Schools visit Zedler-Institut

Young Engineer Academy at Zedler-Institut

Our new company headquarters is also a pro-bono investment in general education: The building allows the extension of guided school tours which had already been offered before. During these tours young people at the threshold to the world of work and apprentices to the job get an even more comprehensive insight into our work, the 200 year old history of the bicycle and the current state of the art and technology in innovation and quality of the bicycle industry.

The profound school education and professional training are very important to Zedler-Institut. For this reason, we have regularly welcomed schools of various levels of training on our premises for many years. Besides nearby schools from Ludwigsburg district, this offer is also taken advantage of by more far-away educational institutions, like the federal school in Frankfurt. Their master class in the discipline of two-wheel technology has visited Zedler-Institut repeatedly. These guided tours for schools also benefit from the move into the new building, because there is now more space for the test laboratory, lectures and the bicycle museum.

A specially equipped show laboratory allows to perform impressive load tests on bicycles, pedelecs and individual components which gives us the opportunity to raise the visitors’ awareness for safety in the case of bicycle constructions. The daily business in the actual laboratories continues unaffected of that at the same high speed as usual.

200 years of bicycle in one room

There is also more space for the bicycle museum: It comprises more than 300 exhibits documenting the development of the bicycle from the first running machine to the state-of-the-art carbon bicycles and the pedelec. A selection of these bicycles finds place in the bright, large-surface seminary facilities in the top floor of the Zedler-Institut headquarters. They clearly illustrate the repeated pioneering role of the bicycle in the development and manufacture of vehicles and how it has played to date to its strengths as sports equipment and means of transport thanks to continuous further development.

The first guided tour in the new company headquarters of Zedler-Institut took place at the end of November 2017. Students of the Young Engineer Academy of Lichtenberg Gymnasium, Sachsenheim (Baden-Wuerttemberg) were impressed by the systematic work mode of the engineers and the variety of the bicycles that have been rolling on the roads over the past 200 years.

Manuals worldwide

MTB manual Arabic

There is no other product made by Zedler-Institut which has a wider distribution than the manuals: In 2017, millions of them were delivered together with bicycles and pedelecs on nearly all significant sales markets of the world, thus contributing to release our business partners from liability.

In the cycle industry, the quality of the Zedler manuals confirmed by independent test institutes and appreciated by cyclists is no longer a secret tip: Every year we win new customers who enclose documentation made by Zedler-Institut to their bicycles and pedelecs. In 2017, of the various versions for all types of bicycles and pedelecs several millions of Zedler manuals were supplied to more than 80 countries in Europe, Northern America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. To ensure that cyclists in these different regions of the world are able to understand the manuals, they were translated in more than 40 languages. This includes, just to name but a few, English, Finnish, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Chinese simplified and traditional as well as Arabic.

 

Road bike manual Japanese

Manuals tailored to specific needs as recipe for success

It is not only in terms of language that the manuals are adapted to the respective countries, they also meet the respective legal requirements. They hereby serve as disclaimer of liability for the manufacturers in legal respects. In addition, they increase the cyclists’ satisfaction of the purchased total package bicycle or pedelec which verifiably also increases the satisfaction with the respective brands.

But there is still more tailor-made adaption available: We offer every manufacturer the opportunity to have the Zedler manuals individualised according to their needs: The offer covers a wide range, from brand-neutral basic manuals that are available quickly and in small quantities to the completely individualised Premium manuals. For an overview of all manual types offered, visit our website.

Launching ramp for fresh bicycle ideas

Jury and winners

Even 200 years after its invention the bicycle is still not yet completed - new companies are constantly being created which further develop the bicycle and its possibilities of use with fresh ideas. Five of such start-up companies were awarded at the first Startup Cycling Pitch in Berlin, with Dirk Zedler acting as juror.

At the beginning of November the bicycle sector network Bikebrainpool invited to participate in the first Startup Cycling conference. It was the target of this event to bring more innovations into the cycle industry and to hereby strengthen the role of the bicycle for the urban mobility of tomorrow. The focus was laid on the contact between young companies full of ideas with promoters, investors and established industry giants. This also included the Startup Cycling Pitch where 19 teams of young companies wooed the expert jury and the audience. In the end, five of them received an award which also included comprehensive support for the market launch by members of Bikebrainpool.

