Ghost Shifts Production of Carbon Fibre Hardtails From Asia to Belgium's Rein4ced

Jan 16, 2020
by James Smurthwaite  
photo

Accell Group has announced it will move production of Ghost's carbon fibre hardtails from Asia to the Rein4ced facility in Belgium.

We covered the technology behind Rein4ced last year but in short, they are using robots and thermoplastics to bring carbon manufacturing back to Europe with a process that they say is more environmentally friendly and will produce a stronger frame than conventional carbon construction.

The frames will be built using Rein4ced's Feather composite, which is a blend of carbon and steel, that they claim has all the lightweight benefits of carbon but with superior strength to weight ratio. The new manufacturing process will also mean a greener end product as it will reduce overseas shipments and the thermoplastics used can be recycled.

Currently, only some of Ghost's carbon hardtail production will be transferred to Belgium with the rest of its range still being built in Asia. The frames will be available from mid-2020 in Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the Czech Republic.

carbon thermoplastic story

bigquotesThis collaboration matches Accell Group’s global innovation strategy and ambition to increase sustainability in its products. With enhanced durability and safety through local production and maximum performance for our cyclists with the new Feather technology. In two words: this innovation is smart and greenTon Anbeek, CEO Accell Group

bigquotesAccell Group is a world leader and pioneer in the bicycle industry and we are proud to work together. Rein4ced developed a new, automated production line for hybrid composite bicycle frames in its production facility in Leuven, Belgium, with an annual production capacity of up to 20.000 frames. Accell and its consumers will benefit from our product as the new Feather composite material offers extreme impact resistance.

Our hybrid carbon-and-steel fiber composite will deliver the confidence that cyclists deserve in high-end composite bicycle frames. The Feather material combines the stiffness and lightweight characteristics of carbon with the toughness of steel.
Michaël Callens, CEO Rein4ced


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Member since Nov 14, 2018
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103 Comments
  • 126 8
 Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of Xi's China, and the beginning of the beginning for awesome home grown bikes with a lower environmental impact.
  • 43 35
 Don't forget the Unions!
  • 4 1
 @WAKIdesigns: I actually used to work in a fibreglass factory in uni holidays. We made inspection covers for petrol station forecourts. I always thought it would be cool to make something related to bikes or motorbikes on the regular. They did some piece work for motorbikes, fairings and the like, but not when I was there. It can definitely be done, someone just has to do it!
  • 18 0
 @WAKIdesigns: Is that the A.I. Union of robots?
  • 12 52
flag AlexS1 (Jan 16, 2020 at 4:18) (Below Threshold)
 The Democratic world wants this particular Communist country dead not because it's Communist.

