Lightweight (bicycle)
| Lightweight (today carbovation GmbH) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1990 |
| Seat | Friedrichshafen , Germany |
| management |
|
| Number of employees | 65 |
| sales | EUR 10 million |
| Branch | Fiber composites |
| Website | www.lightweight.info |
Lightweight is a company founded in Bavaria in 1990 by toolmakers Rudolf Dierl and Heinz Obermayer. Fame because completely made by hand and carbon fibers manufactured impeller because the former professional cyclist Jan Ullrich bewerkstelligte his trip to the yellow jersey in 1996 Lightweight.
unique selling point
The wheel, known as a lightweight in racing cycling (rim-hub-spoke-complete wheel) is, after 26 years of company history, a stand-alone and innovation leader in the field of carbon wheels. The attempts by the industry giants Mavic, Zipp, Corima and others in the mid-2000s to manufacture monocoque or semi-monocoque wheels and place them on the market were almost unsuccessful.
Head office
Since 2008, components have been manufactured in the new company building in Friedrichshafen-Ost and final assembly in Hailfingen near Herrenberg .
history
As early as the 1980s, the toolmakers Heinz Obermayer and Rudolf Dierl were building wheels for Sulkys , from which the first disc wheels for cycling emerged after a few years. The production took place in a garage on a farm with a meat loaf oven and truck heater.
In the founding years from 1990 onwards, they developed the construction and series production of complete wheels (rim, hub and spokes) made of fiber composite materials in their home workshop. In the first generation, a combination of predominantly carbon fibers and subordinate aramid fibers was used. When the demand could no longer be met thanks to the Tour de France success of Jan Ullrich, the owners sold the company and product in autumn 2003 to CarbonSports GmbH, founded in Friedrichshafen in 2002, whose owner Erhard Wissler and Heinz Obermayer owned the lightweight bikes there Handicraft continued to be produced. The second generation of wheels followed in 2007, now without the use of aramid fibers. Furthermore, the bike supplier Mavic , the American company LEW and various Taiwanese suppliers also tried to manufacture and establish carbon wheels of a similar design. New model series for tubular tires (clincher / folding tires ) and high-chamber rims followed in 2010 .
In 2008 the company moved to its new headquarters on Otto-Lilienthal-Straße in Friedrichshafen-Ost. The 65 employees at Carbon Sports manufacture around 30 wheels per day in Friedrichshafen and Hailfingen. The company made ten million euros in sales in 2015.
Carbon Sports has been a world market leader on the list of hidden champions since 2007 .
From 2006 to 2010 Lightweight organized Germany's largest mountain time trial, the Lightweight Uphill, and from 2011 to 2012 in this context also the German Mountain Championship .
On June 26, 2019, the Wissler-Group holding, which includes the sales company Carbonsports GmbH and the manufacturing company CarboFibretec GmbH, filed an application for restructuring in self-administration at the Esslingen District Court . In the course of the restructuring, the entire carbon division of the former Wissler Group was reorganized together with the new strategic partner Murtfeldt Kunststoffe under the company name carbovation GmbH.
Sporting commitment
- 2006–2012 designer of the Lightweight Uphill
- 2011–2012 organizer of the German Mountain Championships as part of the Lightweight Uphill
- 2007–2008 participation in the Unibet team
- 2009–2011 outfitter for Team Milram
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Johannes Schweikle: Where others don't dare to go. In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt. May 13, 2016, accessed November 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Susanne Braun: Lightweight wheels: The art of arranging atoms correctly. In: FAZ . January 24, 2015, accessed November 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Oliver Lück: Interview with wheel tinkerer Obermayer. In: Der Spiegel . July 21, 2004, accessed November 22, 2016 .
- ^ Richard Deiss: Heinz Obermayer and the carbon wheels . In: When time comes, bike comes . BoD, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8482-8738-3 , pp. 14 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Lightweight wheels at Carbonsports. In: radmarkt.de. November 12, 2003, accessed November 22, 2016 .
- ↑ How it all began. The history of the lightweight wheels. In: lightweight.info. Retrieved November 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century: The Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders . Campus Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38380-4 , pp. 25, 35, 204 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Kerstin Mommsen: Minister at the world market leader. In: Südkurier. June 17, 2008, accessed November 22, 2016 .
- ^ Website of the Lightweight Uphill race
- ↑ Jens Lindenmüller: Häfler carbon specialist gets into trouble. In: Schwäbische Zeitung. July 11, 2019, accessed August 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Jo Beckendorff: Carbovation: new Lightweight makers with strategic partners. In: RadMarkt. November 18, 2019, accessed November 28, 2019 .