Jury member Dirk Zedler was impressed by the performance of the young companies. “Many participants of the Startup Cycling Pitch are committed cyclists and developed fascinating ideas on the basis of their own experience to adapt the bicycle to the needs of today’s life. During realization and marketing of their ideas they skilfully and highly professionally use the possibilities of the digital revolution, thus paving the way into the future for the bicycle.

Market-conform testing – Advanced-Plus XXL

Increased stress of the head-tube area

Besides the well-known Advanced and Advanced-Plus standards, Zedler-Institut has been testing successfully bicycles up to a permissible total weight of 170 kg for some time by using Advanced-Plus XXL. You wonder why?

The average male in the D/A/CH region (Germany/Austria/Switzerland) weighs 85 to 89 kg. Doesn’t matter if you didn’t know that … oh, wait, it does matter after all! Why weight matters in connection with bicycles is a rather easy question to answer to: Those who have their bicycles tested only according to ISO, actually rely upon tests which do not meet the requirements of our region’s market.

Because ISO standards implicitly assume a total weight (bicycle, rider and luggage taken together) of 100 kg. A simple calculation with a dramatic result: For more than half of the German-speaking men a typical city or trekking bike with a tare weight of 16 kg on average is simply not sufficiently tested. In the case of pedelecs it does not look better.

This and not more is covered by the standard tests. This is not a system fault, because the globally developed and accepted ISO and EN standards represent the absolute minimum requirements that every bicycle has to comply with, even low budget bicycles from the DIY store.

In other countries, the weight limit is not an issue at all. The average weight of a Chinese male is about 70 kg, in Japan about 69 kg. They could even take a lot of luggage with them on a sample bicycle tested according to ISO standard.

The E renders mobile

The increasing importance of the weight issue is also due to e-mobility.

  • Pedelec riders evidentially ride more.
  • The motor tempts them to take luggage with them.
  • More and more heavyweight riders become mobile.
  • In contrast to the past, mountains are no longer an obstacle, but afterwards you have to ride downhill.
  • The motor makes the e-biker faster.

As a result, honest manufacturers report that the topic of material failure has tended to increase again. The same applies to components which have been unsuspicious for years, such as the luggage carrier of pedelecs, which are increasingly concerned by breakages at present.

It is therefore logical that a reputable supplier acting on the global market is well advised to test well beyond the standard. This is the only way to ensure the satisfaction as well as the safety of their customers in the long term.

 

Higher weights, more speed in the case of pedelecs

Standards beyond the normative minimum requirements according to ISO and EN

For years, we have been establishing own standards based on measurement data from real data collections, many thousands of expert’s reports on bicycle accidents, discussions with our customers about the complaints they receive and on internal benchmarking.

Our customers had very good experience with Advanced up to a weight release of 120 kg for bicycles and 130 kg for pedelecs.

In the case of Advanced-Plus there is positive experience for bicycles with a permissible total weight of 140 kg or 150 kg for pedelecs.

With a limit of 170 kg, Advanced-Plus XXL reaches yet a higher level which could bring more people on the bicycle and e-bike with a clear conscience, if one is to believe the freely accessible statistics about the weight distribution.

 

The fine print

This is the place where a lot of notifications should be made, as although durability can be limited roughly with a single test, it cannot be confirmed for good. Therefore some examples:

  • Due to production tolerances no one can know whether a particularly good component, a component of poor or medium quality was tested.

  • Leverage ratios change according to the frame size and the loads change accordingly as a result.

  • The permissible total weight is the issue determining the load in particular in the case of city/trekking bikes and their relatives with motor. In the case of mountain bikes the intended use is the crucial factor. For this reason, the weight limits exclusively apply to city/trekking bikes or analogous to ASTM to bicycles of category II.

Please contact us to discuss the adequate testing of your products compared to your user groups.