Bike of the Week

May 08, 2023

Carbon everything from the boutique brand

This competition is now closed

By Oscar Huckle

Published: May 17, 2023 at 12:00 pm

Schmolke's Aerrow is our latest Bike of the Week and is one of the German brand's first bikes.

The boutique brand is most famous for its scantily lightweight carbon fibre wheels and finishing kit.

The Aerrow is a fully integrated road race bike and tips the scales at 6.55kg in this size-large build.

The Aerrow features aero-optimised frame tubing, with a matching D-shaped seatpost and dropped seatstays, reminiscent of a Specialized Tarmac SL6.

The cables and hydraulic hoses are fully integrated, routing through the bar, stem and the 1-1/8in upper headset bearing.

The Aerrow can accept up to 28mm road bike tyres and runs on a press-fit BB86 bottom bracket standard.

Schmolke claims a 1,000g painted frame weight in a size medium with all the hardware fitted and 390g for the fork. A frameset retails for €2,990.

The geometry is suitably aggressive, with a size large having a steep 73.5-degree head tube and seat tube angles. This is paired with a reasonably long 395mm reach and a 565mm stack.

All of the frame sizes share short 410mm chainstays.

Every fortnight, we’ll bring you a detailed first look at one of the latest bikes (or framesets) to arrive at BikeRadar HQ – from road to commuting, gravel to enduro, and anything in between.

This is our chance to introduce the bike and everything that makes it unique before hitting the road or trails.

Head to our Bike of the Week hub for previous editions.

This particular build uses a Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 groupset, albeit with some luxurious deviations.

There's a THM Clavicula crankset with carbon chainrings, that weighs 395g, undercutting Shimano's already light Dura-Ace cranks by nearly 200g. Further weight is shaved with the Trickstuff disc brake rotors.

The wheels and finishing kit come from Schmolke's TLO (The Light One) line.

The 45mm-deep Carbon TLO wheels weigh a mere 1,235g for the pair, with a narrow 17.6mm internal rim width. The featherweight 395g rims are laced to Extralite's SPD-3 ceramic hubs with Sapim CX-Ray 2.0 spokes.

They’re wrapped in Continental GP5000 clincher tyres in a 25mm width, although you could opt for wider or tubeless rubber if you want further comfort and are not put off by a slight weight increase.

The Carbon TLO Evo ICR handlebar is claimed to weigh 165g, with the matching integrated 100mm-length stem coming in at 81g.

The low-weight theme continues at the seatpost and saddle. The seatpost is claimed to weigh 100g, with the full-carbon TLO 55 saddle 55g. You’d need deep pockets for the saddle, which retails for €519.99 alone.

This particular build will set you back €12,415. UK and international pricing is to be confirmed.

Technical writer

Oscar Huckle is a technical writer at BikeRadar. He has been an avid cyclist since his teenage years, initially catching the road cycling bug and riding for a local club. He's since been indoctrinated into gravel riding and more recently has taken to the dark art of mountain biking. His favourite rides are epic road or gravel routes, and he has also caught the bikepacking bug hard after completing the King Alfred's Way and West Kernow Way. Oscar has a BA degree in English Literature and Film Studies and has close to a decade of cycling industry experience, initially working in a variety of roles at Evans Cycles before joining Carbon Bike Repair. He is particularly fond of workshop tool exotica and is a proponent of Campagnolo groupsets. Oscar prefers lightweight road and gravel frames with simple tube shapes, rather than the latest trend for aerodynamics and full integration. He is obsessed with keeping up to date with all the latest tech, is fixated with the smallest details and is known for his unique opinions.

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