Two Visionaries – One Bike Brand
Jonas and Max live and breathe bikes. With decades of experience in development, product management, and racing, they joined forces to create a brand that makes no compromises – a brand that redefines performance. Their vision? To build bikes exactly as they’ve always imagined – without shortcuts, without chasing trends. Just pure performance, focused on what truly matters. Currently the range includes the Velum roadbike, the Callis gravel bike and the Silva mountainbike. At Sea Otter Australia we will have on display the new Callis 32” as one of the first manufacturers to bring a 32” production bike to market.
Jonas Müller
Jonas has been designing bikes that win races and awards for more than 17 years. His passion for cycling began in his childhood – sketching frames, modifying bikes, and assembling them at an early age. At 14, he became a bike messenger, was part of the European Championship team in 2003, and gained experience in MTB racing. After studying mechanical engineering, he went straight into the cycling industry, working for BMC, Santa Cruz, and DT Swiss. He later founded his own bicycle design company bicycle.engineering, and eventually launched the brands ARC8 and Faserwerk, and now Avona.
Max Koch
Max has been in the bicycle industry for nearly 20 years. His journey started in 2006 with an apprenticeship as a bicycle mechanic. Even while still in school, he worked for a bicycle manufacturer – bikes have always been a part of his life. In 2012, he transitioned into product management and built a global network of suppliers. In 2017, he took over management of the company where his career had begun 11 years earlier. In 2021, he founded his own company, MK Bicycles.
A Holistic Approach
Avona’s goal is not to build the lightest or most aerodynamic bike, but the one that performs best in real-world conditions. Every aspect of performance is considered. When the right balance is found, the overall gains are greatest – making a difference in more riding situations than if only a single factor was optimized on its own. Avona’s concept of “Real-World Speed” argues that traditional aerodynamics testing is flawed because it treats the bicycle as a static object in a controlled environment. In reality, a rider moves, shifts weight, and combats fatigue.
The frames are designed to reduce a rider’s Normalized Power—the actual metabolic energy required to sustain speed over hours, not just seconds. The priority is on how a bike behaves during high workload scenarios, such as out-of-the-saddle climbing efforts or high-speed cornering, ensuring the bike tracks predictably when the rider is pushing their physical limits. Vertical compliance is free speed and hence stiffness should never come at the expense of comfort. A frame that is overly rigid transfers every road vibration directly into the rider’s muscles, accelerating fatigue and reducing power output. Hence Avona’s approach to structural flex is to tune the carbon layups to provide a good level of vertical compliance. By absorbing micro-impacts through the frame rather than the rider’s body the bike keeps the rider fresher for longer.
When it comes to tire integration, Avona offers wide tire clearance, up to 55mm on their gravel models for example, blending mechanical compliance with pneumatic comfort. When developing geometries, Avona looks at how riders actually spend their time on the bike. For example, during a demanding cross-country mountain bike race or a technical gravel event, a rider spends roughly 80% of their energy managing difficult descents and tricky terrain, while only 20% is spent on smooth, straight flats. Avona builds bikes with progressive, slack geometries like the 65-degree head angle on the Silva XC mountain bike providing confidence which in turn increases speed.
By making the bike incredibly stable and forgiving on steep, technical descents, the rider saves massive amounts of mental and physical energy, allowing them to attack the next climb with more power. Customisation is also one of Avona’s core priciples rather than the standard “one-size-fits-all” assembly line model most manufacturers employ. To Avona, a bike cannot perform perfectly, if it does not fit perfectly. Hence there are no rigid component packages, rather the bike is viewed as a bespoke tool. By allowing riders to select precise crank lengths, handlebar widths, and seatpost offsets at the point of purchase, they ensure the rider is placed in an optimal ergonomic window from day one. This tailored approach maximizes biomechanical efficiency, making custom fit the ultimate performance advantage.
