BFS2017 Roundup: Veloheld 10th anniversary Alley, 8bar Kronprinzes & Leeze machine built wheels

We uncovered quite a few all-new bikes and unique tech at this year’s Berlin Bike Show last month. But there are still a number of more evolutionary products that we saw as well, both from companies we’ve covered before and a few new to Bikerumor. Dresden-based bike producer Veloheld is celebrating their 10th anniversary with a limited edition reissue of the urban bike that started it all. The Berliners at 8bar bikes gave us an update on their Kronprinz road bike that we previewed last year, with an update on the continued availability of both alloy and carbon variants. Then we spent some time talking to a production tech with Leeze Wheels, about their unique method of machine building wheels in Europe to achieve unparalleled quality and durability…

Veloheld.Alley 10th

The Alley was the simple fixed gear frameset that Veloheld built their brand around back in 2007. So to celebrate ten years of designing & producing bikes they are reissuing the bike as the blue Veloheld.Alley 10th edition.  The new bike shares the same double butted Reynolds 525 tubing, geometry, and overall layout of the original with a few special updates.

The special edition frameset gets a new lightened set of track end dropouts at the back, an entirely redesigned seat cluster. The new multi piece seattube gets a 10 year commemorative stamp and a low-profile seatpost binder. The Alley 10th keeps the front end essentially unchanged with a standard 1.125″ headtube and Veloheld’s uniquely shaped 4130 tapered fork.

The new bike will be available from the start of June, and you can let Veloheld know now if you want to reserve a frameset or build up a complete bike.

Veloheld.de

8bar Kronprinz

We got a early look at 8bar’s new carbon road bike – the Kronprinz Carbon – last spring, but the details were a bit scant as it was ahead of them officially announcement of the new bike. Now it seems 8bar has a bit more info on the UD carbon frame, claiming a weight of 990g, plus another 350g for the tapered aero full-carbon fork.

The Kronprinz Carbon will not be a bike that 8bar keeps stock of, but will be available as pre-order only for 1278€ for the frameset. You can get the carbon bike in either this 8bar Team Edition paint scheme or a simple matte clearcoat finish, and it looks like it will actually be available in both rim and disc brake variants. The bike sticks with a 27.2mm seatpost and a standard threaded bottom bracket (although BB30 is optional), but still goes for a tapered 1.5″ integrated headset.

The matte bike sells for 1200€ in four stock sizes, while the team paint adds another 80€. The first preorder has already closed for this spring delivery, so if you want to get in on the next order email 8bar to check on their current scheduling.

There was also talk that the addition of the carbon frame would likely signal the demise of the alloy Kronprinz, but… It seems that due to popular demand the double butted 6066 aluminum frame will be sticking around. Starting at just 511€ for a frameset with its full carbon tapered fork, or 1500€ for this 8.8kg (19.4lb) Tiagra 2×10 complete bike, the Kronprinz Road (that’s the name of the alloy version) makes for a truly affordable, high-value way to get into performance road riding.

8bar-bikes.com

Leeze Wheels

The big thing that we took away from our discussions with the wheel specialists at Leeze Wheels was actually something very small – that square section at the end of the special Sapim CX-Ray spokes. Leeze is a German company that prides themselves on how they build their wheels by machine in Europe. But these aren’t just any wheel building machines, but rather some incredibly advanced robotic wheel building machines from Dutch producer Holland Mechanics developed exclusively to build Leeze’s wheels. These manufacturing robots are able to build carbon wheels with a level of precise & consistent spoke tension that makes for wheels that Leeze claims to result in wheels that outlast almost all of their competition. The key here is the small square clamping section at the end of the spoke that lets the machine more accurately and continuously measure tension across a precise length of the spoke, and limit the tightening forces to the end of the spoke. The end result is the ability to build to high tension without any spoke windup at all (vs. the conventional approach of clamping at some point along the bladed section to limit windup to a shorter length of the spoke), for perfectly true & durable wheels.

Leeze build a large number of wheels for several disciplines, all at seemingly competitive pricing. Their carbon wheels look to most benefit from their unique manufacturing. These wheels are their flagship CC60 mid-depth aero carbon clinchers, with a 20.5mm internal width and grow to 28mm outside at their widest point. Available both in 1300€ rim brake and 1400€ disc brake models, the use pretty standard alloy hubs (and get plenty of axle options) and come with tires pre-installed.

Leeze.de