder before settling on Golden. The new HQ is also nicer than Revel’s Carbondale spot, Miller said. There, he had to contend with leaky roofs and other distractions of an older building.
He still plans for Revel to have a Carbondale presence, likely with a showroom.
Miller said compared with last January, when the private equity firm Next Sparc was still running Revel, sales are up 300%. He said 2025’s revenue was up a few percentage points from 2024’s $10 million, though that figure was a “significant drop” from the years prior.
In the coming years, his goal is “healthy” annual growth in the 20% to 40% range.
“We settled on what so many other bike companies figured out before me by being right in Golden,” he said. “It checks all the boxes because it’s smart from business-sense, there’s a great population here and you can pedal your bike to world-class trials right from the office.”
