Have you ever weighed your wheels with and without air? Yes? Then welcome to the club. Because only those who take every gram seriously (and that's about how much an atmosphere of tyre pressure weighs) will reach the weight ranges of record-breaking lightened racing bikes. The painter Günter Mai has been in this league for a long time. Ever since his 4.2-kilo racer from 2002, he has been at the forefront of the battle for the lightweight construction crown. With his new model, reduced to 3.3 kilos and exhibited by the "German Carbon Group", he once again left the trade fair as king of the gram foxes. In second and third place: a Scott "Addict", which trial pro and bike tuner Sebastian Roth has brought down to just under 3.7 kilos, and a Storck "Fascenario", which weighs a comparatively hefty 4.8 kilos with standard tuning parts.
"We have a different approach," says Klaus Hickmann-Rother, project manager at Storck, explaining the kilos of "excess weight" of his bike, which costs around 12,000 euros: "The individual lightweight manufacturers don't give a damn about the warranty. With us, the suppliers are responsible for safety. Anyone who has the money could assemble the bike like this." However, this does not earn you respect in the scene. They disdainfully refer to the assembly of lightweight bikes by buying high-end tuning parts as "chequebook tuning" and point out the limits of the process. Lightweight construction king Günter Mai: "If you just buy parts together, you might get to 4.2 kilos - if the manufacturer picks out the lightest part in the series. If you want to get really light, you have to do it yourself."
You can find a comparison of the light bikes Projekt 3.3, Scott Addict S.R. Edition and Storck Fascenario in the free PDF download.
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