BIKE Project Europe: Intend builds the chassis for the European bike project
Jan Timmermann
· 20.10.2022
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Company visit to Intend
It's like rush hour in Beijing on the Schwabentor Bridge in Freiburg. Heat, noise and bustle dominate this summer's day. In the midst of rumbling trams and hectic passers-by stands a four-storey old building. The plaster is crumbling and the wooden shutters could do with a coat of paint. The doorbell sign reads "Intend BC" - so we are in the right place. The door opens a portal into a parallel universe. One step over the threshold and you are literally standing in the centre of heaven for lovers of high-end bike parts. Heaven is small. In just two and a half rooms, something unique is happening in Germany: suspension forks are being built here. Mastermind and company founder Cornelius Kapfinger stands at the filter machine. "How about some coffee?" he asks with a grin.
Pipes and milled parts are stacked ceiling-high on Ikea shelves along the walls of the old building. In front of them are four workbenches on which forks are being assembled. Boxes and disassembled bike parts in every corner. A dog scurries around. A two-metre-high whiteboard full of wild technical drawings hangs between the window arches. It looks more like a student flat share than a bike company. When Kapfinger pulls out a prototype fork from behind a shelf, his colleagues suddenly stop working and listen intently to the tinkerer's explanations. Bike freaks are licking their fingers for the upside-down forks hand-built in Freiburg. Intend's customers are mainly technically minded bikers who demand extremely high-quality products. Kapfinger attaches great importance to the uniqueness of his parts: "It's the little things that count. Our forks are as simple as necessary and as perfect as possible."
It was always clear to the industrial engineering graduate that he would end up in the bike industry. "Preferably something with pneumatics. It makes things move, that's cool!" enthuses Kapfinger. It all started as a one-man show in a shared flat in Freiburg. When the shared room became too small, he rented a second one and took over the basement compartment for the metalwork. He continued to do most of the development work on the couch in the flat share. In the meantime, however, the artist's hobby stall has grown into a small company with a worldwide reputation, and his employees shouldn't have to work next to their boss's bed after all. That's why the Intend team moved a few blocks away last year. Directly on the Dreisam in Freiburg. This is where the products that make fans of exclusive small series parts get their hands wet are now made and stored.
Intend: From a shared flat to an internationally recognised company
Kapfinger stands at one of the workbenches where fork crowns and steerer tubes are waiting to be "married". Bicycles and components made in Germany are currently in high demand. Fortunately for the inventor, who realised from the outset that his high standards of quality and sustainability could only be met by local production. For the native of Lower Bavaria, biking is more than just a hobby. For him, it's about the community and the technical fascination. However, unlike his girlfriend, he wouldn't describe himself as a nerd. "Although I'm sure others would say that too," reflects Kapfinger, glancing furtively at his colleagues. They just laugh and nod.
Now the 35-year-old almost tenderly brushes some locking paste onto a steerer tube with his finger. Then he clamps it into a machine that presses it into the triple clamp with a squeak. It smells of metal. Kapfinger holds a single sheet of paper in his greasy hand. The routing slip with the greasy fingerprints will later be sent to the customer with the finished suspension fork. Intend thrives on this kind of authenticity. There is no fancy office and no large production line. At Intend, every suspension element is made to order. In the case of the forks, this means between three and 15 per week. Kapfinger still assembles many of them himself. Completing orders gives him satisfaction: "I simply need that alongside my work on the PC."
Kapfinger long ago found a solution to the problems that are currently presenting the bike industry with extreme challenges. His workshop is just a three-minute
minutes' walk from his flat share. Here he can keep an eye on the social and ecological standards of his company. Until recently, Intend even saved on rubbish bins. Everything should be reused. That's why used cardboard boxes end up in the shipping carton along with the forks as padding material. A roll of toilet paper protects the axle during transport - a gag that went down particularly well during the coronavirus peak. There are now rubbish bins. His colleagues have pointed out to Kapfinger that, for the sake of integrity, not all packaging waste can be sent to the customer.
"What's next for my company?" Cornelius often asks himself this question and practises the balancing act. Intend suspensions on complete bikes would be great. However, the price would have to fall without compromising quality and image.
After 45 minutes of manual labour, the developer has finished assembling the Intend fork. It consists of just 103 individual parts. Kapfinger is particularly critical when selecting suppliers: he has the origin and purchase price of every little rubber seal in his head. "I have a guilty conscience when I order parts from Asia," he confesses quietly. It's hard to reconcile that with his own image. On the other hand, the price of an Intend chassis is currently still beyond any competitive ability. This is why Intend products have hardly ever been seen on a complete bike. Specialised companies from Taiwan and China in particular offer top quality at unbeatable prices - a dilemma! "In the end, it is perhaps more important that you can deliver than that everything really comes from the EU," Kapfinger weighs up and frowns. You can tell that the topic is on his mind, even if it only concerns a few small parts. He could never let production out of his hands.
