- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Video: The making of a Condor Leggero carbon frame
Here’s a nice video showing the manufacturing of Condor’s Leggero carbon frame in Veneto, Italy. This is the top-end race frame from the London bike shop, as used by the Rapha-Condor-JLT professional team.
All carbon frames are made by hand, even those from the big manufacturers, but some are a bit more involved than others. The Leggero uses the tube-to-tube method, with precisely mitred tubes bonded together. Strips of carbon are strategically wrapped around the tube junctions. A special jig is used to assemble the various tubes into the desired geometry, before it’s all put in an oven and cured for a specific time and temperature.
The video claims each Leggero and Barachi take a day to build. Condor say the frame is made from a combination of uni-directional and directional high modulus carbon, to achieve the desired level of stiffness. All cables are naturally routed internally, it’s Di2 and EPS compatible and comes with a Deda Nero Supermacy full carbon monocoque fork
The Leggero, while it has been around for a few years, has been constantly updated in that time. They get a lot of feedback from the race time and that has helped evolve the design. As you’d expect for a race frame, there are plenty of key details to boost stiffness. A tapered head tube with 1-1/8” at the top to 1-½” at the bottom bearings up front, a BB30 bottom bracket down below and oversized tubes feature throughout.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- Geordiepeddeler 1 hour 13 min ago
Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
- chrisonabike 1 hour 25 min ago
Ah but taking pictures of things to defy the man (avoid a fine) is righteous. Taking pictures of people to grass on them to the cops (perhaps...
- ktache 3 hours 15 min ago
But getting paid for it is the very definition of professional....
- ktache 3 hours 24 min ago
Never had a Shimano QR fail on me. They just work. And the top end ones look good too....
- Backladder 4 hours 10 min ago
If you're only looking at the guy in front of you then you're going to crash whatever brakes you have, you need to look beyond them to anticipate...
- jaysa 4 hours 36 min ago
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...
- andystow 5 hours 27 min ago
Same. I also have gone through a bunch of their tyres, and only the extralight disappointed (torn sidewall) but the standards are fantastic....
- chrisonabike 7 hours 24 min ago
Indeed - but it's no more inconsistent than our current road design - very often UK high streets are "for shopping" and also a busy through route....
- mike the bike 8 hours 55 min ago
If you ask the world's leading economic commentators how many people have been rescued from abject poverty by capitalism the average answer would...
Add new comment
8 comments
Yeah sure.....
Oops. That comment went in the wrong place. It was actually referring to the 'italian prayers' commentary in the video. Which chimes with the tone of the Rapha Continental videos. Do your bike rides feel like prayers and cycling through beautiful scenery in the mist? Mine feel like Grand Theft Auto commentated by Roy 'Chubby' Brown.
More crazy moon language! Were Condor and Rapha recently named as joint winners of the Nobel Prize for Bollockology?
Wow- are you a simpleton. Every single world they have used exists in the dictionary.
Fair play for them going on here to answer the questions.
If you want nonsense (made up words) looks at brands like Pinerello and Castelli.
+1
Having worked with CFRP, I could quite legitimately state that it looks like they are using pre-preg for the wrap of the tube junctions. If you don't understand the terms, robert_obrien, it doesn't mean it's bollocks!!
Even if you don't have any engineering experience, I'm pretty sure that if you thought about it, you could figure terms like uni (one?) and multi (many?) directional out... hopefully
The carbon fibre itself is manufactured in Japan, and the tubes are manufactured in house, in Italy. We also use some prefabricated tubes from Dedacciai, in the same way that we do with some of steel framesets.
When the tubes are individually manufactured, layers of carbon fibre are built up within a mould -in the same way that a monocoque frame is constructed. During this part of the process, both the alignment and type (uni or multi-directional) of fibres are strategically applied in order to dictate and influence the properties of the structure; obviously some areas need to be stiffer, some more compliant and some require increased levels of impact resistance. We also employ nano technology, whereby the epoxy used to bond the material together contains carbon nanotubes, making it much stronger.
We wanted to highlight that this process is not the same as off the shelf monocoque frames. It is much more costly and labour-intensive, but it allows us to be more flexible, i.e. custom etc...and it also ultimately leads to a higher quality product.
Hope this is helpful.
Dedacciai... Recognise the style anywhere
Nice to see small scale manufacture of bike frames! I hope it works out for them.
Did Condor also say where they get the tubes from? Also this does not make much sense "The frame is made with four layers of uni-directional carbon and two layers of directional high modulus carbon" - what did they mean to say?