TOUR: 30 years ago, TOUR started testing road bikes reproducibly on test stands, initially for bottom bracket and head tube stiffness. What was the motivation for this and how did it come about?

DIRK ZEDLER: The first carbon wave started in the mid to late 1980s and at the same time welded aluminium frames from the USA reached Europe. While carbon was initially almost phased out again due to quality problems, aluminium frames from Klein and Cannondale and later from Müsing from Germany and Principia from Denmark were serious challengers to the somewhat dusty Italian steel frame builders. Their reaction to the lightweight metal frames were increasingly thin-walled tubes, which posed a challenge, shall we say, when riding downhill. As young engineers, Robert and I could now either write against the ego of the classics or provide evidence of technical properties. So we sat down and drew our first test sketches on napkins in the organic farm pub in true cliché style.

How was this received by the readers and the road racing bike industry?

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The interview was held by Thomas Musch