It's because this particular Communist country is beginning to shed it's past and fast becoming what these Democratic country is now.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojr-tqaQQOQ
  • 110 10
 @AlexS1: The reason I want it dead is because the regime does not believe in personal freedoms. They worship at the altar of money moreso than any other country - and by that I mean they value money above all else and they believe that if you have money the rules do not apply to you. China does not have the rule of law and it believes that it's OK to treat people like animals if they do not support the party - a party that was not elected by any of the citizens. The party that is above the law and behaves in a frankly childish way in many respects related to foreign trade and foreign relations.
The country has completely modernised (we have greedy people in western countries to blame as much as the CCP to be fair) on the back of artificially deflated production costs in China as a result of currency manipulation. Their military is answerable to one unelected man who has changed the law to allow himself to be ruler for life. Their military technology has developed at an amazing rate owing primarily to intellectual property theft and espionage. They claim the entire South China Sea because a fisherman in Hainan Island claims he had a map of fishing grounds in the Spratlys that was 5000 years old, although said map has mysteriously disappeared - not that it would give China rights to the entire sea even if it ever existed.
On Hong Kong, well, I think you know about that. Chinese interference in Taiwan is another interesting subject.
The point is, the CCP does what it wants because it can. It makes deals that it never intends to honour. It goes back on its word and then pretends it didn't. It has deliberately ambiguous and opaque deals with pretty much everyone.
No one likes the Chinese way of doing business. They like the prices and that is it.
Of course, I can understand why the Chinese people who are doing as they are told like good little boys and girls like the progress. Fringe groups, not so much. Those people who are subject to genocide, not so much. Those people who are having their organs harvested, not so much. I know the millions are still only a small percentage of the population but it's still a lot of people.
If the CCP really believes it's good for the people, it would face scrutiny and criticism. Clearly since scrutiny and criticism are not tolerated by the party, and that's worldwide, not just in China, the party knows it is doing a lot of stuff that is not really what people want. Its success is based solely on economic growth.
That's why I don't want China to ascend into the position of global hegemon. I value freedom of speech and thought. I value the ideas of a fair trial and free press. I also value the cultural niceties that are diluted by the Chinese - lining up, waiting your turn, not spitting in public, extending courtesy to customer service agents, and generally behaving like civilised adults in public.
If I could choose the USA or China to be calling the shots globally, it would not be a difficult decision. Unfortunately I think unless the west wakes up pretty sharpish and decouples from China I'm going to be on the wrong side of that.
  • 28 14
 @jaame: Western Europe has been naive enough in relations with Russia and China during the 2nd world war, much more just after it, and I have no reason to believe that it still isn’t. And I mean mainly UK as possibly the most important military power in the region. Post war generations in Western countries have been so brainwashed that despite living through a real and horrific threat of nuclear holocaust, they still only remember the Nazi Germany. The only intrinsic fear they all have is Nazis. I do not support Nazis, hell no, but as a Pole who heard a story or Two from my grandparents, I have no problem realizing what Russian government is and how it can mobilize its people to perform an invasion. West kind of knows Russia, but we have no story of hard talk with China. We are completely ill equipped to do so and sooner or later we will need to play the same game of “I know that you know that I know” with Putin. The success of West builds on trust and ccoperation. Beautiful thought. But somewhere somehow we are quite bad at dealing with the bullies. We even elected a bully, a rather half arsed one that is hard to respect. Putin is respected all the way. He does stupid things too, but he is smug about it, not dumb about it. Both Trump and Johnson are like fat kids of rich parents, brought to principal office where they are asked to keep an eye on that drug dealing kid. While principal should take the head out of her ass and come up with an idea how to put that drug dealing kid straight at minimal cost to the rest of the class. Maybe let him sell some on controlled basis, whatever it takes, but put him straight. Right now, the only thing we do is “elimination” of potential threats. Diplomacy is shit. Now more and more we will have China to deal with and we have no bloody clue what to do. Ironically Russia and China don’t go together very well... ironically if Russia hasn’t managed to rule the world despite being so huge, and having such a military power, it means they won’t do it any soon. But China is a huge unknown and a potential volatile. It’s a fast growing fat kid from the country side trying to have a place at the city halls round table. We all see how “well” it works in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, when you empower peasants.
  • 22 9
 Lol one company moving isn't the end of China. Smh
  • 15 0
 Doesn't most high end bike manufacturing take place in Taiwan? Which is a very different place than Xi's China.
  • 9 1
 free HK
  • 3 0
 @anthobroncos: you are correct. China claims ownership of Taiwan although it is run by the old Chinese government. Either way, the people don't get what they want.
  • 7 1
 yup, gta ween away from the china; polluter; human rights abuser, property thieves.
  • 12 11
 @jaame:

You will be on the wrong side of history no matter what the west does, western cultural and economic dominance has always been a blip in the ocean. China can still rise to being a leading hyperpower by supplying the developing world with goods, services and infrastructure.

Your observations on Chinese obsession with money, their politics and their cultural values are shortsighted as well. It’s not China that sold it’s industry in the pursuit of easy money, it’s not China who caused 100s of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq - and the last time I was in the services industry I received plenty of abuse from fellow Brits. And don’t forget that it is was the British who created the political vacuum within China that led to the cultural revolution.

The problem with the brand of exceptionalism that you and others like you spout, is that it causes you to vastly underestimate your competitors abilities and their own cultural strengths.
  • 6 5
 @jaame:

I’d also add that your comments on “good little Chinese boys and girls” and the CCP success only being based on its economic success fail to take Into account Confucian culture as well.

You are also wilfully blind or ignorant of the way the west did and still does business. The Americans for example, when confronted with a Japan that didn’t want to open up to the world sailed gunboats into Tokyo bay. Their trade model is still based on having a large blue water navy that acts like a protection racket.
  • 15 2
 No one is innocent, I agree with that. The USA (and the UK before it) has done a lot of questionable things globally and I don't condone them. Two wrongs don't make a right. It seems clear to me that even though the US-led system is bad for some people, it is clearly better from the perspective of the average Joe globally. A rules based system will always be better than a might-makes-right system of gangster logic, ambiguities and opacity. Much as I think the behaviour of some people in western countries is pretty trashy when they go out of their way to swear at politicians and such, look at the CCP alternative. Dare to say anything negative about the president and you will end up in jail for an indeterminate amount of time. Surely no one thinks that's a good policy and one that we should happily accept if it is exported.

I admit I am somewhat biased because I lived in Taiwan for more than ten years and have seen first hand on a daily basis the entire repertoire of the CCP's negative behaviour. Like a very wealthy but very unattractive man who wants to marry a beautiful woman who has continually rebuffed his advances - but he doesn't want to take any notice of her feelings. He is intent on marrying her and he will do anything to get what he wants, including paying literally anyone who will support him in pressuring her into it, and heaping scorn on anyone who says we should listen to her side or respect her wishes.

