All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

In our daily work as we deal with bicycle safety, technology and user manuals we come across lots of safety risks. The most frequent ones are published in articles of the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR – Europas Rennrad-Magazin Nr. 1, BIKE – Das Mountainbike Magazin Europas Nr. 1 and E-Bike – Das Pedelec-Magazin to make this information important for the sector accessible to a wider public.

For many years now the Eurobike Show Daily accompanying the annual international Eurobike Show has given us the opportunity to publish our perspective on major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent lectures about all topics relating to bicycle technology and bicycle market. In addition, we are regularly cited by further special-interest magazines or trade journals as well as more and more by radio and television and in their media reports, which shows us that we are completely right with our information. The section NEWS informs you about the latest news from our specialist fields. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to topics of interest.

velobiz magazine 02/2013
Reading time 1:30 minutes

Build me up?

Comment on custom-made bicycles

On today’s bicycle market custom-made is a question of perspective: Semi-custommade-bicycles offering the customer the possibility of choosing most of the fittings by himself meet integrated models combining perfectly matching frames with add-on parts offering, however, often only limited adjustment ranges. 

"Not long ago, about half of the road racing bicycles were assembled individually by the bicycle dealers", remembers Dirk Zedler. The owner of Zedler – Institut für Fahrradtechnik und -Sicherheit GmbH is an experienced expert of the branch and has already cycled quite a lot individually assembled bicycles. (…)

Zedler is convinced that the bicycle sector is currently experiencing a change. "And the concept of the individualisation complements the increasing system integration." (…)

"System integration in form of a smart seat post or stem which allow an accurate adjustment with an always straight alignment, is a good thing", says Zedler. The bicycle expert’s frown turns, however, sceptical in view of the fast growing variety of components due to manufacturer-specific integration options. "Considering for example the growing number of bottom bracket ideas – you can hardly speak any longer of standards – one must state that this compromises individuality the latter being, however, very important in the area of the drive", he states. (…)

"Keeping pace with the technology leaps is going to be a challenging task for the trade", states Zedler. "The willingness to further training and to invest accordingly capital as well as working time, should be deeply anchored in a company’s philosophy." He thinks that only strong partnerships between the trade and the manufacturers will be successful. (…)

"Once only original parts will fit, failures as a result of combining non-matching parts will be prevented and the risk of a clamping failure will decrease, as well", concludes Zedler.  (…)

Go back