10-08-2025
Kingspan boss Gene Murtagh greases wheels for bike maker
T he Kingspan boss Gene Murtagh and his family have ridden in behind the champion cyclist Aidan Duff's specialist bike company FiftyOne Bikes.
Duff, a former international rider, set up the Dublin-based manufacturer to produce bespoke high-performance, carbon-fibre road bikes and gravel bikes. He'd realised that the real top end of the market was fairly 'samey' and decided to provide highly customised bikes for customers, including the former UFC fighter Conor McGregor and Nicolas Roche, the former Tour de France and Dancing with the Stars competitor, using composite materials.
FiftyOne Bikes caters for the more expensive part of the market with gravel and road bikes costing about €5,000 each and customised, hand-built versions even more. I'm told that the fitness-minded Murtagh, who heads up the €13 billion-valued building materials and insulation group, invested along with his wife and family through their Innotrio vehicle. Supplying the construction market, Murtagh should know all about cycles.
