PRIDE AND JOY
Simplon is an old Austrian firm that’s new to the UK. We head to their HQ to test their flagship Pride.
Thinking back, I’m not sure what I expected to find on my visit to the Simplon HQ. Simplon bikes have only been available in the UK since 2017, but I’d seen plenty of them in Europe over the years. The brand always had a huge presence at Eurobike – the world’s biggest bike show – and constantly seemed to be at the cutting edge of lightweight race machines. I guess I was anticipating some sort of huge, faceless corporation with a hightech and efficient assembly line. So I was pleasantly surprised by what I found at the company’s base in the Austrian town of Hard, which sits on the shores of Lake Constance. Simplon may be a high-tech operation, but it’s compact compared to some of the giants it’s competing with. It’s a David taking on Goliaths.
The numbers speak for themselves: Simplon only makes 11,000 bikes a year and has just 16 models: four road, four mountain, four trekking and four e-bikes; its bikes are only available in four territories (of which the UK is the newest); and the company has a staff of fewer than 100 people, most of whom work in assembly. But what’s perhaps most impressive of all is that of those 100 staff, a dozen are involved in engineering and R&D. It’s impressive because, while Simplon may, in many respects, be a David company, its number of R&D and engineering staff is comparable to those found in the Goliaths that currently dominate the market.
Simplon certainly seems to operate like a small company. When I sit down with CEO Stefan Vollbach he’s juggling marketing, sales, production and R&D chores at the same time as making the coffee (it seems he’s the only person that knows where the Nespresso pods are kept). “We’re all very hands-on when it comes to all things Simplon,” Stefan explains. “We all work together and ride together. And all of our teams, from engineering to design to production, work closely together and all have influence on the final product.”
The company began as a family bike shop, established in 1930 by Josef Hämmerle. Simplon started life as the shop’s own-brand bikes, introduced in 1961 and named after Austria’s 2005m-high Simplon Pass. The bikes were handmade in Austria, as a response to the then popular Swiss-made bikes. Simplon soon became known for making high-end, steel-framed race machines and in 1981 one of them was ridden to victory in the Tour of Austria. The rest of the ’80s saw the brand bring plenty more firsts to its home market: the first to introduce Shimano components; the first to begin producing mountain bikes in Austria; the first Austrian brand to experiment with carbon as a frame material. And it continued to push the boundaries throughout the 1990s and 2000s, trading benchmarks in weight and stiffness with the likes of Storck, based in Germany.
It’s all in the ideas
Simplon has always placed a premium on ideas, which is apparent today in the proportion of its work force made up by the research, design and engineering teams. And the attention to detail that results can be seen on every bike it makes. Naturally, you’d expect its flagship model, the Pride, to have a radical aero design, with features like the one-piece bar/stem and heavily sculpted frame shapes. But the same focus is applied to the more mundane Simplon bikes. Take its urban step-through e-bike, for example. As well as a frame that’s shaped beautifully, it has a battery and motor that are
“All of our teams, from engineering to production, work closely together and all have an influence on the final product”
very neatly integrated to produce a good looking machine that’s light for an e-bike: sub-18kg.
“We all work across each platform,” says Stefan. “It’s good that ideas are brought from all directions. Yes, we have guys and girls who specialise in one discipline, be it mountain or road, but not exclusively. That way we get new ideas from all corners.”
Jonas Schmeiser is the designer of the Pride road bike I’ve come to be fitted for and test ride. He’s not just a bike designer though, he’s a bike racer too and a pretty handy one at that. He’s currently the top amateur road racer in Austria after notching up more than 50 victories on his Pride during 2018. “With the Pride we wanted to create an aerodynamic bike that would follow on from our very successful Nexio,” he says. “But we pushed the integration, especially with the bar/stem with its twin spars that also act as channels for internal cable routing.
“We also want the Pride to give people the best aero advantage but not limit them to one style of riding. That’s where we’ve worked closely with our fitting experts to make the Pride more adaptable than most race bikes. For example, we include an insert for the seat post so if you don’t want to run the bladed aero seatpost and would prefer something with more flex, like those from Syntace or Ergon, the insert converts the seat tube to take a standard round 27.2mm post. We also offer the handlebar in two options: a flat, race option or one with some rise, called the Marathon bar. We want our best, most-advanced bike to be used by racers, yes. But we’d like to see gran fondo riders riding it too; in fact, anyone who just enjoys serious road riding.”
Fitted up
Simplon has one if its ‘experience centres’ at its HQ in Hard (there’s another one in Regensburg, Bavaria, and a third run through a bike rental operation in Mallorca), and it’s here that another example of the brand’s innovation can be found: the bodyscan fitting system. Now, I’ve had plenty of bike fits over the years, some involving a tape measure and a chat, others that rely on high-tech devices and video cameras. But the bodyscan system is something entirely different. Wearing a slim-fitting overcoat, you step into what looks like a mini-boxing ring that has a camera in each corner post. The cameras scan you to produce a 3D wireframe of your body, which the system then analyses to work out your bike-fit measurements. I have to admit to being somewhat sceptical but when the numbers appear on screen they’re remarkably close to the measurements I’ve been using for years. These measurements are then
“We want our best, most-advanced bike to be used by racers, yes. But we’d also like to see gran fondo riders riding it too”
used to set up a ‘mule’ bike according to the dimensions suggested by the software, which in this case says I need a 61cm frame. This initially seems like a mistake, as I usually ride a 58cm frame, but looking at the way Simplon sizes its bikes, the 61cm model is pretty close to the 58cm models I’m generally comfortable on.
