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Introduction
KHEbikes first started
to design parts such as pegs, back in 1988.
Since then we have now moved much of the
production from Asia to Germany (step by step).
Over the last 7-8 years we have assembled nearly
all of the KHE bikes designated for European
sales from our own factory & assemble plant in Karlsruhe / Germany.
Our greatest issues in the past have been with bikes sold in the U.S., Japan, Australia and
other non-European countries, as these we have had to have these built in Taiwan because
of shipping and logistics problems.
Since we first started to build our bikes in Germany, we have been able to grow and use
more parts produced locally from countries based in Europe.
Small Fact : Today we use over 40% of parts made from European makers.
We had a long discussion about our 2006 bike and part line,
and our main focus for 2006 is on quality control and the origin of the parts.
We came to the solution that the only way we can truly guarantee the quality
that we strive for is by making sure that all our bikes and parts come from Germany.
This way we can use the parts that we think are good, and this is our main priority to
insure that all KHE bikes meet our strict quality requirements.
Our Flatland philosophy
During the last few years there have been some large changes in the Freestyle market, especially in weight and component materials. In the past, the main way to reduce the weight was by using aluminium parts, but aluminium can be too stiff and brake easily.
KHE has believed for a long time that the best way to achieve a good strength to weight ratio has been via the use of materials like CrMo which have much better properties in this area.
We helped pioneer the multiple butted CrMo bars and shortly after nearly all leading manufactures in this area followed.
Frames are now close to being 2kg which is great. We started to equip our crank sets with just Titanium axles for close to the same retail price of other brands of cranks on the market.
The 32H Geisha wheel sets are the lightest you can buy complete, but are still very strong and reliable even with 32Holes. Now we are also using a 9T sprocket on a complete bike.
We have designed our very own 20T Ninja chain wheel running with a 1/2" x 3/32” chain with hollow pins. Chains of this kind are used generally in Road Racing bikes.
We are also pleased to show to you one of our biggest moves yet in Flatland.
KHE has designed the world's first foldable freestyle tire with an incredible weight of 270g!! That's not just to save a little bit of weight, it's nearly 600g of rotating mass that you save compared to normal Flatland tires.
This weight hype may sound a little bit crazy but we're sure that it makes sense for Flatland.
If you see old videos with the high weight bikes of the past and the tricks of today then I think you can see that the whole kind of riding has changed + many new fast tricks which were quite hard to do on a heavy bike.
The weight is one point, but it's more important that the parts are strong enough to last all the power working on. But things like Titanium crank axles, Kevlar tires, heat treated handlebars, butted Sanko frames make the parts even more resistant and better and that's what riders need and what we are looking for (refined and well designed products).
We would like to say a big thankyou to all our Flatland Team Riders who have helped us with our new products!
KHE's History
We produced a t-shirt with the print "Kinky Huge Elephant" on it because everybody asks us what "KHE" means:
KHE is just the short name of our city Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe (KHE) is a city with 300.000 inhabitants and a lot of big history.
In 1817 the first bicycle was invented from "Freiherr von Drais" and it was called the "Draisine". The first car was built in Karlsruhe, too. It was in the year 1886 and Carl Benz (from Daimler-Benz) manufactured the first automobile.
The KHE factory is now 16 years old (founded in 1988) and we are making BMX-Freestyle bikes and parts. All of the parts, frames and bikes are developed by ourself and tested by our team riders.
In 1990 we invented the Grinddisc in cooperation with Albert Retey. The next invention was the first bmx clamp fork without welding. After that came the first two bolt seatclamp and the 10mm and 14mm freecoaster with sealed bearing hub following.
In 1993 Albert Retey designed our first frame, and it was called the Catweasle. The next two frames were the "Beater" and the " Premium Lagger".
Jason Davies designed the "Beater" and the "Premium Lagger" was designed by Jesse Puente. The "Premium Lagger" was a new generation of a flatland frame.
In 1999 we created a signature bike with the German porn star "Dolly Buster"
called the "Dirty Buster".
In 2000 we came out with many new light weight parts like the "Easy Rider" frame, alloy flat fork and the alloy Phil Dolan bar.
The biggest move in our over 16 years history was for sure the new System Diatech rotor system. KHE and Dia Compe / Diatech developed this revolutionary new rotor system in the last four years which offers possibilities for new ideas and designs.
Today, the internal system is made by VPcomponents, one of the biggest headset makers, and Jagwire, the producer of the cables and the rotor.
For 2002 frames we designed special new top and down tubes. These new CrMo CONE tubes make our bikes lighter and much stronger on the front of the bike, where it is needed.
For 2003 we have been working on a lot new parts like cranks, alloy stem\bar combo, seatclamp, pedals, alloy T6 flat pegs, seat post, new frames like our new "Goldfinger" flatland CrMo frame. After a really long time period we cancelled our "Beater" and "Dirty Harry" bikes and filled it up with our new high end Street bike "Mad Max". For our old "Cosmic" comes the new "Derrick" entry level Street model equipped with a Grindguard CD. Also you can find the CD on the 2003 "Dirty Buster" Street bike.
The Easy Rider was more a high end image flat bike special made for our team riders. But we did not expect the Easy Rider being a big seller like in 2002, for this reason we topped the 2002 model and made many new own KHE
parts we also sell separately in our new part line.
In 2004 we build up our World team. In the US, we're sponsoring Shaun Butler, Cory Walters and Jesse Puente.
For 2005, we build up a nearly complete new highend part and bike line where the technique, stability and weight were the most important.
Our Pro bike models called the BUTLER Pro, MIDGET Pro and "The Equilibrium" (Jesse Puente's signature Pro model)
On all our Pro bikes are equipped with the new "F-SET Pro" rotor system.
More info about F-SET you can find on the web page www.F-SET.com
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