Our History

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 it spawned made him 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 15 years ago he was the first one ever to make a roadbar from carbon fibre. In 1992 he then founded SCHMOLKE CARBON.

To further his understanding of lightweight parts he first went to work fulltime for an engineering office, which, among other thing, 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 so become popular enough for the demand to outgrow the numbers of production.

When Jan Ulrich made it to a second place in the Tour de France, and when an independent test proved beyond doubt that his handlebar was the only carbon fibre handlebar capable of outperforming aluminium bars in destruction tests Stefan Schmolke made the move and concentrated on SCHMOLKE CARBON full time.

With details we have improved we have managed to stay at the top for over 15 years already. We do not rave about new prototypes every other day, instead we deliver parts. And we deliver as fast as is possible with true custom made products. Our target is to continue with what we are doing: supplying the type of quality SCHMOLKE CARBON