Lightweight’s David Bergmann is attempting to explain to me what the word Urgestalt means.
‘It’s a very German word,’ he says. ‘I don’t think there is a direct English translation for it. I would say it’s like “an origin” or “first version”, or something like that.’
Bergmann tells me that the name harks back to how Lightweight came into being. The brand may be best known for its highly desirable (and highly priced) wheels, but its first product was far from being round.
Back in 2002, entrepreneur Erhard Wissler bought up the carbon production arm of an aerospace company, and among the assets was the mould for a bike frame.
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He got his engineers to build it up and showed off his new Total Eclipse bike at global trade show Eurobike.
To make it look as cool as possible, he borrowed a pair of Lightweight wheels, made by carbon specialist Heinz Obermayer.
In the end, the Total Eclipse frame wasn’t a success for Wissler, but he had spotted the potential in those esoteric black wheels, and so he bought the Lightweight brand from Obermayer.
A decade later, Wissler once again turned his attention to bike frames and the result was the original Urgestalt frame, produced in 2013.
Fast forward to today, and I now find myself face to face with the company’s latest creation, the Urgestalt Disc.
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Coming full circle
I distinctly remember that original Urgestalt. I rode it at the Endura Alpentraum, a 256km sportive that passes through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, and takes in 6,336m of ascent.
During one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on a bicycle, I had possibly my closest brush with death when my brakes failed to work on a wet descent.
Only by digging my cleats into the tarmac was I able to avoid sliding straight over a cliff.
In my review of that bike my only real criticism, aside from the braking issue, was that I felt the frame was overly stiff and made very little concession to comfort.
Equally, though, I praised it for its incredibly light 6.1kg overall weight and how superbly it had dealt with the arduous 6,336m of climbing.
Four years on, I know at least one issue has been resolved by the addition of disc brakes, ensuring there will be no more white-knuckle descending in the wet.
Impressively, the Urgestalt Disc hasn’t put on much weight as a consequence either.
Weighing just 6.7kg, it’s only a little over half a kilo heavier than the rim brake version, and joins an elite club of disc bikes we’ve seen that dip under the 7kg mark.
One issue that doesn’t seem to have been resolved, however, is the harshness.
Lightweight claims this new disc bike is a ground-up redesign, with comfort higher on the agenda compared to the original Urgestalt.
But on my early rides I still find myself getting home with numbness in my toes from the vibration coming though the lower part of the bike, and my other contact points are suffering as well. It’s time for a chat.
‘I like a bike that needs to be controlled – super-agile and super-stiff. That makes riding more exciting,’ Bergmann says of his own preferences.
However he admits he is probably in the minority, and that most riders aren’t thrilled by the prospect of getting beaten up by their own bikes.
‘Most of the comfort you get from a road bike comes from the tyres,’ Bergmann says. ‘We have plenty of clearance for wider tyres thanks to the disc brakes, and we’ve created our own seatpost with extra compliance, so a rider is able to tailor the ride feel to their preferences.’
Time for some swift changes, then. UK distributor Vielo Sports sends me the Lightweight seatpost to replace the Deda Superleggero I’ve been riding thus far.
I dig out a set of 28mm tyres to swap for the specced 25s, and head back out to my classic training routes.
And what a transformation. The Urgestalt immediately feels much more like I’d hoped it would from the start.
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The seatpost noticeably enhances my comfort – it’s not like I’m sitting on a feather cushion, but it is a marked improvement all the same, especially on longer rides.
But the biggest change comes from the tyre swap.
With 28mm tyres at 80psi, the Urgestalt deals with vibration dampening much more adeptly, and my numb toe issue vanishes.
The extra grip on offer also means I can brake with even more confidence in all conditions, and there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable loss of speed.
The Urgestalt Disc’s lack of weight, enhanced by the Meilenstein Clincher Disc wheelset, ensures that every acceleration is instantaneous, and climbing is a joy (as much as climbing can ever be a joy).
The feeling of leg power being transferred into speed is one I’ll never tire of, and indeed it’s when I’m tired that I’m most thankful for it.
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Doing the triple
It’s a rare beast that can deliver on all counts of the trifecta: stiffness, weight and comfort (we’ll ignore ‘aero’ as the Urgestalt makes no such claims).
With the right seatpost and tyres in place, the Urgestalt Disc gets very close indeed.
The sensation of riding the Lightweight Urgestalt Disc is like driving a rally car. At idle things can feel a little clunky and unrefined, but a touch of pace and commitment transforms it into a thrill-seeker’s dream.
