Editor's note: A version of this story ran in the January issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News magazine.
By Sara Stover
OMARURU, Namibia (BRAIN) — Onguza, a handbuilt steel bicycle company, has introduced the Bliksem, a gravel-plus addition to their range of frames made in Africa. The Bliksem combines standardized geometry with customizable framesets made in-house and priced to be in the same bracket as mass-produced bikes.
“After three years of growth and streamlining production, we launched the model on September 12, 2025” said Dan Craven, founder of Onguza. “Now there is a custom, handbuilt bicycle offered at a competitive price that also has a direct impact on the community that made it.”
Challenging perceptions of steel bikes … and Africa
Born and raised in Namibia, Craven is a former professional cyclist who rode for the Rapha-Condor team in the U.K. from 2009 to 2010, raced in around 44 countries, and competed in two Olympic games. Craven won the Desert Dash’s solo category in 2012, completing the 340km desert race on a steel bike he made after taking a frame-building course.
“It took me a while to realize that when people heard ‘steel bike,’ they thought of a bike that Greg LeMond would have raced, as opposed to a modern steel bike. Next to a carbon fiber bike, it weighs a bit more, but it's still light. I wouldn't be building a steel bicycle company if my bikes weighed as much as a farm gate,” Craven said. “It’s frustrating that steel is completely misunderstood in the cycling world. It’s also frustrating that Namibia is a land of makers out of necessity, because we’re so isolated, but we aren’t typically making high value products that are desired by name or by reputation.”
Along with Craven’s passion for steel bikes, his experience with Namibian farm workers Sakeus Nkolo and Petrus Mufenge is the inspiration behind Onguza: “They are so creative, trustworthy, and good with their hands, but with their historical background and their level of schooling, the jobs available to them were extremely limited. So in 2017, I started training them. SRAM gave us two groupsets and they built their own steel bikes, which they still ride to work every day at Onguza, where they are master builders and co-owners.”
After Craven founded Onguza in 2018, he launched a frame set with custom geometry for $4,100. Now the company is bringing prices down, increasing volume, and changing the entire structure with the launch of its first customizable bike model, the Bliksem.
A gravel bike designed for high-paced riding, as well as rugged terrain, the Bliksem features a 50mm tire clearance. Completely hand-mitred and then fillet brazed with a combination of Columbus Life and Zona tubing throughout, each frame is made with stainless steel flat-mount bosses and touch points to mitigate wear and tear.
While all Bliksem frames have a standardized, subtly aggressive geometry, everything else is customizable. The T47 bottom bracket shell enables Onguza to offer three different cable routing options while using one consistent chassis. Extra bottle and rack or bag bosses are also available.
“With 18 frame colors and 10 word-mark colors available, we can offer 179 Namibian-landscape and culture-inspired color combinations,” said Craven, adding that Onguza has a paint booth on site.
Bliksem framesets start at $3,032. While this excludes state sales taxes, it includes shipping, duties, and taxes, which Craven said may be surprising. “We've had to bake in free shipping of every single frame set to anywhere in the world because buying something from Namibia is probably an unknown quantity,” Craven said. To support this new approach, the Onguza website was rebuilt with a frameset-builder feature that generates an estimate that is as “close-to-accurate-as-possible” based on the customizations selected and the designer’s location in the world.
Partnering with bike shops, improving communities
Onguza’s original offering of fully custom bicycle framesets or complete bikes, which are still available, prevented partnerships with bicycle retailers in the past.
“With our standard-sized customized bicycles, however, we can sell the custom spec’ frames to a partner bike shop, who then sells them with margin, as well as kitting the rest of the parts out for a full custom bicycle. We still sell direct-to-consumer but if someone contacts us and they are in the same city as a partner shop, we'll send them there,” said Craven, adding that Onguza will introduce other customized, hand-made steel bikes in the near future, including the Bundu.
“A little more upright and a little less racy, the Bundu will be a gravel bike that comes with suspension-corrected carbon fork, which means you can put a gravel suspension fork on it. There will also be a 40mm (tire clearance) road bike and a hardtail mountain bike coming in 2026,” said Craven.
Since 2018, 108 Onguza frames have been built in-house by a small crew of designers and frame builders.
“We can have a bigger impact on these employees’ lives for a much lower price because we pay them a salary that is really good, compared to Namibia. I don't believe there are many other bike companies who are having this kind of impact on their employees and on the communities where their products are made. This part of the world has never had much manufacturing, so any manufacturing that comes will improve the lives of Namibians,” said Craven. “If Onguza can build bicycles in a small dusty town on the edge of the desert in Southern Africa, I believe that we can motivate other people in other unusual places and small towns to explore what they can offer the world.”
AT A GLANCE
- Company name: Onguza
- Based in: Omaruru, Namibia, Africa
- Founded in: 2018
- Founded by: Dan Craven
- Number of employees: 6
- Primary products: Hand-built steel bicycles
- Manufactured and assembled in: Namibia
- Distribution: Online and select retailers
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Craven with the Onguza staff.
