8bar, whose video we featured a month ago from their adventurous fixed gear ride across the alps, has a new road bike frameset coming this summer, their first geared option. The Kronprinz was first shown this weekend at the show in Berlin. Read on for pricing, more details from 8bar, and how the bike got its name.
The new Kronprinz, a 6066-T6 aluminum frame, made its debut over the weekend and will be available at the end of the summer for <700€ including a full carbon fork. It uses a traditional bottom bracket and a tapered fork. Like the other bikes in the 8bar line, this one is named after a place in Berlin, although a bit indirectly. In the forest of Grunewald on the west side of Berlin there are many great riding opportunities away from the bustle of the city, including DH trails, sandy/rooty singletrack, and hardpack and paved forest roads. One of these roads popular with cyclists around the park (having ridden there myself after the show) is named for a Crown Princess, so 8bar thought it fitting to give her a Crown Prince.
The final pre-production aluminum frame weighed in at 1300g for a size medium and has clearance for 28mm tires. (We measured it, and 32s would probably fit as well.) We will keep in touch, and maybe try to test the bike out when the first full production batch is available.
8bar also has 2 other single speed models, one road (Krzberg) and one cyclocross (Tflsberg), that they offer as lower cost semi-custom build bikes with a durable spec through their web-based configuration tool.
8bar-bikes.com
