Berk PROTO-TYPE Composites

[otnemem]

Oh... ehm, I haven't noticed any pros/cons, to be honest... feels likes a Lupina I guess it should feel slightly different, but nothing I noticed.

Sorry

Don't be sorry if you don't feel any difference between those and the all-carbon Lupina - that's a good thing

[charirider]

Enter the Lupina, 132mm 3k matte version.
First, weight in:

I expected 75g-ish, but 77g is not bad at all. Comparing to current SLR FLow Ti316 its -100g saved.
Saddle itself is beautifully beautifully made, matte 3K is actually quite shiny at direct sunlight, and shell will became more satin with use for this awesome raw-like appearance.

[Berk]

@charirider thank you, hope you'll like it


To keep this topic alive, a gravel frameset with 45mm tire clearence, custom geo and still reasonably light, in process

First clearcoat:






After fine sanding, some drilling, last coat before finishing:

[JURE]

Jure, frame looks great!!!!

[MrCurrieinahurry]

Beautiful carbon work mate

Basso Diamante eps 12

[Berk]

Thanks!

Just finished, decided to go for the simple matte look with gloss black graphics.

Always when doing a prototype I play with all kind of different options, this one started as a gloss frameset, but just can't resist the matte look in real, so another boring matte black bike it can take up to 45mm and I wanted to make it as road looking as possible, so that it won't look strange with standard road wheelset, will update with the complete build soon.

The frame came in at 1043g, for rear derailleur I will use UDH to keep it simple.

[Lunn]

Considering ordering a Berk Ploh. Anybody could give an rough estimate on the lifetime of this saddle?

Berk seems to replace most of the saddles that break however, but how gentle do you need to be with it?

[MrCurrieinahurry]

Well this is @Berk thread so you may get a response.

Sent from my 23078PND5G using Tapatalk

[Berk]

Hi, saddles are as any other equipment - if you took care of it then it will last for ages, similar like a car seat, some manage to demolish it in a year or two, some others can have it for years with no signs. If you crash it then we always give our best to find a solution, it all depends fro the actual case.

[Kumppa]

I don't want to be rude but product breakage is not always due to user or care. Design and manufacturing are also affected.

[Berk]

Sure, all product are ISO tested, if there are any mistakes on our side then that is a warranty case of course. But just wanted to poit out that we have customers who manage to make more than 50.000km with the same saddle, as long as it isn't crashed there shouldn't be any problems. But it is sport equipment and we all know that unfortunately crashes/bike falls happen, or you slip the pedal and hit on the saddle (or frame) etc., for normal use there shouldn't be any problems, even for a lot of km as long as you follow the assebly instructions and weight limit. We also offer the leather/padding replacement in case that itt gets damaged or used, but for now mainly only inside EU because all the costs with shipping/customs. If we have those customers getting back to us we always try to find the best solution, in some cases it can take more than one day to answer and some patience is much appreciated there, but giving our best

At this occasion I can also mention that we offer TEST SADDLES within EU, if anyone interested you can email us and we can send a saddle after some deposit (which is returned once we get the test saddle back)

[Lunn]

I appreciate the replies, I'm personally around the 72-75kg mark and I'm mainly just riding normal roads.
However, when you mention "take care of it", how easy does the faux leather (I assume it is anyway for all those colors?) fray, or are you thinking of the rails?

Also, I've never crashed my current bike in the 20000 km, so I'm not too worried about that.

[Berk]

Hi, no problem, the synthetic leather is durable and friction from pedaling won't wear it fast - it is a material that is used for marine industry and all the padding done there (outdoor, UV, salt etc.).

We are also working for partners in US and Asia where they could replace the cover/padding on request (so if anyone of fellow ww members works with upholstery I would be really happy to start a possible cooperation here since we want to offer an affordable servide to our customers). We do offer that service in EU for 30eur, because it makes sense to keep the old saddle and just change the cover if it gets damaged after years of use or in case of a crash.

[Lunn]

Alright. I'm EU based, so that's nice to hear. Ordered a Ploh today I look forward to it. Also a nice bonus with the tape/plugs ontop.

Cheers!

[Berk]

Thank you!