The set-up feels okay, just different to what I’m used to. But I’m not done with the Bodyscan system yet. With the cameras rolling, I sit on the mule bike and spin away on a turbo trainer. A nearby screen shows footage of me from all angles, and as Simplon’s fit expert Oliver Schade watches he sees that my hips are rocking slightly. He explains that, ideally, they should stay mostly flat, so he alters my saddle height by 2.8mm and moves the saddle forward by 2.3cm. We look at the footage again as I try the altered set-up and my hips look markedly smoother and I feel better.
The big build up
Once we’ve nailed down the numbers it’s time to start speccing the bike. I opt for SRAM Red eTap with disc brakes and deep-section DT Swiss wheels with Schwalbe tubeless tyres. It’s not a cheap build, but if you’re going down the superbike route, you might as well go all-in.
I opt for Simplon’s Marathon handlebar with its built-in rise instead of the flat race bar and its accompanying spacers, as I think the bike looks much better with its stem finishing flush with the top tube. Half of the pride (pun intended) in owning a superbike is in its looks.
Now usually that would be that: you’d get fitted for your bike, spec it, then head off to wait for the finished product to arrive. But at Simplon’s experience centre, the process is different as the mule bike is quickly whisked away for a final check. It’s then fitted with a Garmin preset with a number of routes into the hills and passes around this corner of Austria so you can experience the bike, with your setup, and get a feel for how it rides. So I head out for a couple of hours to do just that. When I arrive back, there’s a quick debrief to gauge what I liked and didn’t like about the bike before the final spec is rubber-stamped and assembly can begin.
Stefan tells me he has a vision for Simplon that involves more ideas along the lines of the experience centre. He fully believes that the traditional method of racking bikes for sale in shops should be consigned to history, and that this new, more inclusive way of buying a bike is the future. In his view, experience centres allow customers to get to know a brand’s philosophy and passion, and see how they are backed up by the technology and innovation in its products.
One place where Simplon’s philosophy and passion are evident is in its assembly hall – it’s a truly impressive place. It’s more akin to a professional team’s service course than a workshop for putting together consumer bikes.
It’s not a cheap build, but if you’re going down the superbike route, you might as well go all-in
There’s one fully trained mechanic building each bike from the ground up. I watch my bike’s beginnings as Claudia Klapper (who I’m told is Simplon’s most experienced and best builder) starts putting it together.
I’m impressed at how meticulous she is – I’ve rarely seen bar tape so evenly spaced and tensioned. She checks every part, then cleans and lubricates it before it gets anywhere near the bike. It certainly puts my slapdash approach to bike building to shame; I don’t think I’d last long on this shop floor.
Pride and joy
What’s immediately apparent when the finished, fully built Pride arrives is its lack of weight. Aero bikes usually pay a weight penalty with their aero tube shapes and deep-section wheels. But the Pride weighs in at just 7.35kg, putting credence in the claimed sub-940g weight for its frame. For comparison the new Cervélo S5 with a similar spec weighs 7.85kg, as does Orbea’s Orca Aero, and the new £10,000 Trek Madone weighs 7.83kg.
The ride is intoxicating. It combines the effortless speed of top aero bikes with light weight to make a tremendously capable allrounder. It’s up with Specialized’s S-Works Venge but for less cash. I love the ease with which the Pride covers flat ground quickly, and when you hit the hills it’s a great companion. The rigidity in the chassis means standing on the pedals is met with rapid accelerations. That same rigidity also makes it responsive enough to handle fast technical descents with a surefootedness that begs you to push your limits.
The ride is firm, but neither chattery nor uncomfortable over broken surfaces. The DT Swiss wheels are stiff and their 62mm-deep rims are impressively stable in windy conditions, although their 17mm internal width is best suited to 25mm tyres. In optimal conditions the wheelset is stunningly fast, although I’d have preferred 28mm-wide tyres to better deal with some of the rougher surfaces I encounter on my testing routes.
I chose SRAM’s wireless Red eTap as it’s a firm favourite of mine (I have it on my bikes) and here, combined with large 160mm disc brake rotors, it’s as good as it gets. The simplicity of the shifts (right lever for a harder sprocket, left for an easier one; both together to shift between the chainrings) feels natural instantly and the noise-free braking has tons of control and power. The shift accuracy, more than ample battery life and, of course, the clean lines afforded by the lack of wires, add plenty to the bike’s appeal.
It’s safe to say the Pride is a pretty special bike. Its clever design and confidence-inspiring manners, not to mention its firm but comfortable ride, all make it more of an all-rounder than a hardcore, aero-race weapon, and that’s a great thing. Its price might suggest it’s a ‘special occasion’ machine, but if you can see beyond that, it’s a bike you could ride any time, in any weather and over any terrain.
As for Simplon, this small company with big ideas can certainly build bikes that compete on every level with the giants in the bike industry. What’s more, innovative ideas such as its experience centres and bodyscan technology could well hint at the future of buying a bike. If the process of buying, riding and owning a Simplon is this enjoyable, then the future can’t come soon enough.
It combines the effortless speed of top aero bikes with light weight to make a tremendously capable all-rounder