CHABO: The Steel Trail Bike That Won Bespoked and Went into Production
CHABO: The Steel Trail Bike That Won Bespoked and Went into Production
Lukas once described the CHABO to a journalist as my lovechild, "born from a year of prototyping, endless CAD hours, and the dream of creating the ultimate steel trail bike." I wanted to be annoyed about that quote. I could not, because it is exactly true.
This is the story of that bike: how it went from sketches in Bischofsgruen to the Best MTB award at Bespoked Dresden 2024, through half the bike press, and finally into series production. It is the longest road any HUHN has traveled, except for the one that went to Beijing.
Why a production bike at all?
Since 2016, HUHN was a custom shop. One rider, one frame, endless possibilities. I experimented with every additive process metal fabrication has to offer: cold metal fusion, sintered FDM, selective laser melting. That road led to bikes like the Moorhuhn, and I loved every minute of it.
But custom has a ceiling. Every frame starts from zero, and that keeps prices high and lead times long. About two years ago the idea of a series bike started nagging me, with three words at the top of the spec sheet: price, sustainability, durability. And with all the experience from the custom years, the conclusion was clear to me: welded round steel tubes combined with CNC-machined and 3D-printed parts are the only consistent answer to that brief.
The prototype at Craft Bike Days 2024. MTB-News called it "a super clean 120 mm trail shredder." I will frame that. Photos: MTB-News.de
About the name
The Chabo is a Japanese bantam chicken: small, upright, elegant, surprisingly tough, and completely unbothered by what the big chickens think. That is the brief for this bike in one animal. And no, it has nothing to do with rappers from Offenbach, although the Pinkbike comment section needed exactly four minutes to get there. Chabos wissen wer der Babo ist.
The engineering
The main frame is seven round steel tubes, welded. The rear triangle is four more, but here it gets interesting: the connecting parts are 3D-printed metal, and the dropouts are printed in Prague and then brazed to the chainstays and seatstays. Without the massive heat of welding there is no distortion, and I have the tolerances of the rear end fully under control. The rocker and shock mounts are CNC-machined by Radoxx at Chiemsee, the same people who machine for Pinion, RAAW and 77designz.
The suspension is a flex pivot design. No rear pivot bearings at all. The seatstays provide exactly the flex the system needs, which means fewer moving parts, less maintenance, and nothing to creak three years from now. The kinematics are slightly regressive up to the sag point, then 16 percent progressive from there. In plain riding terms: a soft, comfortable pocket in the middle of the travel and solid support at the end. With a 190x45 shock you get 120 mm of rear travel, with a 190x40 you get a sharper 108 mm XC setup. The front is designed around a 130 mm fork.
The rest is the usual HUHN checklist. Threaded T47 bottom bracket. UDH dropout. Clearance for 29 x 2.5" tires. Room for three 750 ml bottles, two in the triangle and one under the downtube. External cable routing for easy servicing, with an IS52 headset that allows internal routing if you insist; both options ship in the box. The frame weighs 2.8 kilograms in size M.
Why steel and not titanium
People kept asking why the CHABO is not titanium, since we had already proven we can build with it. The answer is simple: producing titanium tubing generates roughly three times the CO2 emissions of steel. Our tubes are made from recycled steel, the material is repairable anywhere on the planet, and the ride quality argument between the two is much smaller than the internet believes. For a bike whose brief starts with sustainability and durability, steel wins.
Every frame gets a KTL coating inside and out, the same corrosion protection standard the automotive industry uses. On top of that comes Cerakote or powder coat. The four standard Cerakote colors: Crushed Orchid, Pink Champagne, Jesse James, Savage Stainless.
The geometry
Modern, but with a purpose: 65.5 degree head angle, 77.5 degree effective seat angle, 450 mm chainstays across all sizes, 38 mm bottom bracket drop, reach of 450, 480 and 510 mm in M, L and XL. Yes, the rear end is long for a 120 mm bike. That is not an accident. The long chainstays are what make the CHABO climb like it is cheating and hold its line downhill when things get loud. Come ride one at a test ride before you argue with me about it. That offer stands, it worked on the Pinkbike comment section too.
Bespoked Dresden 2024: Best MTB
We finished the show bike in Pink Champagne Cerakote and built it up properly German: Intend Samurai fork and Hover shock, Ingrid RD1 drivetrain, Trickstuff Piccola brakes, Bike Ahead Biturbo RSX carbon wheels, The Unit bar-stem and Hypersaddle, Vecnum Nivo dropper, Ultradynamico Mars tires. The jury at Europe's biggest handmade bike show voted it Best MTB of Bespoked Dresden 2024.
Show photos: Adam Gasson / Bespoked
The Radavist shot the bike in detail at the show, and BIKEPACKING.com summed up the concept as equal parts adventure and durability. I will take both.
Built to be ridden, not displayed
An award bike that only lives on a show podium would be against everything HUHN stands for. So the CHABO got ridden. Hard. On our home trails around the Ochsenkopf, in the mud, in the dust, in exactly the conditions a chicken loves.
BIKE magazine came to Bischofsgruen for a workshop visit and took the prototype up the Ochsenkopf. Their findings matched what I feel every ride: the steep seat angle and long rear end put you right over the front, the rear stays high in its travel, generates traction instead of wallowing, and there is no annoying bob when you stand up and sprint. Downhill it is calm and composed, more travel-feeling than 120 mm should allow. And their honest criticism is one I sign as well: the CHABO is not the playful type. It does not want to wheelie out of every corner. It wants to hold a line, fast, and it wants to do that all day for the next few decades.
Max Fuchs, head of testing at BIKE, put it like this: "Of all the steel bikes I have ridden, the HUHN Chabo stands out. Top-tier suspension, confident geometry, reasonable weight and that unmistakable Made in Germany quality. It just triggers that must-have reflex."
Into production
In January 2025 we opened preorders, and in May 2025 Pinkbike reported that the CHABO had officially entered production. The series frames are welded by our partners at BFE, Bicycle Frames Engineering in Berlin, while I keep sweating over prototypes and custom projects here in Bischofsgruen. That split lets the CHABO exist at a fair price without me cloning myself.
Seeing the first production frames raw, before any coating, is still my favorite moment. Nothing to hide behind: just tubes, prints, machined parts and welds.
And the family keeps growing. The color range has expanded beyond the original four, and frames are landing with their riders.
The CHABO in numbers
- Travel: 130 mm front, 120 mm rear (or 108 mm XC setup)
- Frame: heat-treated, recycled chromoly steel, 2.8 kg in size M
- Suspension: flex pivot, no rear bearings, 16% progression from sag
- Geometry: 65.5° head angle, 77.5° seat angle, 450 mm chainstays, reach 450/480/510 mm
- Standards: T47, UDH, Boost, 29 x 2.5" clearance, three bottle mounts
- Finish: KTL inside and out, Cerakote or powder coat
- Made in Germany: welded in Berlin, machined at Chiemsee, printed parts brazed, developed and prototyped in Bischofsgruen
- Awards: Best MTB, Bespoked Dresden 2024
Ride one
A deposit puts you on the waiting list, and test rides can be arranged. Bring shoes you do not mind getting dirty.
Sources and photo credits: Adam Gasson / Bespoked (award photos), The Radavist (studio show photos), MTB-News.de Craft Bike Days 2024, Pinkbike / Seb Stott (May 2025), BIKE Magazin / Max Fuchs (workshop visit and test), BIKEPACKING.com / Miles Arbour (January 2025).
Small chicken. Big attitude. Chabos wissen wer der Babo ist.