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

The most common safety risks that we come across in our daily work around bicycle safety, technology and operating instructions are also published by us in articles in the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR (Europe's road bike magazine no. 1), BIKE (Europe's mountain bike magazine no. 1), MYBIKE and EMTB in order to make this information, which is important for the industry, available to a wider public.

For many years now, the Eurobike Show Daily, trade fair magazine of the annual Eurobike Show, has also given us the opportunity to publish our view of major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent expert presentations about all areas of bicycle technology and the bicycle market. In addition, we are quoted by further special-interest magazines of the industry and the trade as well as increasingly by radio and television in their media reports, which shows us that we are spot on with our advice. The section "News" informs you about the latest news from our specialist areas. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to areas of interest.

BIKE 01/2022
Reading time 1:30 minutes

Testing is environmental protection

BIKE: The company building that won an award for its eco-design is certainly a good signal. But in your case, isn't it more effective to start on the customer side?

DIRK ZEDLER: Of course, a manufacturer that produces tens of thousands of bicycles is dealing with much more material than our medium-sized service company. With the increase in durability sustainability is already a central part of our work. Our advantage is that through our work as loss adjustors we see exactly what damage occurs to a bicycle in practice. If certain types of damage recur, we develop machines and procedures to reproduce them in the test. Manufacturers are then in a position to take countermeasures. In most cases, this cannot be realized immediately for the entire range, but within two to four years, the products have reached a stage where the damage no longer occurs. Making products more durable is the core of our work.

Is it that what manufacturers want? That means that they will sell less.
Yes, that is actually in demand, even without much environmental thought. Firstly, certainly no one wants to run the risk that a customer gets seriously injured or dies with a failing product. Secondly, the dealer must be satisfied, otherwise he will have to deal with complaints. And thirdly, the reputation of a brand is quickly ruined with the end customer.

Isn't the improvement from generation to generation a very long way to a durable product?
We have certainly helped to accelerate the improvements in durability enormously. As we make our testing procedures transparent, some suppliers in Asia copy them. That’s what they describe in their product description as “zedeler testing”. Kind of funny, but this has established as the term for testing above the minimum requirements. And it already avoids a few bad products. Of course, we are always developing the procedures further and then perform the tests state-of-the-art. I am convinced that we avoid with our work a lot of scrap and waste which in the end ties up the same amount of raw material as a functioning, durable product.

Is the bicycle industry in general on a sustainable path?
I don’t want to judge that in general. Some things are getting better, others worse. Let's put it this way: As a small company, we have proven that you can achieve a lot with little effort. Of course, I feel sad that others with much more money give it so little thought.

The interview was held by: Jörg Spaniol

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