Steve Domahidy combines Pinion electronic shifting, a Mahle motor, and front suspension into one do-everything titanium gravel e-bike. The Launch Edition has it all—including a $14,500 price tag.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
Updated February 25, 2026 10:30AM
A brand you’ve most likely never heard of, from a man you have definitely heard of, just launched a veritable “kitchen sink” gravel bike. It features a titanium frame, Pinion Smart.Shift gear box, front suspension, and a Mahle X20 Motor System. If that sounds like your specific brand of adventure, the Launch Edition Viral Bikes Wander-ee is priced at $14,500.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
Who’s behind Viral bikes?
It’s a big ask for anyone to suggest that $14,500 makes sense for a bike, but well-known brands do it regularly. What about Viral bikes? This is a brand no one has heard of, but it’s not actually as unknown as it seems. The one-man behind this bike is Steve Domahidy, and he’s somewhat legendary.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
Domahidy started in the bike industry as a teen, but at the time that just meant tune-ups for neighborhood basket-case bikes. Eventually, that early love positioned Domahidy to get an opportunity to travel to Taiwan and learn how a bike brand comes into the world. Domahidy then took that knowledge and leveraged it to start a little thing called Niner bikes in 2004.
After stepping away in 2011, Domahidy went on to Factor bikes in 2016. With Factor, as claimed in MADE show materials, Domahidy had a hand in designing the brand’s “award winning first bike, the Vis Vires, which would later become the Factor One.” According to the same bio, Domahidy also helped launch an ebike commuter brand in San Francisco called Faraday Bikes and helped to take small custom carbon brand Argonaut bikes into a new frontier of upgraded manufacturing and new bikes.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
Today Domahidy is running Viral bikes out of a new headquarters with roots in the burgeoning epicenter of bike innovation in America, Bentonville. According to Visit Bentonville Viral is “a boutique titanium bike brand that’s spent nine years perfecting its revolutionary approach to mountain bike design.” Visit Bentonville also says that “At the core of every Viral bike is a 12-speed internal gearbox that eliminates traditional derailleurs, cassettes, and chains, replacing them with a sealed drivetrain and Gates belt drive system.”
Which brings us to the new offering.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
What is the Viral Bikes Wander-ee?
You already know it’s somewhat akin to throwing every technology you can think of at a bike, but the result, according to Domahidy, is “a very capable bike first, and an e-bike second.” The new bike is also a motorized extension of the existing Wanderer “do-it-all adventure bike.”
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
The older bike starts with a titanium frame then adds a “100mm travel mountain bike fork or a boost spacing mountain bike specific rigid fork.” From there the system comes to life with “more than enough mounting points to carry any and all of your needed gear” and a Smart.Shift electronic gearbox from Pinion and TRP. There’s also ample tire clearance with room for 29” x 2.4” tires making it, again self-described, a “true drop bar mountain bike” that “can go anywhere and do anything.”
What that bike can’t do, though, is help you up a steep hill. To handle that last bit, Viral added the Mahle X20 Motor System and created a new bike called the Wander-ee.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
The new bike isn’t just a powered version of the previous bike but it hews as close as possible. Viral chose the Mahle X20 rather than a more powerful MTB-specific motor, but Viral explains that it requires “gravel-centric specs for the hubs (142/12 rear and 100/12 front),” and the brand “decided to depart from the Wanderer and use a more gravel centric build.”
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
The changes are relatively minor, though. The passive suspension system, where the seat tube connects to the seat stays with a plate that allows movement, remains in place on the new bike. There’s also still front suspension, but it’s shifted from a 100mm mountain bike piece to the Cane Creek Invert fork which maxes out at 40mm of travel. Unfortunately you do sacrifice a small bit of tire clearance, moving down 29” x 2.1” for your powered adventures, but you also gain some features.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
Using Mahle, and the system’s Gateway product, allows the package to integrate perfectly with the existing belt drive Pinion Smart.Shift system. The Mahle Gateway electronic interface keeps a single battery that both powers the hub and the shifting then the whole package gets a few bonus features. Unlike the Wanderer or Dérive, the Wander-ee has a speed sensor and that unlocks a couple of automatic shifting modes. Start.Select auto shifts when you come to a stop so you are always ready to go and Pre.Select shifts while you are coasting to match your current ground speed.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
Pricing and availability
You already know that the retail pricing is set at $14,500 but that’s for the launch edition. No subsequent price is provided but if you get in on the ground floor you’ll get some extras. Put down a 50% deposit today and your launch edition will include the Mahle range extension battery, an upgraded Mahle Hub, and a wireless SRAM AXS dropper post that activates via a unique button made by Swedish company Zirbel to integrate into the TRP brake hood. There’s also a full set of Tailfin bags included as part of the Launch Edition.
For more information and purchase visit the Viral bike website.
(Photo: Viral Bikes)
