German Engineering Strikes With the Stadtfuchs Steel Bike, Worth Every Penny

Ladies and gents, whoever said that steel is dead were dead wrong. Behold a bike with a steel frame that looks as good as its carbon brethren. It is known as the Stadtfuchs and is a very modern German commuter bike from none other than Urwahn Bikes.

This team started back in 2013 when Sebastian Meinecke began building bikes by hand. Since then, Urwahn Bikes has been hard at work developing bicycles like the Stadtfuchs, which was officially released in 2019. So, what is it, where can I get one, and how much is it going to cost me?

To start things off, I'm going to run through the frame a bit and then have a look at the tech found on the bike. As you’ve probably understood by now, the bike uses steel as the main material for the framework. However, and this is a big however, Urwahn also incorporates the use of 3D printing into the frame's construction. Where and how, you ask?

I actually asked myself this exact question. If you look closely at the tube joints, you won’t see any classic welds. Instead, it’s here that the team employs 3D printing techniques using individual metal layers that are then fused together using a laser. This technique has a name too, it’s called Selective Laser Melting. It’s one of the main reasons behind this bike’s beauty and strength. To top it all off, internal cable housing is a routine these days, so the Stadtfuchs too includes this aspect of modern design.

Being a commuter bike, you won’t find any classic suspension systems on this bike. But this seems to be a perk here, as it helps give the frame and fork one continuous line. That front fork is composed using the same techniques as the rest of the frame and it too includes internal cable routing and self-contacting dropouts.

One thing that amazed me about the bike is that it’s not electric, so your legs are going to be the major factor behind the drivetrain. A single-speed Gates Carbon belt drive is standard, and helping decrease that speed is a pair of Shimano hydraulic flat-mount brakes with 160-mm (6.3-in) discs. All this is set up on a pair of Ryde Dutch 19 Disc rims that sport a pair of Continental Grand Prix Urban tires meant to makes sure your ride is safe, comfortable, responsive, and best of all, fast.

If you ever run across the Urwahn website, something magical happens when you try and order one of these ravishing creatures: you’ll be invited to configure your own. In that configurator, you are unveiled several options to help you create your very own personalized bike. You can even replace the Gates Carbon drive with a Shimano or a Rohloff drivetrain, but this also affects the price, so do have some cash put aside. How much cash? €3,747 ($4,212 at the time of writing this article) for the standard M-sized frame, to start with.

Personally, I've found the bike of my dreams. I don’t even care that it’s not electric or techy like that. Just look at it, it’s friggin awesome! Rock this to your next bike meet. I dare and invite you to do so.