President George Bush - Bicycle Diplomacy, A New Cult
President George W. Bush left Slovenia after meetings in Europe in June with a special gift from a the President of the Council of the European Union - the Cult Black Gold XTR.

Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of The Council of European Union Janez Jansa today presented the president of the United States of America George W. Bush with a mountain bike during his visit in Slovenia for the meeting EU - USA. This is no coincidence, since American president is well known for his outdoor activities and special passion for mountain biking in the past years.

Rider to rider, Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Jansa presents the Cult Black Gold to George W. Bush. Photo © BOBO

Selection of the bicycle for the present was obvious since both politicians are cyclists. Prime minister Jansa spends some of his free time on a Cult bike – a Slovenian brand that was established ten years ago in small town of Idrija. With new headquarters in Logatec Cult is now one of best known and selling brands in Slovenia and for this reason it was also selected as a present for president Bush. The president received a full carbon Black Gold XTR, a top level hardtail bike.

Cult Black Gold... sweet looking hardtail. Photo © BOBO

Bike is built around a high performance carbon frame with top components from Shimano, Easton, Ritchey and Marzocchi. With its weight under ten kilograms and supreme riding performance this is a top level competition bike. President of the USA George W. Bush has started riding in 2003 after knee injury and with good physical condition quickly mastered the skills of mountain biking.

'Built in Slovenia' is the trade mark of Cult bikes.  Photo © BOBO

He does most of his rides on the family ranch in Texas but sometimes he will also ride a bike on some of his many travels. On many occasions the president has stated that he likes to ride fast which was also confirmed by journalists invited to join him for the ride. So Cult Black Gold should suit him perfectly since it was built to go fast.

Reinforced seat tube of Cult Black Gold.

We are sure that the new bike will serve president George W. Bush well, our only hope is that he will take some time and ride his new bike while in Slovenia and experience it from behind the handlebars.

About Cult Bikes: Cult in known for high performance bikes with no compromises. This fact is introduced to more and more people every day and they enjoy their Cult bikes with great pleasure. Website: http://www.cult.si/eng/

History - Cult bikes is over ten years old and now all of that knowledge and experience is transformed into ever more improved bikes. Bicycles are available thorough sales network all over Slovenia and also in Croatia and Slovakia. The company is also one of the biggest distributors in the region of whole formal Yugoslavia with some of the most recognized brands in the bike industry. Cult also has two stores, one at the company headquarters in Logatec and other in nation’s largest shopping center in ‘BTC City’ in Ljubljana.

Cult also builds 'Krpan' bikes for the post office. Bikes have been sold to many European countries and regions and the list of satisfied customers is growing rapidly.

Story of Cult - Brand Cult was born in 1997 when two bike enthusiasts from small Slovenian town of Idrija decided to build bikes. They made connections with partners from Italy and first models of mountain bikes Cult were soon introduced. Influence of Italian passion for the bikes was present on every step and soon first road bikes were introduced. Since the start development was based on racing experiences and things were never left on chance. Stane Velikanje, one of the company’s founders, was pushing the brand forward and soon some of the best Slovenian athletes came aboard: Valter Bonča, Borut Rovšček, Marko Baloh, Fredi Virag and many other. Joining the team were also Uroš Gnezda and Boštjan Felc; Uroš as an roady, Boštjan as downhiller. Years later, in 2004, two of them established new company Vizija Sport d.o.o. and took over all of the operations, from production to sales. In 2005 Matjaž Debelak joined the team and the new company with the vision to be the most distinguished bicycle brand in the nation was established.

Custom build bikes - Over the years Cult has become product of Slovenian knowledge and experience. Production includes whole range of sport bikes: mountain (front suspension and wide range of full suspension), trekking and road bikes (carbon, aluminum and carbon-aluminum). Number of models is practically limitless since every customer is allowed to choose almost every single component on the bike (system E-Build). Bikes are building like this from day one and we still continue with this concept. R&D team is now bigger than ever and works closely with athletes on the some of most demanding challenges. Cult bikes have been on RAAM – Race Across America, on Iditarod on Alaska, they have crossed the African continent and on European and World Championships in road and mountain biking!

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