They build their frames from steel, have the courage to use colour and do everything themselves. These are the young bosses at Veloheld, Rotor or Sour are anything but East German. The post-reunification generation is making a name for itself with bikes full of character and likeable founding pride. In Leipzig and especially Dresden - the "Freiburg of the East" - there is a lively cycling scene. People know each other, utilise synergies and start-up grants, and lobby for bicycles. In addition to manufacturers and specialists such as the carbon tinkerers from Beast or the wheel builders from Light Wolf, the "Cycling Saxony" initiative also includes traditional companies and large mail-order suppliers. The Bespoked trade fair for handmade bikes will take place in Dresden for the second time in mid-October. What's going on in Saxony - and why? In search of a fresh sports bike spirit, TOUR took a look around the eastern Free State.
Veloheld: Start as a side project
As Carsten Maiwald pushes his titanium bike into the office, shiny with sweat, his colleagues have already been working for a while. Maiwald is allowed to do this - after all, he owns the business. And his hour-long commute is definitely something like work, because the Veloheld brand incorporates his knowledge as an industrial designer - and talented cyclist: in 1998, he was German youth champion in the single pursuit on the track. With a steel bike. The fact that the brand, founded in 2007, first offered steel fixies is logical in this respect - and is due to the company's history, as Veloheld started out as a side project run by three fellow students. The design and distribution of a fixie, available in either black or white, did not require too much capital. At some point, Maiwald took over the brand completely. He is now in his early forties. The shaved legs look like they still have pressure on them, and in the carefully designed showroom there are a whole handful of motorless bike models in various designs. Simple lines, slim tubes, chic colours. With eleven employees and well over 1000 frames and bikes sold each year, Veloheld is no longer a "local hero". But somehow, this brand is also a product of the Dresden bike biotope.
"Dresden had a strong alternative culture and there was no money," he recalls. "A few people from the bike scene then founded brands. People knew each other and tended to get along and co-operate with each other." The former military site, where Velohelden bikes are assembled and packaged in several single-storey workshops, is home to other players in the cycling scene. The founder has no trace of frustration with the East: "This feeling that we had failed in the East was never mine. Right from the start, we wanted to tackle things ourselves and be masters of the situation."
He tripled the size of the four-person team in 2017 and gradually increased the variety of models. And because Veloheld bikes are highly variable in terms of colour and equipment, a lot of work goes into design, consultation and assembly. Unlike Sour or Rotor, Veloheld only manufactures the frames for the Icon road bike model and a mountain bike hardtail in-house at a Leipzig frame builder. The majority of the frames currently come from Taiwan - according to Veloheld designs, of course. All the details of the bestseller, the Icon X gravel bike, visibly bear the signature of the Dresden-based experts. Simply painting any bought-in steel frame in bright colours would go against the grain for designer Carsten Maiwald. "Neither the pure performance customer nor the bargain hunter comes to us," he says. "Anyone who comes to us wants something special."
The bike: Veloheld Icon X
- Price: 2799 Euro
- Material: Steel
- Weight: 10.2 kg (estimated)
- Drive: Shimano GRX 820
The brand's best-selling gravel bike is equipped with threads for pannier racks and mudguards; additional threads for bikepacking bags are optional. Optional colours and equipment variants are available for an extra charge, and the frame is also available separately. The maximum tyre width is around 50 millimetres.
About Veloheld
- Year of foundation: 2007
- Location: Dresden
- Frame construction: Taiwan/Leipzig
- Employees: 11
- Production: over 1000 complete wheels and frames per year
- Offer: Gravel bikes, everyday and touring bikes, mountain bikes, racing bikes. Customised equipment and design possible. www.veloheld.de
