A Steel/Carbon Jewel
The Cyfac Panthere is exclusive to Cadence. You will not find this frameset offered through any other domestic Cyfac distributor. The Panthere was unveiled at the 2004 Interbike to huge acclaim, regarded by many as "the most beautiful frameset" of the show.
The Panthere offers unparalleled quality in terms of construction, design, engineering, and paint. Each frame requires a pain-staking 10 hours to stencil and coat with up to four individually applied layers of automotive quality paint.
Each frame is made of hand brazed Columbus Niobium steel; the oversized steel is mated to Columbus' inverted Carve rear stays which are connected by Cyfac's legendary high-polish dropouts. A stunning work to behold, the curvature of the rear stays is highlighted by the round lines of the paint scheme. The overall effect gives the frame an elliptical symmetry, reminiscent more of early Porsche designs than angular bike frame geometry.
Nothing rides like steel, and nothing rides like a Cyfac. Combining the over-sized steel tubing with carbon rear stays--and carbon seat tube!--ensures that this jewelry-like creation will be one of the finest riding, most eye-catching, legendary, and rare frames on the planet.
We recently built a Panthere with Campy's full carbon Record group and Campy's Hyperon carbon clinchers. The entire bike weighed in at a remarkable 16.2 pounds! That bike went on to be featured in the Philadelphia Enquirer.
About Columbus Niobium Steel Alloy
The frameset in the Panthere is made from Columbus’ Spirit tubeset. This is an extruded special steel alloy of manganese, chrome, nickel, molybdenum and niobium. The special chemical composition and its subsequent heat treatment result in a previously unattainable small alloy grain size which translates to nearly 100% resilience to corrosion with increased strength and resistance to elongation or fatigue. Tube wall thicknesses can be extruded to an incredible 0.38 mm meaning that the weight of niobium steel tubing rivals that of 7000 series aluminum alloys.
The Panthere’s tubeset is triple-butted and fillet-brazed by hand. The result is a steel/carbon race frame that delivers impeccable comfort, performance, and durability.