Kapfinger would never have imagined that his original spinning would one day become a business and confront him with such considerations. He bears responsibility for his employees and for the profitability of Intend. But the young engineer has found a way to deal with this. He doesn't want to let the success of his products get to him. He has therefore decided not to invest more than 90 per cent of his personal energy in the company: "That's all I do." No company car, no trade fair stand - that leaves time and money for other things.
This primarily means biking. Although there is still a lot to do, the team puts the only half-assembled individual parts out of their hands. Kapfinger pushes the door open and steps out of his little parallel universe onto the road. "Cycling together is important. It's really fun!" he enthuses, clicks into the pedals and disappears behind the rumbling tram around the next corner.
Company history: This is Intend
In 2013, during his time as a developer at Trickstuff, Cornelius Kapfinger put together the individual parts of an old Manitou Dorado upside-down fork, a Marzocchi cartridge and the stanchions of a White Brothers suspension fork. Although the result worked, the engineer was not yet satisfied. Driven by his interest in pneumatics, he wanted to combine the high longitudinal stiffness of a double crown fork with the low weight of a single crown fork. The first in-house development followed, which Cornelius presented on a reader's bike in BIKE in 2014. He mastered the necessary CAD drawing techniques thanks to a gear design exercise during his studies in Vienna.
In 2015, Cornelius registered his first small business and searched for a name for his new company on Google. From then on, "Intend" was to stand for carefully considered bike products. Today, the Intend portfolio includes eight upside-down models as well as a right-side-up fork, a rear shock, cranks, brake discs, stems and many functional small parts.
The chassis from Intend for the Europa bike
Cornelius Kapfinger and his team at Intend assembled the suspension fork and shock absorber for our BIKE Project Europe by hand. Around 90 per cent of the chassis is produced in Europe.
Fork + damper
An air damping system with a semi-open oil bath operates in the Intend Edge fork. The system vents automatically with every compression and is lighter than the standard cartridges. Two years of development work went into the Hover Gamechanger damper. The Royal Flush Coating ensures particularly low friction. The fork and shock each provide 170 millimetres of suspension travel on the EU bike.
- Price fork: 1899 Euro
- Fork weight: 2150 grams
- Price shock absorber: 1079 Euro
- Weight damper: 460 grams
Shank + bridge
The steerer tube comes from Taiwan. The high quality and acceptable price make the Asian product unrivalled compared to European products. Kapfinger personally tested the steerer tube for four years to rule out any annoying creaking. The bridge is milled in Rosenheim, as are the dropouts. All Intend forks now have the same dropouts. This ensures larger order quantities from the supplier and simplifies assembly. The Intend Grace stem for our project bike is also produced in Rosenheim on a five-axis CNC milling machine.
Tubes + pistons
The upper tubes are turned from solid material by a producer in Austria. Hardly anyone else has mastered this demanding technique. The hard-anodised and polished standpipes are drawn in Taiwan. They cannot be bought in Europe in the required quality. Kapfinger sources the two damping pistons from China. Taiwan is currently fully booked due to the many orders from the bike industry. China can therefore often deliver faster. The air piston, the air chamber extension, the piston mount and the screw nuts are produced in Germany.
Oil + seals
The majority of the seals in Intend forks and dampers are manufactured by Swedish specialist SKF in Italy. The remaining O-rings come from Germany. The plastic parts are manufactured in Thuringia, as are the milled adjusters. The seal heads are also made in Germany. The lubricants come from Germany, France and Poland. The sliding bushes are also produced in Poland. Thanks to the upside-down design, these can be calibrated far enough to achieve optimum smooth running. The oil, which is always on the bushings, prevents bushing play.
A puzzle with 103 pieces
Intend does not have its own production machines. Milling, turning and anodising (as shown in the picture below) are carried out by external suppliers. The parts for forks and dampers are purchased from various suppliers and assembled piece by piece in the small workshop in Freiburg. Intend owner Kapfinger invests a lot of time and energy in selecting the manufacturing companies. He constantly compares products from Europe and the Far East. In the meantime, he has built up an excellent network.
If you climb down a narrow wooden staircase from the workshop into the basement, you find yourself in front of a lathe full of metal shavings and a single testing machine. However, most of the tests take place off-site. Intend has found a partner in the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Waltrop, EFBE Prüftechnik, which offers test bench tests specifically for small customers from the bike industry. The practical tests are carried out by a small selection of test riders and the Freiburg team itself.
Jan Timmermann
Editor
