Cycling is sustainable, of course. But there is still room for improvement in the industrial production of bikes. We have therefore RIDE GREEN campaign with which we as a magazine want to sensitise people and industry to the topic of sustainability. Following a workshop with all the industry partners involved, we are now trying to build a bike that is as sustainable as possible. Syntace is contributing aluminium wheels, handlebars, stem and seat post to this project. In order to minimise the environmental impact, we are not using any surface coating on the components. To understand how Syntace approaches the issue of sustainability, we took a close look at the production process for the hubs.
Only love counts: BIKE visits Syntace
"You can flush your company toilet with champagne, keep all the lights on at night and build products with mercury and cyanide - the main thing is that you produce a favourite part." Jo Klieber is known for not mincing his words. But these words from a partner of our RIDE GREEN campaign are unexpected. "Look," continues Klieber, tugging at his T-shirt with the worn collar. "There are holes in it and the letters are coming off. But I've had it for over 20 years. It's my favourite T-shirt. It's pure sustainability, even without an eco-label. The term sustainability is often used today by companies that produce short-lived disposable products in a particularly environmentally friendly way. Greenwashing in its purest form." Klieber's understanding of sustainability is different: "Of course you have to try to produce in an environmentally friendly and resource-saving way. But the most important thing is that things last forever."
Klieber has been dreaming of his favourite part that lasts forever, and not just since the topic of sustainability has been on everyone's lips. In 1991, he revolutionised the triathlon and time trial scene with an aero handlebar. Shortly afterwards, he discovered his passion for mountain biking and designed a light, stiff handlebar for off-road riding. The issue of durability became important in this process, and not just in terms of sustainability. "If you build handlebars and they break, that's a huge problem." It was precisely this painful experience that the inventor made a short time later. Despite passing tests at universities and renowned testing institutes, a customer's handlebars broke and the world collapsed for Klieber. From this point onwards, he no longer wanted to rely on others and built his own handlebar test bench. The VR-3 works with load collectives, a real sensation for the bicycle industry at the time. Incidentally, the VR-3 was fed with real data, which was determined with a test bike on the initiative of BIKE magazine. Even today, decades later, the VR-3, now in its fourth generation, still sets the standard when it comes to handlebar tests.
Syntace goal: to build the most durable bike products in the industry
Klieber is constantly designing new test machines to achieve his goal of building the most durable products in the industry. The systematic maltreatment of prototypes, but also of series parts, is part of Syntace's self-image. The old mill in Tacherting, which the inventor had bought almost as a ruin, was soon bursting at the seams, partly because of the many testing machines. However, Klieber's definition of sustainability meant that a new building was out of the question for a long time. "The house has been there for centuries, and not without reason. Thick, solid walls, great building fabric. It will last for the next few hundred years, unlike functional buildings whose insulating panels you can throw away after a few years." So space is created for new workshops, laboratories and offices. Floors are dug up, walls are moved and a sea container is sunk into the slope behind the building. Like the inside of an anthill, winding corridors connect the rooms for 3D printers, the metal and prototype workshop, the raw materials warehouse and the offices for the engineers.
The second important aspect for Klieber when it comes to sustainability is the choice of production location. Wherever possible, Klieber endeavours to manufacture its parts in the immediate vicinity. So, 25 kilometres away, we are invited to visit the site in Lower Bavaria. One of the most modern, fully automated CNC machines in the world is located here. This monster, as big as a VW Transporter and as expensive as a detached house, can mill and turn at the same time. This saves manpower and time. "In Asia, the component for a hub has to be reclamped up to seven times, here we only have to do it once," says Christian Huber, explaining his achievement as he pushes a blank made of high-strength 7075 aluminium into his machine. A few minutes later, the finished hub body for our RIDE-GREEN bike drops into a chute at the back of the machine. Although production is still a little more expensive than in Asia, the transport routes are almost completely eliminated. "It's a stone's throw from Syntace," laughs Huber. "And the best thing is that there's no Suez Canal in between." The working conditions for the employees here in Lower Bavaria don't need to be checked either.
Back in Tacherting. From Dammweg 1, the company headquarters, it is about 500 metres to the new production hall that Klieber built three years ago. At some point, despite all the optimisations, the old mill was no longer big enough. The contrast to the improvised tinkerers' catacombs could not be greater. But if a new building was to be built, then it had to be perfected down to the last square centimetre. And because you can't just buy something like this, Klieber, who has never completed a regular vocational training programme, designed the hall himself using his Solid Works 3D software.
Basically, the hall can be divided into two areas: In the DT (Destructive Testing) area, the well-known VR-3 and half a dozen other self-built test stands shake handlebars, stems and rims behind soundproof glass. In the NDT area, the part of the hall for non-destructive testing, things get more complex. Nevertheless, Klieber explains the work here as naturally as if it were the recipe for spaghetti with tomato sauce: "Eddy current testing allows conclusions to be drawn about the atomic structure of the material." The wall thickness test for handlebars or the grease test rig are easier to understand. The friction values of a small ball on a steel plate over a certain distance show the quality of the bearing grease. The current favourite is a grease produced in Germany that is sent to the Far East to fill the ball bearings. Not quite in line with the classic sustainability criteria, but a tribute to the longevity of Klieber's favourite parts.
Three per cent of all Syntace series parts are tested in the test laboratories using a random sampling procedure and meticulously documented. In the event of a suspected defect, the entire batch is rejected.
A stylish steel staircase leads us to the first floor of the hall. This is where Klieber has set up its wheel production. Five employees work here with a lot of manual labour and even more high-tech support. Capacity: up to 70 Impellers a day. Doesn't sound like much, but the quality requirements are all the higher. Lateral and radial run-out are minimised to a hundredth. Here, too, the best was not good enough for Klieber. So a lot of modifications were made, and now additional built-in tensiometers measure the spoke tension and ensure homogeneous tension in several passes.
Klieber leads us to a side door of his hall. The railway tracks run parallel to the rear. The technology philosopher has designed the façade of the building in the style of a railway station. It even has a real station clock, so that the entire building could be converted into a railway station in an emergency. Perfection is both Klieber's philosophy and his recipe for success. Sustainability is when a part lasts for generations. Most Syntace parts from the early days are still around today. But what if at some point everyone owns the parts that last forever? Then you can't sell anything anymore! "Yes, large, profit-orientated manufacturers certainly have this problem. But as a small manufacturer, we can probably build sustainable products for another 500 years until the market is saturated. And if not, then at some point a train will stop right here and take me to Italy."
In addition to Syntace, Canyon, Schwalbe, Sram, Danico Biotech and Trickstuff are also taking part in our RIDE GREEN campaign. The grand finale with the World premiere of the sustainable mountain bike of the future read in BIKE 1/22.
