A family reunited once more - Nicolas Vouilloz and BOS have signed a new 3-year contract

Jan 29, 2008

Nicolas becomes an official test rider for the BOS mountain bike product range

Their association is still in our memory and the quality of their work together helped define downhill racing, not to mention their five World Championship and three World Cup titles. Today, Nicolas Vouilloz and Olivier Bossard face a new challenge together: to develop the new range of BOS forks and rear shocks.

Nicolas Vouilloz and Olivier Bossard started working together in 1997 at the heart of Team Sunn. Back then, Nicolas was already the fastest rider on the planet, but from his French team he saw the potential of going still further in the search for perfection. Of course, over the last three years, Sunn themselves have revolutionized the discipline with ultra-sophisticated factory bikes designed by Olivier Bossard.

Then, Nicolas set up on his own and called upon Olivier’s new company to design and bring to market his own downhill bike. V Process became one of BOS Engineering’s first customers. It was only when the most titled mountain bike racer in history retired that a different opportunity came along. After winning one last title in 2002, Vouilloz moved to cars. Although BOS is also very involved in rally, the two men’s paths stayed parallel, each working with a different team.

In 2005, BOS dipped its toes back into mountain biking with the launch of its first fork upgrade kits, then with a new rear shock in 2007. Nico also appeared in a couple of downhill marathons, then there was talk of returning to top level short course downhill, which led to him taking part in the World Cup. But, although many were already dreaming about a new collaboration, their paths still didn’t cross …

Then, at last, the inevitable finally happened!

A few weeks ago, Nico got his old 2002 BOS factory forks and shocks out from the back of his garage and tinkered about with them to see if they would go on his Lapierre, just as an experiment. Even with five-year old oil and their old-school geometry, they both worked better than the 2007 mass-produced stuff!

A couple of phone calls later and the answer was clear: BOS decided to commit strongly to mountain biking, to produce a downhill fork which will be followed by other models. Nicolas it still passionate about mountain biking and R&D, and wants to get involved … so the team’s back together again, not for a re-run but to take on a new challenge: to give the public a range of suspension to match the best that the BOS/Vouilloz team have produced in the past.

Nicolas will be the official BOS test rider for at least three years to come. His involvement won’t just be to promote the image, he knows that his task is to eliminate fractions of a second at the helm of a real two-wheeled F1 machine. To produce high-performance suspension at this level but still accessible to amateur riders is a massive challenge. Nicolas will be closely involved with BOS in the development of the whole range of BOS products, working with Olivier Bossard and Arnaud Jacob, the head of R&D at BOS and long-time friend of Olivier and Nico from the Sunn days.

There’s one guy at least who’s thrilled about the news: Fabien Pedemanaud, who is also, of course, an official BOS test rider for 2008, and who is hoping to benefit from his new teammate’s work and advice!

Visit Bos-Engineering to learn more.