As a young lad Stefan Schmolke, together with his brother Matthias, started racing. His passion for the sport and the technical interest in lightweight bicycle parts inspired him to study mechanical engineering. His thesis was done under the supervision of Hans Christian Smolik, Germany’s godfather of ultralight bikes and parts. In 1989, around the time he was about to graduate from university, he, together with his brother, opened a bike store, concentrating on high-end bicycle parts. The title of his thesis was: “New Materials and the Theory of a Carbon Fibre Handlebar”. Only one year after that he had proceeded from theory to fact. Some 25 years ago he was the first one ever to make a roadbar from carbon fibre. In 1992 he then founded SCHMOLKE CARBON, the carbon fibre bike parts manufacturer.
A spare time project
To further his understanding of lightweight parts he first went to work fulltime for an engineering office, which, among other things, designed parts for aeroplanes and spacecrafts. In his spare time, he continued to improve his carbon fibre handlebars. It took less than two years for the bars to become popular enough for the demand to outgrow the production capacity.