It’s Friday, just before 1 p.m. Christian Gemperlein is sitting in the meeting room of a warehouse near Veitshöchheim, about ten kilometers from Würzburg. The room furnishings were kept simple. A table, chairs. There are no pictures hanging on the wall, just mountain bikes. “Bike Ahead Composites” is the name of the company based in Veitshöchheim that Gemperlein founded in 2010. The company develops modern, unique bicycle components made of carbon, which are not only popular with hobby cyclists, but are also used in professional cycling. And worldwide.
Music is playing in the hall, machines can be heard, several people are talking and giving each other instructions. Some workplaces have already been cleaned up, others are still being worked on.
Melanie Hiesberger inserts carbon fabric snippets into the aluminum mold for an e-bike wheel. This process takes between six to eight hours.
(Photo: Felix Hamann)
This is also the case at Melanie Hiesberger’s place. The 28-year-old appears focused. She is currently in the process of inserting black, resin-soaked carbon fabric scraps into an aluminum mold with great craftsmanship. She repeatedly reaches for the cold spray with her white latex gloves to keep the blanks in position. “This component is one of the most difficult,” she says, as she continues to make sure that the fibers don’t wrinkle or break. It can take between five to eight hours to complete – depending on the component. She is currently working on a frame for an e-bike.
“E-bikes have already done the industry good,” says Gemperlein. In the wake of the Corona pandemic, the electric bike has arrived in the sporting sector alongside mountain bikes and racing bikes, as a Light EMBT – with a smaller battery and less drive, but, as here, a frame made of carbon. “Made in Germany.”
This is special because the majority of all bicycles have been built in the Far East for decades. This mainly has to do with the complex production. The production of carbon frames in particular is extremely labor-intensive. That’s why production in Europe is hardly considered competitive. Christian Gemperlein and his company show that it is apparently possible.
Gemperlein’s life has always revolved around bicycles. As a child, he rode his bike around the campsite on vacation, and as a teenager he worked in a bike shop and had his own workshop in the garage. He then set up a parts business including an online shop, studied plastics and elastomer technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Würzburg and finally wrote his diploma thesis on the development and construction of a “CFRP composite wheel for mountain bikes”. This was also his first self-developed product. More should follow.
That was more than ten years ago now, but just like his enthusiasm for cycling, his fascination with the miracle material carbon is as great as ever. “A main advantage of carbon is that you can create beautiful things like curved lines. Carbon is also quite stable and very light,” says Gemperlein.
He knows what makes a good bike. “It has to look smart and function well,” he says. His wheels, with only six carbon spokes, look like sculptures. Of course, weight plays an important role. Sure, after all Gemperlein produces lightweight bikes. Nothing works without carbon, especially in racing: the competition between manufacturers for the lightest bikes has become increasingly intense in recent years. There is therefore a downward weight limit in the Tour de France: a road racing bike and attachments cannot weigh less than 6.8 kilograms – otherwise it could possibly collapse under the rider’s weight.
“It all started in a rented hall down the street,” says Gemperlein. When space there finally became limited, he and his now 41 employees moved to Oberdürrbacher Straße – today’s company headquarters with a production area of 1200 square meters.
But “Bike Ahead Composites” is still anything but a mass manufacturer. “We produce around 1,000 bicycle frames and rims here every year,” explains Gemperlein. That’s just three to five wheels plus accessories per day and around ten to 20 frames per week, he calculates. Customers pay a lot for the manufacturing quality. For example, wheels for mountain bikes start at 2,600 euros per set – more than many average bikes for amateurs with full equipment cost. The 1450 gram Biturbo Aero wheelset for road bikes costs 3999 euros.
Production in Portugal
Gemperlein is targeting an exclusive clientele: “Our biggest customers are those who want to spend money on their hobby. People who don’t just go to the ice cream parlor, but actually also take part in races and of course expect the material to be more than enough lasts for years.”
So it’s no wonder that professional sports have already come knocking on Gemperlein’s door. Many a professional has already crossed the finish line with components from Bike Ahead Composites. Who was that? Gemperlein is not allowed to say that. “There are customers who don’t want it to become public because they want to be perceived as a bicycle manufacturer,” he says. In addition to its own brand “Bike Ahead”, Bike Ahead Composites also produces commissioned work for high-end bicycle manufacturers. Their logo also adorns the winning wheels.
Gemperlein is not so secretive about the “Cape Epic”, an annual stage race for mountain bikers. Their Tour de France, if you will. A men’s team in South Africa has already won twice with Gemperlein’s carbon parts.
Gemperlein wants to continue to score points with quality in international competition. “Sanding, filling, painting, doing the whole thing all over again, I couldn’t afford that here,” he says. It is therefore crucial that the carbon in the aluminum mold comes out of the oven as perfectly as possible after about three hours. Finally, only holes are drilled or cosmetic defects are repaired. Like many things, this is not yet automated. “You can just see that a huge amount of manual work goes into creating these products, and we want to improve that in the future,” says Gemperlein.
What this can look like will be seen in Portugal. There he founded a consortium with partners under the name “Carbon Team”. This year, 10,000 high-quality frames for mountain bikes, racing bikes and e-bikes are expected to be produced.