Company Overview

Fallbrook Technologies Inc. (Fallbrook) is a research and development company manufacturing advanced transmission systems.

Fallbrook's core technology is its traction-based, NuVinciŽ transmission - a continuously variable planetary (CVP) drive ideally suited for applications in virtually any mechanical device that has a transmission, or requires speed variation. The Company currently holds over 200 patents and pending applications worldwide.

Fallbrook manufactures and markets NuVinci drivetrains for the bicycle and LEV (light electric vehicle) industries. In addition, it partners with other companies to commercialize its NuVinci technology in other fields and provides design, development and manufacturing support for its partners. Fallbrook sells its products to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and distributors who integrate the NuVinci CVPs into products or vehicles that are then ultimately sold to consumers..

Fallbrook is dedicated to maximizing the value for its partners by delivering to those partners, through a partnering community, all of the newest technology, implementation techniques and innovations of the NuVinci technology . This approach ensures that Fallbrook's partners will always be at the forefront of the technology's development.  As a result, Fallbrook has advanced and will continue to advance rapidly the development and adoption of the technology.

Fallbrook offers engineering services to its partners. Through its specialized expertise embodied in its engineering services, Fallbrook is able to help its partners to develop new NuVinci CVPs that are specifically designed and optimized for the partner’s unique applications and the requirements of those applications.

Fallbrook Technologies Inc. is headquartered in San Diego, California with its engineering, operations and customer support located in Cedar Park, Texas near Austin.

Fallbrook and the Legacy of Leonardo

The story of Fallbrook and its NuVinci technology dates, in a sense, to the year 1490 when Leonardo da Vinci developed a drawing describing what many believe represents how a continuously variable transmission (CVT) would work.  Over 450 years later, the first real-world models of CVTs for automobiles were produced.  However, various problems such as cost, scalability, efficiency and weight have kept CVTs from widespread adoption and limited their practical applications.

Photographic Credit: Institut für Kulturaustausch, Tübingen, Germany

In the late 1990’s, Donald C. Miller, a cycling enthusiast, became interested in building the world’s fastest bike. In analyzing the challenges involved, he quickly found that the transmission was a limiting factor. While looking around for new ideas, Don came across the concept of a CVT. His subsequent experiments led him to develop an entirely new concept for CVT-based bicycle transmissions.

In 1998, Miller and a group of investors formed Motion Systems, Inc. (MSI) to develop the technology. By 2000, Don had developed a design that fully addressed all the traditional weaknesses of a CVT, and had applied for the first patents covering the technology.

At the end of 2000, as part of a process to provide additional funding and guidance, Miller and The Weiss Group LLC, an investment and startup advisory firm, joined forces to form Motion Technologies LLC (Motion Technologies). Motion Technologies acquired MSI's intellectual property and development rights with Don serving as the CEO.

In March of 2003, a second round of financing for Motion Technologies via a private placement provided funds for the continued development of the technology. Tests on Don's transmission by a prestigious independent testing laboratory, quickly verified the potential of the revolutionary technology - providing significant gains in simplicity and durability.  The testing also showed that the technology had potential applications far beyond just bicycles - to virtually any device that has a transmission. Robert Smithson, a transmission expert involved with the testing laboratory's preliminary assessment was so impressed with what he saw that he subsequently joined the Company first as a consultant and later as Vice President of Product Development.

As development progressed, it soon became apparent that the technology's potential was even greater than originally anticipated. Smithson discovered that the technology would also support the implementation of an infinitely variable transmission (IVT). Additionally, potential applications in the area of wind energy were identified. At that point, management determined that further funding and additional executive talent would be appropriate.

On April 13, 2004, Motion Technologies LLC became Fallbrook Technologies Inc. and in May, auto industry veteran Bill Klehm became Fallbrook's President and CEO. Don Miller then became Vice President of Advanced Research. The Company immediately began both an aggressive funding effort and also accelerated research and development. Fallbrook obtained approximately $8.2M in additional funding via a private placement and assembled a staff that includes many top engineers in the transmission field. The technology was given the name NuVinci CVP, in honor of its 500-year-old predecessor. The accelerated R&D effort began producing tangible results in 2004, when the Company signed its first agreements with manufacturers.

The first commercial NuVinci CVP product for bicycle and LEV applications was introduced in September of 2006. Volume production to the Company’s first European and US OEM customers, Batavus B.V. and Ellsworth respectively, began in January 2007.

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