‘IsoTruss’ Bikes Beyond Carbon Fiber
I’ve been amazed by the past 20 years of progress in racing bicycle technology due to advance materials. The first reasonably affordable titanium-frame racing bicycles starting appearing in 1990 and shortly after 2000 the first reasonably affordable carbon-fiber-framed appeared. We now have the first new advancement: carbon fiber bicycle frames that aren’t entirely solid. Above is a photo of the $10,000 (US) Delta 7 road bike. The junctions in its frame are made of regular carbon fiber but the main tubes of the frame consist of an open latticework of carbon fiber/Kevlar strings woven into a network of isosceles triangles. That latticework is up to 12 times stronger than steel but weighs ten times less.