Every Carlit starts the same way: a box with a bare frame and a parts list that fills half a wall. And it ends the same way: a scale reading 7.58 kg and a bike leaving through the Taradell door towards someone's home. In between there is one long workshop day, and a few weeks of queue, because there is no stock here: every Carlit is built to order. This article is that day, told from the inside.
First, the bare frame
Before anything is fitted, the RO-A carbon frame is inspected: a visual check of every tube, clean threads and seats, and confirmation that weight and alignment are what they should be. It is the least photogenic job of the day and the most important one, because everything that follows rests on it. If a frame does not convince us, it does not get built.
What you never see: cabling and drivetrain
With the frame approved, hoses and wires are routed inside the tubes, the work nobody will ever see but which decides whether a bike rattles two years from now. Then comes the Ultegra Di2: fitting the derailleurs and levers is the quick part; pairing the components, updating the firmware and tuning the shift click by click until the chain runs clean across the whole cassette is the part that takes patience. The chain is cut to the exact length for each frame size.
Wheels, brakes and torque settings
The 45 mm CIM wheels are checked for tension and true before being dressed with the 28 mm Vittoria Rubinos. The brakes are bled and the 160 mm rotors centred until the wheel spins without a whisper. From there, every bolt on the build is tightened with a torque wrench to its exact setting: on a carbon bike, guessing is not an option.
The finishing touches
The end of the day is the part you can see: the 3D-printed saddle, the bar tape and the phrase engraved on the chainstay, rules are made to be broken. Before boxing, the final check: shifting under load, braking, weight on the scale and a checklist gone through in full. If anything is not right, the bike does not leave.
Why it takes four to eight weeks
Because we are two people and we hold no stock. Every bike is built when the order arrives, in the size and configuration of the person who ordered it, and the queue is respected in order. In return, the 5-year warranty is easy to give: we know exactly how every bike was built, because we built it.
If you want to see the process live, come to the workshop in Taradell, an hour from Barcelona. And if you want to know why this bike is called Carlit, we told that story in the reason behind the names.