Our Story
Rawland Cycles founder Sean Virnig started riding at five when he received his first bike without training wheels. In high school his passion for the bike grew with each hour riding Minnesota country roads on a beloved, steel-framed 1992 Bridgestone RB-1, and in the woods on a 1993 MB-2.
After a rare illness left him paralyzed for months in 1989, Sean came to appreciate the therapeutic power of cycling when it helped bring him back from the devastation of Guillain-Barre syndrome. Rawland (an English translation of his mother's Norwegian surname) was born of Sean's keen understanding of the simple, yet wondrously restorative magic of the bicycle.
Anna, Sean's significant other, not only trims the sail at Rawland, but also gets the credit for conceptualizing the Olaf rear dropout.
Based in Northfield, Minnesota, Rawland Cycles is some 40 miles downriver from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Northfield was settled in the 1800s by Norwegian immigrants — Viking farmers, through and through — and it's now home to Rawland Cycles, 18,000 people and two colleges: Carleton College and St. Olaf College.
After a rare illness left him paralyzed for months in 1989, Sean came to appreciate the therapeutic power of cycling when it helped bring him back from the devastation of Guillain-Barre syndrome. Rawland (an English translation of his mother's Norwegian surname) was born of Sean's keen understanding of the simple, yet wondrously restorative magic of the bicycle.
Anna, Sean's significant other, not only trims the sail at Rawland, but also gets the credit for conceptualizing the Olaf rear dropout.
Based in Northfield, Minnesota, Rawland Cycles is some 40 miles downriver from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Northfield was settled in the 1800s by Norwegian immigrants — Viking farmers, through and through — and it's now home to Rawland Cycles, 18,000 people and two colleges: Carleton College and St. Olaf College.