No matter how strong a rider you are, this bike will make you feel much faster.
It’s the bike Bruce Wayne would choose, but I would still advise him not to forget an ample slathering of chamois cream.
Continue to page 2 to see our First Look at the Urgestalt disc here
First look: Lightweight Urgestalt Disc
Sam Challis, 22 June 2017
When disc brakes first appeared on road bikes, a number of brands rushed out a redesigned frame in order to be quick to market.
As a consequence, many of these frames changed the character of their rim-brake predecessors, and not always in a good way.
The resulting frames were usually heavier and often less forgiving than before, owing to the extra reinforcement at the fork and rear triangle to account for the more powerful forces that disc brakes exert on a frame.
Carbon fibre wheel specialist Lightweight has taken a comparatively long time to come to market with a disc brake version of its Urgestalt road frame but as product manager David Bergmann explains, the company doesn’t see that as a disadvantage.
‘For us it’s always a little bit difficult to be quick to respond to trends,’ he says. ‘We’re different to other manufacturers because so many of our products are handmade, so the R&D takes a huge amount of time and expense.
‘It necessitates us waiting to see whether changes are fashion or a definite new direction, so we monitor the market and can learn from others’ mistakes.’
According to Bergmann, that hindsight allowed Lightweight to create a disc-specific frame that weighs a claimed 800g, with the total build as shown coming in at just 6.96kg.
To put that in perspective, the top-spec BMC Roadmachine (a disc brake bike costing nearly £9k) weighs 7.8kg.
‘Relative to our competitors, the increase in weight from our rim brake Urgestalt to the Urgestalt Disc is very small – just 10g.
Completely new
‘That being said, the Urgestalt Disc frame isn’t just the regular Urgestalt with discs bolted on – it’s a completely new frame.’
According to Bergmann, the feedback regarding the handling of the original Urgestalt was so universally positive that its geometry has been closely replicated on the Urgestalt Disc, but there are other marked changes too.
Lightweight has dropped the obsolete brake bridge over the rear wheel and slimmed down the seatstays in a bid to improve comfort – a feature Lightweight nurtures further with more generous tyre clearances.
‘We have two types of customer buying the original Urgestalt,’ says Bergmann. ‘We have the serious, very skilful rider who likes the frame because it amplifies the characteristics of our wheels – it’s quick to accelerate and very stiff.
‘But it’s also a demanding frame that needs to be controlled, so we have another customer: the enthusiast of the brand who is not so athletic, and is asking for a little more comfort.
‘Redesigning for disc brakes gave us the option to cater more for comfort in the Urgestalt Disc.’
It’s a theme that continues at the front of the bike. For additional comfort as well as sufficient stiffness, the fork has what Bergmann calls an ‘asymmetrical lay-up schedule’.
‘It’s far different to the one in the original Urgestalt,’ he says. ‘Asymmetrical in this instance means that the torsional forces of the disc brakes are braced for, but the vertical forces caused by bumps in the roads are allowed for, which adds a little dampening.’
System superiority
Something that’s unsurprising considering the brand’s heritage in wheels is that the new frame was designed to work specifically as a system with Lightweight’s Meilenstein Disc wheelset.
‘This was one of the few things that’s no different from the original Urgestalt. That frame was designed around the Meilenstein clinchers, and I think it’s crucial to the performance of both bikes,’ says Bergmann.
‘It allowed the rim brake Urgestalt’s stiffness-to-weight values just as it allows the Urgestalt Disc’s comfort and controllability.’
Key to this element of control is the Meilenstein Disc’s pentagon-shaped hubs. Bergmann explains that the heat build-up of prolonged braking on disc wheels with carbon hub shells can cause the bond between disc mount and hubshell to soften, allowing the two components to move relative to each other.
This is catastrophic to a bike’s braking performance, so Lightweight moved to the pentagon shape so that the disc mount physically cannot move inside the hubshell.
The design also weighs less, which obviously for a brand named Lightweight is a bonus.
‘Despite our name, we would rather make things 50g heavier than 50g lighter if that brings with it any compromises,’ cautions Bergmann. ‘That said, as long it’s safe we will continue to get even lighter with our products.’
Verdict: Lightweight has taken a while in getting the Urgestalt Disc to market, but with the additions of discs having added only 10g to the total frame weight, the time looks to have been well spent.
£3,989 frameset, approx. £12,899 as built, vielosports.co.uk
