He shared that the different graphics on these historic and limited bicycles belongs to two different production batches. Bike Spyder with head tube plaques showing #1 through #30 have "Weissach Bike Spyder" on the frame. The following #31 through the planned #60, show "CAT Bike Spyder". CAT stands for Carbon, Aluminum, Titanium. CAT not only represents the material used, but also the company name of Carbon, Aluminum, Titan Produkte GmbH. Tobias also mentioned that in the last batch, there were four made with suspension forks. The bikes were produced from 1992-1994. To date, I have now only seen or heard of Bike Spyder #0, #1, #33, #37 and #39. The rest have not appeared on the internet for sale or on display. Particularly interesting, Tobias owns Weissach Bike Spyder #0 (photos above).
The first Bike Spyder was completed in 1991 at the Porsche Weissach R&D prototype shop and called the Porsche Bike Spyder 9.85. 9.85 stands for 9.85 kilograms (21.7 pounds). This bike was featured in the May 1991 Porsche magazine and built by Dr. Ulrich Bez, Thomas Menzel and Porsche engineers. Once Bez left Porsche, he and Menzel built the Bike Spyder #0 as a template for the following 50 bikes produced by CAT. The Bike Spyder #0 prototype owned by Tobias has a Specialized "glazed red" frame with removable labels and "Weissach Bike Spyder" stickers on the paint. The production #1 through #50 bikes have a clear carbon frame with decals under the clear coat.
It was incredible to get more information from Tobias. The more history I learn about these bikes, the more interesting it gets.
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