BIKE Festival Riva: Stoll, Last, Bike Ahead - lightweight bikes "made in Germany"

There is no shortage of new products at Europe's largest outdoor trade fair. At the BIKE Festival in Riva, the manufacturers present all their new highlight products. For years, changes in equipment and downhill performance have to an increase in bike weights.

Also with the Season opener in Riva there are plenty of "heavy hitters" to be seen. In contrast, the trade fair bikes from Stoll and Last are refreshingly light. Here Last presented, among other things the new Cinto All Mountain with a ready-to-ride weight of just over twelve kilos and Stoll even had the lightest hardtail in the Expo area on Lake Garda, weighing less than six kilos. Both companies rely on the expertise of carbon specialist Bike Ahead and have their frames manufactured in Würzburg.

>> More exciting impressions and discoveries FSA BIKE Festival Garda Trentino can be found in our liveblog

Last Cinto - All Mountain with 11.8 kilos

For weight-conscious all-mountain bikers, the Load the 150 millimetre Cinto is now also available with a lightweight "Featherweight Layup". Compared to the "Heaviduty Layup", this offers a weight saving of around 300 grams, but does without the storage compartment in the down tube. With Trickstuff Piccola HD brakes and the new Sram Transmission XX SL, the show bike at the BIKE Festival Riva weighs in at a slim 11.8 kilograms without pedals - an absolute dream value for an all-mountain bike in this suspension travel class.

Last has also tweaked the details of its bikes. The optimised rear triangle is narrower and now has laminated cable guides to simplify cable routing. The threaded inserts of the brake mount are now also laminated. In addition, Last has installed an improved chainstay protector on the new Cinto.

Only the Celos is even lighter under load than the Cinto. With 120 millimetres of suspension travel, the Celos falls into the popular down-country category. The trade fair bike with Bike Ahead Biturbo wheels weighs in at a feather-light 11.22 kilograms including pedals. Without shocks, prices for the frames start at 4399 euros. Complete bikes are available from 6989 euros.

Stoll R1 - Hardtail with 5.9 kilos

Known for lightweight bikes, Stoll takes it to the extreme with the new "Pushing The Limits" series. At just 5.9 kilos, the Stoll R1 weighs in at a very light weight. Of course, this is a heavily tuned show bike, but not an unrideable concept - on the contrary! On request, customers can order the bike exactly as it is from Stoll, for example to score points at the next mountain time trial. According to Stoll, the biggest performance compromise is the tyres, as the thin-walled Schwalbe rubbers come with virtually no puncture protection.

In addition to the extra-light carbon layup, a fine selection of lightweight components and special solutions are responsible for the dream weight of less than six kilos. For example, instead of the aluminium steerer tube of the Rockshox Sid fork, a carbon model has been pressed into place. A Sram Red AXS road bike drivetrain changes gears on a Rotor cassette and the crank is provided by lightweight specialist THM with the Clavicula XC. A one-piece carbon cockpit from Gemini and a carbon fibre saddle and seatpost unit from Gelu save even more grams. The Pi-Rope wheelset with textile spokes and carbon rims from Bike Ahead is particularly lightweight.

Stoll T2.2 SL - 94.9 per cent "made in Europe"

As we were able to show at our BIKE Project: Europeit is not so easy to build a mountain bike using only parts produced in Europe. This raises the question: How should the degree of "made in Europe" be measured? One established method is to track how much value creation has taken place in Europe. Stoll spared no effort for the BIKE Festival Riva and presented the T2.2 SL as part of its Pushing The Limits series in a build with 94.9 per cent European added value.

This dream value is achieved with parts from Bike Ahead in Germany, such as rims and handlebars. The Stoll T2.2 SL carbon frame is also laminated in Würzburg. German Trickstuff brakes, German grips from Ergon, a German Vecnum dropper post and Erase hubs from Germany are also included. The chassis and cranks are also produced in Germany, more precisely at Intend in Freiburg. The Hutchinson tyres come from France and the Selle Italia saddle from Italy. The cassette, chainring, derailleur cage and pulley wheels are made in Poland by Garbaruk. The wireless shifter is made by Zirbel in Switzerland.

The remaining parts from Asia are mainly due to the Sram AXS rear derailleur, some small electronic parts and the tubes of the Intend suspension elements. Nonetheless, the Stoll T2.2 comes extremely close to the European bike and at the BIKE Festival in Riva, Stoll shows what values can be achieved in terms of weight and "made in Europe".