The project slipped into his life like a meteorite into the earth's atmosphere. The East German bicycle manufacturer MiFa had asked if he could develop a folding e-bike that would fit in the boot of a car. "Until then, I hadn't really had much to do with bicycles," says Bernd Iwanow, who manufactures parts for the automotive industry with his small company in the Saxon-Anhalt province. In Lossa, a village that is as idyllic as it is sleepy, located somewhere in the green waves between Sangerhausen and Weimar.
From milled frame fragments to mountain bikes
The folding bike project quickly took shape, but unfortunately the bike manufacturer once again fell into a financial tailspin - as it had several times before after reunification - and had to file for bankruptcy. A few milled frame fragments lying in Bernd's meeting room are silent witnesses to the commissioned work that was once started full of enthusiasm. But Bernd had tasted blood. With a mixture of defiance and ambition, he decided to build his own bike. Not for commercial reasons, but because he wanted to. It had to be a mountain bike. And not an ordinary one, because there were already thousands and thousands of them.
As a producer of CNC parts, it was clear that Bernd's bike should also be manufactured in this way. Initial internet research showed what an audacious idea this was. Hardly any mountain bike in the world had ever been milled before. At least not from solid material. In 1994, Cannondale had caused a furore with the futuristic, CNC-milled V 4000. However, the spectacular project bike, developed by engineering legend Alex Pong to make the competition look like talentless backyard welders, remained a prototype.
The then Cannondale boss Joe Montgomery had to bite into his hat in front of the assembled trade press after announcing that the V 4000 would be ready for series production in the near future. Otherwise, Montgomery said, he would eat his hat. Which he did. At the very least, he bit off a piece of his headgear and choked it down in a photo-worthy manner. That was it for milled frames for the time being. Until 2014, when the Swiss Adrian Summermatter a spectacular CNC-Fully introduced. But this too soon disappeared into the basement of mountain bike history. But when Bernd saw pictures of Summermatter's "Ribisu" on the internet, he was electrified. His bike should look something like this.
"It should be immediately clear to everyone, even from ten metres away, that the frame is milled. That was important to me," says Bernd. What the famous CNC bike from Pole Bicycles is not the case, he adds. The two aluminium half-shells from the Finnish manufacturer, which are bolted together, almost give the appearance of a welded frame. After almost two years of development with a few setbacks, Bernd's Frace F160 is now ready for series production. An enduro bike with 160 millimetres of suspension travel, 27.5-inch wheels and a four-link rear triangle that doesn't have a single welded seam. There is still only one available, which makes the bike even rarer than the Blue Mauritius. But that is about to change. Bernd wants to produce the F160 on request. The frame costs around 5,000 euros due to the enormous production costs, the complete bike in the configuration shown here is available for around 10,000 euros. With a weight of just under 17 kilos, the Frace F160 will not be setting any altitude records. The strengths of the CNC bike lie elsewhere. The background report and the detailed laboratory and practical test can be found in BIKE 7/2020. The exclusive video and a photo gallery can be found here.
