We caught up with Olas Designs whose GH Bike Racks are the most beautiful way to show off your beautiful bike

MAKER 2020 at the Tour Down Under brought out a staggeringly good brand lineup with some of Australia’s most talented brands coming out to show their wares. A new name popped out when I was organising the promo material; a Melbourne-based furniture maker Olas Design who make a striking bike storage system that starts at an eye-brow raising $692. It was novel, beautiful, and Australian made. I had to find out more, especially after seeing the Olas team at MAKER, and watching members of the public swarm their display.

So I caught up with Founder/Director Adrian Olasau to talk about how the stunning GH Bike Rack came to be.

Naturally, both being nerds, we kicked off talking about his background riding bikes;

“I started mountain biking in 2006. I live close to Lysterfield where they had the Commonwealth Games so everything was amazing. I did that for a few years and then a friend who had a road bike pestered me to get onto the road. Eventually I did a group ride on Beach Road and I was hooked. I hated how much I loved it! I loved the road more than mountainbiking. I loved the social aspect of it and the group was really chilled and supportive. Saying that, I hardly ever ride Beach Road nowadays. I live in the Southeast of Melbourne so I’m connected to the Yarra Ranges so if I have the choice nowadays I’m heading for hills.”

ABOUT THE GH BIKE RACK

How did the GH Bike Rack come about?

“The initial inspiration came from my cycling friends. Their partners weren’t satisfied with the bike racks and storage that was on the market. So from that, and just generally observing the scene, we began playing around with shapes.”

Did your furniture background inspire the design as well?

“It’s definitely influenced by the furniture. I wanted it to blend in as a piece of furniture and particularly against white walls where the timber gives it warmth and texture.”

THE FULL PROCESS

Every Olas GH Rack begins its life many years before his craftsman touch the base timber. Adrian sources local, and international, timbers with a firm commitment to quality and ethics.

How do you choose your materials?

“All of our wood is certified by the FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification). The PEFC accredit forestry and mills to make sure they’re responsibly cutting down trees. Our timbers are all certified by one, or both, organisations. It guarantees that our timers are sourced sustainably and responsibly.”
“The Blackwood, for example, is from the Otways and it’s all re-claimed. Those trees have been felled in storms or due to being unwell.”

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

The shape of the GH Rack is remarkable; with its curvature, smoothness, and visible grain seeming impossibly perfect for a timber product. It’s made with a mixture of skill, patience, and expert knowledge of timber and Adhesives.

Tell me about the full process of making the racks;

“So we start with solid timber and hand select pieces with very clean grain and no flaws. We then cut it into thin laminations (1.4mm) and re-glue it into that curved shape. Everyone at Olas is a traditionally trained craftsmen so we have a fundamental understanding of the material.”
“We make our racks as a batch process. So we’ll spend a day re-sawing laminations for 20-50 bike racks. Then when it comes to the glue-up, it needs to stay under clamps for a minimum of 6 hours. That’s based on normal weather conditions of 25 degrees with moderate humidity. You can imagine in winter that gets extended, and in summer that can be a little bit quicker. We also monitor the glue in each individual rack; look at the glue, test it, and test its hardness. If we find it isn’t cured enough after 6 hours we’ll wait longer. It’s a structural epoxy so it needs to be sound and strong. It’s actually the glue that makes the whole piece possible. They wouldn’t be doable 50 years ago.”

Batch processing doesn’t equate to assembly line production for Olas, and there’s deliberate slowness to the process.

How many people are involved in each rack?

We like to have a craftsman start and finish a project. That keeps the quality higher, and makes sure there’s a pride in the work we do. If you get to dimension the raw material, and then go all the way through to putting the finish on it, then I think there’s much more sense of pride from a making point-of-view as opposed to being a cog in a machine where you spend hours a day doing the same job and never seeing the finished product. We’re implementing a system where each maker signs and dates the back of each rack so you’ll know who crafted each individual piece.”
“We will get more efficient in the future but we’ll always want to maintain that pride in the work and the connection to the product. We’re always going to stay in the bespoke and premium market because we can take better care of our clients and make a better product. There’s enough utilitarian racks out there that we’re not trying to compete. It’s like BAUM or Bastion not competing with cheaper, mass-produced frames. We’re occupying a different space.”

THE AUSTRALIAN CONNECTIONS

I had a moment of clarity while watching the Olas display get assembled at MAKER. Adrian disappeared for a couple of minutes before rolling back with a seriously high end Bastion that he dropped onto the GH Bike Rack. I got it.

Olas goes beyond bike storage and furniture, into lifestyle design territory and they’re targeting other comparable brands and makers from complementary industries. It’s no stretch for someone whose just purchased a Bastion to spend a bit more for the most beautiful way to display it. The Olas/Bastion connection began when Adrian dropped into Bastion with a rack because he thought it would suit their aesthetic.

I asked Adrian about relationship building;

“We’re a collaborative business. The relationship with Bastion is something that both of us would like to develop further. For example this week we’ve got a meeting with a local textiles designer who does material printing, about doing a design that uses her product with our furniture. With different mediums and different makers, we’re always looking to collaborate. Going futher, we’re looking into jewellery makers and fashion designers. It’s a great way to support emerging Australian talent. It’s a great way to cross-polenate audiences.”