Feature: Manel’s Vertigo vision

In the upper tiers of football and within the unquantifiable bubble that surrounds Formula One there would appear to be a continuing and healthy supply of wealthy men who opt to invest in their personal passion via such high profile mechanisms.

In the ever so slightly lower ranks of trials, where flat caps and wellies are more common place than glass-fronted hospitality boxes and A-list celebrities, the clamour to be involved in the sport by well-funded individuals is far less frantic.

Passion is a difficult emotion to measure and can be reflected in many different ways but is undoubtedly the driving force behind Manel Jane's long-burning ambition to build his own trials bike and bring it to market.

Much by choice, even inside the world of trials, Manel is not a big character. He is a man who prefers to step back into the shadows rather than express his huge business success with flamboyant gestures. Monday to Friday Manel is the head of a global baby products corporation though beneath his stern professional persona is a man who works and lives for the weekend.

The idea of drug and alcohol-fuelled parties packed with scantily clad girls is not on the agenda despite Manel owning the perfect mountain retreat property that would be ideal for this purpose.

Instead when the 56-year-old leaves his Barcelona office on a Friday afternoon and makes the two-and-a-half hour journey by car to the hills he has only one thing on his mind – to ride his trials bike with his buddies.

It may only be a simple pleasure but it is one that has more recently given rise to the birth of the Vertigo brand. Moreover, the purchase of over 1,000 hectares of trials paradise (Noassar) and the recent completion of a 10-room hotel complete with Michelin-starred chef close to his house in Camprodon means that he is never short of buddies.

In terms of actual sporting ambition Manel was never destined to be a world champion and as such never actively pursued that goal. Instead during his younger years he was much more preoccupied with picking up the reigns of the family business that was founded by his grandfather in 1932 when his own father hand built what was to be the first Jane pushchair following the arrival of his son Ramon (Manel's father). This initial four-wheel folding creation was soon presented to department stores in Barcelona and, with immediate orders for the same, the Jane enterprise has never looked back since and now has main offices and operations in Spain and Germany and currently sells into more than 50 countries.

Despite the growth and success of his main business not to mention the acquisition of other major brands in the pram and child car safety seat sector in more recent times, Manel has long harboured a more personal ambition that has been further fired by his annual pilgrimage to the Scottish Six Days Trial each May since 1987. Undeterred by the constant reminders of those closest to him about the lack of commercial sense that a foray into becoming a trials bike manufacturer might represent, just over two years ago Manel took the initial steps to finally bring his dream to life.

A discreet meeting back in the summer of 2013 with Dougie Lampkin in a Barcelona restaurant confirmed that at least one man with a good level of trials pedigree believed in his plan and might be prepared to become part of the project down the line. A scrapped first-generation engine that failed to live up to Manel's high self-imposed standards – and fell short of his overall goal of creating the best trials bike possible – caused the project to stutter initially. However, even this fundamental setback never really threatened the eventual birth of the Vertigo Combat.

The new coming saw Joan Forrellad (head of design at Jane) lead the way forward with a strong collaboration with the existing team in Stuttgart, Germany, who finally were been responsible for the frame, other exterior components and the plastics. Also a new relationship was formed with a team of professionals with previous competition experience headed by Francesc Romani who had the relevant expertise in both mechanical and electronic engineering to respond to the special and demanding requirements of this project.

The timing of the second generation motor being ready to run for the first time in a donor chassis could not have been better with Vertigo's recent high-profile signing Dougie Lampkin being on hand at Jane's Barcelona HQ to throw a leg over the new steed.

It was far from a pretty sight, Dougie in jeans and trainers and the engine grafted into a frame that was a poor fit at best and was strewn with a mass of wires and data logging equipment. Although it wasn't a glamorous occasion it was a highly important moment in the long process with the fuel injected engine firing into life at the second kick and running well as Dougie pulled a couple of third gear wheelies to put a broad smile on Manel's face.

As May 2014 loomed the speculation and rumours grew with certain media outlets and so-called industry insiders predicting that Dougie would debut the new machine at the SSDT as the former world champion went in search of a record eighth victory in the Scottish Highlands. Both Lampkin and his new boss Manel were well aware that in the past too many manufacturers in the trials world had rushed the development process and then subsequently failed and fallen short. There was no way that Manel's new baby was going to be shown to the world before it was fully ready and in truth back in the spring of last year while the Combat was taking shape it was in no way ready for what remains one of the toughest challenges in trials.

Thankfully, Dougie managed to take some heat out of the situation and was duly crowned the ‘King of Fort William' once again despite an interrupted build-up to the event, with him not knowing fully what bike he would ride in the event until only a couple of months in advance.

With the May deadline been and gone – and with the question of when the new bike would be ready not actually going away – the team was then able to continue its work behind closed doors without any real pressure of a publicised launch date.

By autumn of 2014 some perhaps doubted if the Vertigo would ever break cover. Those people obviously misunderstood Manel's passion and Dougie's determination and on November 5 at the Milan Show the formidable duo – accompanied by the rest of the Vertigo team – proudly unveiled two variants of the Combat which were met with huge, immediate and subsequent praise. Initial impressions of the bike perched on the green and black stand inside the Italian exhibition hall was that Manel had been true to his word and not only delivered his dream but also a machine that would lead the way for others to emulate.

Fast forward to January 3 this year and reigning British champion James Dabill, who was signed to Vertigo over the winter, had the daunting task of giving the still prototype Combat its competitive debut in front of nearly 6,000 home fans inside Sheffield arena. While Dabill failed to make it through to the final on that historic evening – or throughout the 2015 FIM X-Trial World Championship – the hostile series gave the bike an initial platform to prove its reliability and performance.

With much learned over those initial three months of competition on the world stage, Dabill then repaid the faith that Manel and the Vertigo team had put in him by taking a dominant win in the British Trials Championship to confirm just how far the Combat has come since its actual birth last November.

Passion, determination and much continued hard work, like with every newborn, will hopefully see Manel's baby flourish.

The dream of watching Dougie or James win the Scottish this year – an event Manel will also ride with his son Axel – would certainly help seal Vertigo's place in trials history. Such an occasion just may cause the quiet man of trials to step out from the shadows, glass of champagne in hand.

And rightly so, should it happen.