German:A are a lesser known suspension brand in the UK, and they target one thing: lightness! It was the truss fork below that caught my eye, but among other things, they also had a 100g shock, which when I picked it up, was indeed a shock.
German:A have been making four bar linkage forks under the model name Kilo for around fifteen years, but this one is a new, longer travel version.This design means that the travel is limited to 100mm, but that’s still 10mm longer than their previous Kilo fork. On the stand, they told us this design can’t go beyond 100mm travel without sending the wheelpath into the downtube.The fork legs are both carbon fibre tubes.On show was this QR version, but there will be a thru-axle option too.An air shock takes care of everything. This design lets them create a wheel path that just wouldn’t be possible with a standard telescopic fork.Weight is 1480g; they said most of their customers are racers. As well as raw, this will also be available in black.This is the more conventional looking XCite Zero, but look at that carbon fibre bridge.As with the Kilo, carbon fibre tubes mate with custom carbon and alloy hardware.Tidy brake mount.And another look at that carbon fibre bridge.The Flame is an upside down fork available in a wide range of sizes. Here’s a 20 inch version…… and here’s a larger version on a fat bike.Also, is that a downhill fork on the right?No it’s not! Sneaky e-bikes!Their forks have some very clean aesthetics indeed.Tune hubs seem to demonstrate that German:A are not aiming at budget builds.Here’s their new shock, the Air-Force Zero. It’s been available since May, and the shortest eye-to-eye version weighs just 98g.You know when you go to pick up a box, thinking it’s full, but it’s not and you accidentally pick it up really fast? That’s what it’s like when you pick this shock up for the first time.I can’t express this with words or pictures, but it’s even lighter than it looks.With a max travel of 120mm, this is squarely aimed at XC duties.
In the UK, German:A products are available through the Poshbikes Atelier in Maidstone, who can also advise you of UK pricing.
David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly.
Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.
If there was a name designed to turn me off it would be along the lines of “poshbikes ” with some arty farty french add on —- well what a coincidence ! btw try the german a link at poshwhatever and you get a 404 error message 🙁
If you have to ask…..
If there was a name designed to turn me off it would be along the lines of “poshbikes ” with some arty farty french add on —- well what a coincidence ! btw try the german a link at poshwhatever and you get a 404 error message 🙁