Well, it turns out the rumors about Iron Horse were mostly true: the company declared bankruptcy and an auction for assets and trademarks is scheduled for July 13. Bids are coming in around the $2 million mark which doesn’t seem bad when you consider that’s the price of just 320 Iron Horse Sunday World Cup mountain bikes Anyone want to go in with me and make a bid?

Pacific Cycles (the guys who make Wal-Mart bikes, among others) appear to be the high bidders right now but Randall Scott’s Outdoor Cycles company is also making a bid. Scott’s bid may be more attractive given that he’s the son of the former Iron Horse president and the deal would include a percentage of licensing royalties (though less $$ up front). The company is currently based in Nevada and also builds bikes under the Jeep, Columbia, and K2 brand names and owns several trademarks including Hollowpoint and Triump.

It’s always sad to see MTB companies go bust, though based on previous rumors it sounds like this one has been a long time coming. Hopefully the new owners will bring Iron Horse back much stronger…

GreenGiant’s Iron Horse MKIII Comp (more Iron Horse pics)

Singletracks member Luli79 alerted us to a forum thread supposedly posted by a former employee of Iron Horse who says the company has liquidated its inventory and has exited the MTB business. According to this former employee it’s a story of greed and mismanagement and has nothing to do with the current economic conditions. We’d love to get confirmation from anyone who has more info or who has dealt with Iron Horse customer service recently – let us hear yer story!