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Eurobike 2011: German Carbon Group…less really is more

Time for our annual fix of lightweight teutonic wizardry

When we need a bit of a bike porn pick-me-up on the Friday after the road.cc party, we generally head over to the German Carbon Group stand. Those three words are a cast-iron guarantee of some very trick, very light and very expensive bikes.

First up is the Schmolke Namur Sub 6. Schmolke make some pretty tidy components including the Carbon flat bars in the gallery above. This frame weighs 920g: if there's one thing that isn't exceptional about the German Carbon bits it's generally the frame weights, as they don't have the massive resources that any of the big manufacturers can weigh in with.

That being said, they build up into some very, very light bikes. The Sub 6 pictured here tips the scales at 5.3kg with a SRAM Red groupset. The bike gets a THM Scapula SP fork, the same company's Fibula Carbon brakeset and Clavicula chainset, Schmolke bars and a Tune Carbon wheelset. That'll be €8,333 to you sir.

Incidentally, if you want to go under 5kg that's possible too. But you'll need more than €10,000 in your wallet.

Also on display was this rather lovely Duratec Cult CR3. "A road racing bicycle composed of parts characterized by common features – impressive weight, strength, firmness and quality – developed and produced in EU countries", we read. Add "breathtaking cost" to that description, because the bike as pictured here – weighing in at 5.6kg, incidentally – will set you back €11,000. Ouch.

The Cult CR3 shares many of its components with the Scmolke, but it does get THM's Scapula F fork with internal brakes. This being about weight, neithe of these bikes have a Carbon stem: The Duratec has a very nice Tune unit and the Schmolke has a Ritchey WCS Axis, which has long been one of the lightest stems available.

Last up this Spin Gato. There's always a nice Spin bike or two on the GCG stand; one year they built up a sub-3kg bike for kicks but this year it's very conservative 5-6kg machines with proper groupsets. The Gato gets Dura Ace and lightweight wheels, but you do have to put up with a Carbon Tune saddle. Again, THM supply the forks, brakes and chainset and again, it's an alloy stem: a Rotor one this time.

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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WolfieSmith | 12 years ago
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I'm enjoying seeing where the bicycle arms race goes next. Ultimately pointless for most cyclists. Unlike buying sports cars that can fool you ala Clarkson that your a talented driver - buying a £10k bike will just remind you that you'll never be Jens Voigt - and have just spent £10k on a bike!

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Decster | 12 years ago
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What is the point of producing such products at prices that cannot compare to what is being produced in Asia?

While nice as they are no doubt cutting edge, but does the sport of cycling need more of this top end expensive equipment?

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