German brand Urwahn Bikes has unveiled a 3D printed steel frame that's built up with lightweight components from Schmolke Carbon, and it's certainly a head turner.
The first thing you'll notice about the frame is that it lacks a seat tube – or you could say that the seat tube and seatstays are combined – so how does it perform?
"The velodrome field test quickly showed the effect of the combination of steel and carbon – a comfortable geometry with brute bottom bracket stiffness meets aerodynamic lightweight construction," says Urwahn.
"The elastic suspension of the rear wheel guarantees additional riding comfort without sacrificing bottom bracket stiffness. This effect is particularly noticeable on longer rides and/or uneven surfaces; a decisive advantage over the competition."
We've not even seen this bike in the flesh never mind ridden it, so we can't comment on the ride quality ourselves. We're just showing you the pretty pictures, essentially!
The frame, made entirely in Germany, is copper plated and it's built up with a Schmolke Carbon handlebar, seatpost and saddle. Schmolke provides the 45mm-deep rims for the carbon clincher wheels while the hubs are from Tune.
A SRAM Red/Force eTap AXS groupset provides wireless shifting.
The complete bike has a claimed weight of 9.0kg (size medium). It'll set you back €8,499, which is about £7,300.
Get more details at www.urwahnbikes.com.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now pushing 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.