After Years on the Road, Ty Daugherty is Back Home

ale cycycling, wear, clothing, reynolds, cannondale, volvo, bicycles, bicycle, capo, castilli, assess — Ty Daugherty. Photo: Jim Merithew/Element.ly

Growing up in Florida all Ty Daugherty could dream of was getting the hell out of there. He wanted to go off, race his bike and become a marine biologist.

So after high school he hightailed it out of the land of oranges and Mickey and headed for New Mexico, where he got his degree in Biology from UNM. That was the beginning and the end of his biology career. But don’t feel bad for him.

“I feel like I’m the luckiest person alive,” Ty says. “I’ve traveled the world because of the bike.”

We caught up with Ty at this year’s Bike PressCamp where he came to speak about his new employer, Ale Bike Wear. Ale is an Italian cycling apparel company that makes pretty snappy kits, with some very well thought out accoutrements. It seems to Element.ly that they’ve chosen their new employee wisely.

Ty’s story, like many in the bike industry, includes a lot of cities, countries, jobs and tales. We’re going to try our damnedest to hit at least the highlights of his travels.

The relevant stuff starts when he was a kid in Florida and his mom took him out bush-wacking on bicycles. You can tell by the smile on his face that this is a fond memory. He also reminisces about spending a week as a young man training with Francesco Moser in Florida. “For me as a kid it was all about Italy,” Ty says. “Pasta, shaved legs, the language…Moser is it for me.”

Then we jump ahead to college graduation and Ty heading for California, where he made a brief stop in Pasadena and then onto a job managing the now defunct Wheelsmith Bike Shop in Palo Alto. Anyone living in the Bay Area at the time would know what a hot shop Wheelsmith was, with celebrity customers like Steve Jobs.

“All the years in the shop were a lot of fun,” Ty says.

Then in ‘94, at the ripe old age of 28, Ty got the call to run the Diamondback mountain back team in Europe. He wouldn’t return to the States full-time until 2008.

His European stint looked like this: Diamondback to Answer/Manitou to Volvo Cannondale to Rockshox to Speedplay to Reynolds. The Speedplay and Reynolds jobs revolved around distribution of those products in Europe and new sales opportunities. He was also instrumental in getting Speedplay pedals under riders in the Pro Peleton. In 2008 he came full circle and returned to Florida to continue his work with Reynolds doing sales and distribution both in Europe and the States. Then in 2010 he was head-hunted and went to work for Fulcrum. That brings up to October, 2014 when he took his current job as Sales Director at Ale.

Ale is a 100-percent Italian-made cycling apparel company that offers top quality fabrics and design but a midlevel price point. They like to say they have Assos quality, but still leave money in your pocket for an espresso, or four. You can buy direct through their website and they are working on increasing their reach into your local bike shop.

As part of his job at Ale, Ty is also helping his boss, Pietro Caucchioli, get the word out about Divo Bicycles. Pietro is a former professional cyclist and he designed the Divo line of bikes, which are handmade in Italy. We didn’t get a chance to throw a leg over one of the tube-to-tube constructed beauties, but we are hoping to change this in the near future. They are available in standard or custom sizes, colors and kits.

During all travels, Ty never stopped riding his bike and even though he raced Cat.1 for a number of years he never had the opportunity to make the jump to pro.

“I started mountain biking in 1983 and raced on the road from ‘81 to ‘96,” Ty says. “I’ve made a lot of lifelong friends. I don’t regret anything, cycling has kept me moving in this direction.”

Even though he isn’t super stoked about the riding in his home state of Flordiay again, Ty is surrounded by his family, including three kids. And he is still living the dream.