Factor Bikes today have unveiled two Factor ONE special editions featuring characters from SpongeBob SquarePants that will debut at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, raced by riders from Human Powered Health and Ma Petite Entreprise.
Blending elite-level engineering with unmistakable characters and creativity, the ONE XXRAY PLUS SpongeBob SquarePants Edition and the ONE XXRAY PLUS Patrick Star Edition are where performance meets play. The collaboration combines Factor’s engineering-first ethos with the optimism, energy, and undeniable personality of XXRAY’s playful look beneath the surface of SpongeBob and Patrick.
The ONE XXRAY PLUS SpongeBob SquarePants Edition
The custom graphics for the Factor ONE transform the brand’s elite, race-proven chassis into a rolling piece of pop culture. Vibrant SpongeBob-inspired artwork brings energy and personality to the peloton while preserving the control, aerodynamic efficiency, and handling demanded at the highest level of competition.
The special editions will race at cycling’s most prestigious Women’s WorldTour event, bringing a bold visual statement to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and reflecting the growing influence of creativity, craftsmanship, and self-expression within the sport.
The starting point for the frame’s graphic design was Jason Freeny’s distinctive XXRAY interpretation of SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star, which reveals the imagined anatomy beneath the characters’ familiar exterior. There is a natural connection to Factor in that idea of looking beneath the surface: the ONE’s performance is also defined by what lies behind its visible form, its aerodynamic architecture, carbon structure and integrated engineering.
Factor ONE XXRAY PLUS Patrick Star Edition
Factor Global Creative Director Jay Gundzik translated Freeny’s artwork onto the bike. The ONE’s broad, sculpted aerodynamic surfaces gave him an unusually large canvas, allowing the characters to appear at a scale and with an impact that would not be possible on a more conventional frame. Rather than simply adding small graphics, Jay was able to make the artwork part of the bike’s overall visual presence.
The reason for doing it was to create an unexpected meeting of two worlds. The ONE is Factor’s most advanced aero race platform, developed for performance at the highest level, while SpongeBob, Patrick and the XXRAY concept bring optimism, personality and playfulness. Putting them together shows that a cutting-edge race bike can be technically serious without being visually predictable, and that elite cycling still has room for creativity, culture and fun.
“Super bikes don’t have to be monochrome to be fast,” said David Millar, Factor Chief Brand Officer. “This project is about bringing joy and personality into elite racing without compromising performance in any way. The ONE XXRAY PLUS SpongeBob SquarePants Edition and the ONE XXRAY PLUS Patrick Star Edition are built to compete at the very highest level. It just happens to do it with a smile.”
The Factor ONE is the most advanced aero racing bike in the professional peloton. For these unique editions, Factor paired cutting-edge engineering with a visual identity inspired by SpongeBob’s iconic underwater world of Bikini Bottom, a celebration of the craftsmanship of the two brands, which are known for pushing creative and technical boundaries.
Racing aboard these very special editions, Human Powered Health, and Ma Petite Entreprise highlight a shared belief that modern cycling can embrace both elite performance and cultural relevance. By bringing the imagery of Bikini Bottom to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the project aims to connect with new audiences and celebrate the sport through a fresh, unexpected lens.
“For the fifth anniversary of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, we wanted to celebrate by creating something special and unique, something that would invite new interest in the event,” Millar explained. “We hope that this vibrant collaboration helps to get more people excited about women’s cycling and appreciate its inclusive energy.”
The Factor ONE XXRAY PLUS SpongeBob SquarePants Edition and Factor ONE XXRAY PLUS Patrick Star Edition are available for sale in very limited editions when you visit factorbikes.com or an official Factor dealer.
For more information, please visit factorbikes.com
ABOUT FACTOR BIKES
Factor Bikes is a high-performance bicycle manufacturer and engineering-first brand, building the fastest UCI-legal racing bikes in the world. Founded by former professional cyclist and carbon-engineering pioneer, Rob Gitelis, Factor designs, prototypes, and manufactures its frames in-house, enabling unmatched speed of innovation and uncompromising control over performance.
About Black Inc
Black Inc is a performance wheel and component manufacturer known for producing some of the world’s most aerodynamically advanced and structurally precise systems. Using in-house CFD, FEA, prototyping, and engineering, Black Inc creates wheels and cockpits designed as integrated performance systems for Factor bikes.
Black Inc develops its products through the same process used for Factor frames: advanced simulation, in-house carbon engineering, and real-world validation with WorldTour athletes. Its portfolio includes aerodynamic road wheels, integrated cockpits, gravel components, and the ZERO Track, used in the Olympic-record- breaking team pursuit program.
Black Inc aims to deliver class-leading aerodynamic efficiency, stiffness-to-weight performance, and race-proven integration for riders who demand the fastest equipment possible.
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