It’s been more than a year since Wiggle Chain Reaction folded, taking with it some of my best loved e-bikes and trail bikes like the brilliant Nukeproof Megawatt, and the Scout Elite.

And since then, I’ve been wondering if Nukeproof, Vitus, and Ragley would ever make a comeback in a meaningful way, with new designs and bikes. If they’d ever be more than the occasional batch of three-year-old Gigas on sale through Evans Cycles, or a re-worked Nukeproof Reactor now calling itself the On-One Atomic.

Ascend is using its experience to source components from the Far East and make them available again to the UK market, just as CRC did back in the day

Turns out, I’ve been looking in the wrong direction.Trying to find a brand when I should have been looking for the people that actually made it function. Two members of the original team that made Chain Reaction Cycles/Wiggle/Nukeproof/Vitus etc such an incredible success (and it really was an incredible success in the UK, with a peak group turnover of over £300 million a year) are alive and well.

Ever heard of Ascend Components? I certainly hadn’t, but it’s a new startup run by Michael Cowan and Matt Mountain, two lads from Belfast and Yorkshire who drove CRC to success in the early days.

Michael Cowan (front) and Matt Mountain working extremely hard in Taiwan

“We’re back, and reconnecting with our passion for creating top-quality products that you can count on, all backed by the kind of service we’d expect ourselves,” they say on the site.

Ascend Components also makes brake pads and headset components, soon to be joined by wheels too

And if those names mean nothing to you, I’ll explain further. Michael Cowan was the e-commerce director for CRC and House Brands Director for Wiggle CRC, while Matt worked as head of product and brand: In other words managing the product managers who in-turn ran the individual brand teams, like Nukeproof, Vitus, Ragley and so on. Combined, they’ve forgotten more about sourcing bike bits from China, and selling into the UK than most people will ever know.

Ascend Components’ dropper posts, headsets and brake pads

“We’re taking our combined knowledge from the brands and using the industry know-how to reinvent the greatest hits,” Michael told me. “We had a formula that worked well, a trusted supply base built over 20 years, and we’re using that again.”

That means Ascend is using its contacts, buying nouse and general mountain bike knowledge to bring in products and find gaps in the market. Gaps Wiggle CRC had been filling. Take the new top of the range Flight SL dropper, it comes in up to 200mm drop, weighs a claimed 469g in 150mm, and costs just £130, while the brand’s cheapest option is just £99.99 That’s less than half the price of the best dropper posts on the market. It also comes with a hydraulic cartridge and replaceable key parts.

Michael Cowan at the NATO base above Finale, testing the brand’s new products

“We feel there’s a market that we can fill with honest products that work, like the dropper, which isn’t from one of the heavily marketed brands,” Michael says. “We’ve added in headsets and brake pads and we’re working on extending the range into bars and stems and wheels too.”

Ascend is also supplying Nukeproof, Vitus and Ragley frame spares and hangers, Nukeproof wheel spare parts, and thru axles.

Next step, new bikes then? “Not in the short term,” Michael says. “We’re enjoying keeping things simple. We’re small and we’re going to walk before we can run.”

Look out for a test on the new dropper soon.