The urban cycling and custom bike builder community at Kolektif Berlin never fails to deliver beautiful concepts and detailing. From mainstay Berlin brands like 8bar, Fern, Gramm & Wheel Dan, the show covers the gamut from customized production bikes to full-on custom gear. Plus, there were a couple bikes just back from the Atlas Mountain Race, Fern’s new component brand Allygn, and even a few oddities to check out.
Kolektif Berlin, independent urban & custom bike show
I couldn’t make the Kolektif bike show in Berlin this year because of messy cancelled travel around Taipei Cycle (Yeah, Covid-19!). But good friend of Bikerumor and excellent photographer Robert Krügel was there to check out some of the best details in the German capital. Kolektif Berlin is unique as consumer-oriented bike show, run by a group of small bike brands. When the event promoter of its predecessor Berliner Fahrradschau (the Berlin Bike Show) folded, this collective stepped up and is carrying on the lively vibe. Props to them for making it work!
The highlights of Kolektif are mostly metal bikes, custom-made in or around Berlin, but it doesn’t stop there. The shiny green Meerglas 650B Rinko Randonneur above is a nice example. A classic lugged steel bike with a few more contemporary touches, and with a goal to ride it from Paris-Brest-Paris in a few years’ time.
Fern x Allygn x Gramm custom steel gravel bikepacking bike
A perennial Berlin favorite is the duo of custom steel frame builder Fern and custom bag maker Gramm Tourpacking. Together the build and outfit some killer bikes, with gravel adventure bikes being their mainstay.
Fern is always known for diving deep in the details, with clean and often custom cockpit setups, and all the integration you could hope for in a custom bike.
This prototype show bike takes custom cockpit to new levels, with a multi-part brazed steel aerobar setup. The stem itself has four struts arranged in a V that connects via two 31.8mm clamps to a one-piece H-bar set of aero extensions.
Then, across the top of the upper stem struts, a cross bar supports a pair of adjustable width arm pads. A computer mount fits in the middle of the regular bar clamping area, and a magnetic hose attachment point offers easy access to hydration while you are stretched out low on some ultra endurance cycling race.
It’s not only custom parts here though. Underneath is their new Allygn 6061 alloy Metal-on-Metal production gravel drop bar, a 16° flare handlebar that will be available soon. A tapered Allygn headset is in there too, as is the M.U.D. full carbon gravel fork with anything cage, rack & fender mounts, and internal dynamo cable routing. We’ll have to get a full breakdown of all the Allygn components, pricing & availability soon! Allygn.de
Wheel Dan custom titanium road, gravel & touring bikes
Another amazing craftsman that sweats the details at Kolektif Berlin is Daniel Pleikies of Wheel Dan. Working exclusively in custom titanium of Wheel Dan continues to crank out some beauties.
Part of his Superlight Randonneur Complete bike package, Wheel Dan integrates custom welded ti front racks with dynamo powered lighting, a supported front rando bag, and full coverage fenders, among many other amazing details.
It’s not a quick process and it doesn’t come cheap at 13,600€ for his absolute top-level custom titanium creations. But it is hard to argue with the finishing details like the curved rack layout that melds into the cradle for the Supernova E3 LED headlight, or the ti stem with integrated bell.
Definitely some lust-worthy creations from Wheel Dan, with less over-the-top but still custom complete titanium road, all-road & gravel bikes starting from a more reasonable 6700€ price point.
Kolektif Berlin gravel prototypes & Berliner AMR adventure race bikes
8bar is a long-running Berlin-based production bike brand. But even they snuck some new goodies into the show, like this steel adventure gravel bike prototype that was showing off some Spengle Carbon wheels, but also sporting more tire clearance than their production Mitte do-it-all all-road to gravel bike.
Cicli Bonanno is an interesting one, an Italian framebuilder, building bikes in a Berlin workshop. The handiwork of Niccolo Bonanno is most seen in custom modern steel road bikes.
But Niccolo was fresh back from the Atlas Mountain Race, so his custom Stay Loco gravel bike was also on display, still covered in Moroccan mud and fitted with Italian Arch Industry bikepacking bags.
Another AMR bike from another Berliner, Bengt Stiller was showing off his aluminum Liteville 4-One hardtail with its integrated dropper seatpost. His ultra endurance bikepacking setup also highlights a set of custom-made Gramm Tourpacking bags, stitched from an ultralight Dyneema Composite (Cuben Fiber) fabric to shed a few extra grams.
Berliner cycling oddities
And beyond the mini tall bike creation that we led with, there are always your fair share of oddities to see in the Kolektif Berlin cycling scene. Made tame by comparison is this classic method of tensioning a tandem timing chain by squeezing in some extra chainrings that rotate freely in place as both riders pedal.
But don’t forget this contraption, that I would leave with almost no explanation and let you all figure it out. Not for the faint of heart, or people who can’t even deal with a flexy stem, you could always just pump your bars for propulsion and give your legs a rest. Cyclists need to do more upper body workouts anyways, right?
One last thanks to Robert for the photos. Check out more of his cycling photo documentation from German cyclocross to adventure gravel riding to enduro shredding over on Instagram.
