About Lightweight

Lightweight, the brand of carbovation GmbH - That's us!

Lightweight

Yes, they do exist, these stories in which a person with a lot of passion and even more expertise tinkers with products in a garage and thus changes the world. One of these stories is that of Heinz Obermayer and his partner. It all started with horses and sports cars. But where is the connection there? Well, the two men were passionate about composite materials and so they built carbon parts for cars and carbon wheels for sulkies in a tractor garage in Munich. Somebody came up to them and said, "Why don't you do something for road bikes?" No sooner said than done.

Handmade production

All Lightweight wheels are handmade in our manufactory in Friedrichshafen. Each wheel is therefore unique. This can lead to slight variations in the surface structure and colour. This is a characteristic quality feature of this particularly high-quality production method.

German Engineering

We stand above all for the attributes German engineering, Made in Germany and handicraft. Heinz Obermayer as inventor of the world's first carbon wheel, laid the foundation for the Lightweight wheels. Today our engineers are working on innovative, new products - Made in Friedrichshafen.

Pioneer of the bicycle industry Heinz Obermayer

Heinz Obermayer baked the first carbon wheel from bulky waste with the help of a Leberkäse oven. This pioneering spirit can be found in all our products and is still kept alive today. Our engineers are always on the lookout for new, innovative production techniques and processes to make our wheels even lighter, stiffer and yet comfortable.

Fibre composite Carbon

Our absolute passion is carbon and we are driven by the desire to get the best out of carbon.  At Carbovation, we can draw on various experiences from the aerospace, industrial and medical sectors and incorporate them into the production of Lightweight wheels.

This is what makes our wheels

A riding experience in a class of its own

Our wheels are made of full carbon and not so-called hybrid models. This means that the spokes are also made of carbon, thus creating a wheel from a single mould. The wheel hardly twists at all, the Lightweight full carbon wheels bring performance to the point and ensure efficient power transmission without losses. Feel the indescribable riding feeling and how your power is burned into the asphalt.

The attention to detail

Our passion and love is for high-strength fibres, which in combination with epoxy resins remain ultra-light but develop enormous strength. We consistently rely on extremely high-quality materials and are always working on the best composition for our carbon wheels. Because we manufacture wheels from full carbon and do not rely on hybrid models, the result is a wheel that looks like a single piece. Thanks to the laminated carbon spokes, the wheel hardly warps at all and thus brings performance to the point.

Hand-made in Germany

The development of our wheels by hand is a unit of various components, which are carried out by experienced experts. Genuine unique pieces are created with a passion for perfection. This is how we can guarantee you the highest quality and offer you a first-class riding experience.

Product overview

You will find the following products in our portfolio

Wheels

The world's lightest and stiffest wheels come from Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance and are handmade there for you and your needs.

To the wheels

Components

From handlebars to stem to seatpost, Lightweight offers you particularly light and durable road bike components that are matched to Lightweight frames and wheels.

To the components

A company with history

The history of Lightweight wheels is closely linked to the best and most successful professional cyclists in the world. They were the ones who used the then revolutionary wheels at world championships and big tours and made them famous in the cycling scene. Lightweight wheels exist in their present form since 1995 and have been continuously developed in detail ever since. Since then Lightweiht stands for first-class product quality, superior wheels and German engineering. The most important product group of the premium brand Lightweight are the now highly specialized, handmade racing wheels made of carbon, which are considered the market reference worldwide in terms of technology, innovation and functionality. But also various components and accessories complete the Lightweight product range.

A real garage story: With wheels, baked in a Leberkäse oven from bulky waste, win the Tour de France.
That's our story

Lightweight is a brand of the internationally active carbovation gmbh. Carbovation is the merger of the carbon processing and distribution companies of the former Wissler Group, with over 80 employees in Friedrichshafen and the production site in Hailfingen. carbovation gmbh produces in the industrial, aerospace and sports & lifestyle sectors and serves international markets in Europe, Asia and North America. carbovation gmbh is part of the Murtfeldt Group.

carbovation gmbh processes carbon and glass fibers and produces high-quality and technically sophisticated products in the field of fiber composites in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. With the diverse processing techniques, as well as comprehensive material knowledge and application know-how, carbovation gmbh offers customized solutions for customer-specific requirements. Our customers come, for example, from the automotive industry, aerospace, medical technology, and various industrial applications.

The Dortmund company Murtfeldt Kunststoffe GmbH & Co. KG has a success story spanning more than 60 years and has made a name for itself as a supplier of innovative solutions for the mechanical engineering industry. In recent years, Murtfeldt's increasing importance as a supplier of standard and individual prefabricated parts has led the company to consistently strengthen its 3D printing technology and the development and production of lightweight components in addition to machining. With almost 400 employees in Dortmund and subsidiaries in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, sales representatives who advise customers on site, and other partners in almost all European countries, Murtfeldt has a comprehensive production, sales, and service network. Above all, comprehensive and competent advice is the focus of every business relationship.

You can find out more about the company history here:

About the company history