The human rights abuses are sickening but again not isolated to China. The pressure the CCP puts on other countries to toe their line is horrifying. And they toe the line. Commercial entities need to grow a pair of balls and stop putting money before morals (NBA, Premier League, Apple, Hilton, and pretty much every legacy airline in the world).

I know there are a lot of c*nts about, but in the world right now, they don't come bigger than the CCP.
  • 6 2
 @jaame: Then do not buy anything made in China. Good luck. Simple solution right?
  • 8 0
 @Sshredder: believe me I’m trying
  • 2 0
 @jaame:

All superpowers and hyper powers attempt to exert control over their neighbours, out of fear of those that may engage them in great power competition may gain influence in those countries. America did so in Cuba and South America (the former was understandable after the missile crisis). American attempts to control the Far East are often seen in Asia in the same way that the PLAN rocking up in Mexico would be seen by Americans.

Corruption and human rights abuses are an issue in China, they are also major issues in tin pot democracies like the Philippines.

When you talk about whether we should accept the exporting of the Chinese model, what would you have us do? Restart the containment and domino theory that worked so well in Vietnam and was definitely not viewed as a colonialist continuation of French-Indochina by the locals?
  • 5 1
 @Tom-W1987: Western countries may have mastered exploitation of other countries but they are also currently leading in getting along and being tolerant. If you want an exercise in racism, sexism, homophobia and general prejudice come to a language course in a country like Sweden where folks from all over the world come together and speak incredible rubbish about everyone. There are delusional over progressive, pseudo intellectuals who believe that most areas of the world used to lived in peaceful harmony before white savages came in and fkd up everything. Same kind who is willing to believe all animals are vegans and there is some jolly balance like in Lion King. Guess what everything on yhis planet from vegan gazelle to Putin will try to survive by exerting max power while using least available amount of energy, will try to create surplus and act preemptively against it’s potential competitors. No other culture is so good at cooperation as most civilized countries like West or Japan. Only delusional whackos believe there is some wonderful Eastern way of life that is lost in Western run for success. Guess what a bloody Yogi sits on the mountain doing shit will not make world any better. He is a selfish son of a btch who is incapable of applying lessons from his trips into reality. He is juet as fkd up as a Wallstreet broker making money from money.
  • 2 1
 @WAKIdesigns:

Once again, European co-operation and peaceful harmony was a post war blip - that is starting to come apart at the seams - as evidenced by Brexit, Austria, Poland, Hungary and the FN in France. For thousands of years before that, Europe was in a constant state of war.

And if you think that Japan is some bastion of tolerance, you haven’t spent any time there.

And you should try listening in to conversations in a British pub - they are no better, Brits are only better at hiding their prejudices.

Your disparaging sentence about white savages tells me you just see them as a threat and are fitting your narrative to that view.

I don’t really care about whether a Buddhist monk or “yogi” as you like to call him is or isn’t a selfish as a wall street banker - what I care about is geopolitics, conflict and cultural understanding.
  • 1 0
 @WAKIdesigns: dammit they took our jobs
  • 3 1
 @WAKIdesigns: Are Western countries exploiting China or is it a mutually beneficial relationship for both ? I support my local produce market and try my best to buy local produce. I support many local bike shops. But really most of the material stuff I buy and own is affordable because of the cheap labor in China. I'm supporting China's economy and don't have a problem with that. I don't look at other countries as evil or the enemy that's absurd. They are my neighbors on this planet. My religion is riding my bike. The forest is my church. I dont diss people because of there religion or lifestyle. Meditation is not a delusional state it's to calm our minds from negative useless Bull shit.
  • 2 0
 Please don't feed the troll.
  • 4 0
 Indeed. Shame on China for agreeing to produce all those cheap goods for western companies, and allowing all us westerners to have all the gadgets, doodads, widgets and thingies that make us think we're living full, happy lives.

How dare they do exactly what we asked them to do for decades. They should have said "No, thank you" to all that foreign money pouring into the country.
  • 2 0
 @jaame: I values democracy but it's sad that the same democracy in many instances were used as a tool to bully and to kill legally.
  • 2 0
 @makripper: you are correct until some point between the nineties and now. Since Taiwan has free elections and is now run for the 4th term by a non-KMT president (and you probably could count Lee Teng-Hui into that as well), calling it run by the old Chinese government is not a very appropriate description of the situation.
  • 1 0
 @cru-jones: I was generalizing. Thank you for the info though. I'll go digging.
  • 3 0
 hey reed boggs has joined yeti Smile
  • 2 0
 @anthobroncos: It really depends who you ask. Ask any Chinese: Its part of China.... Ask a taiwanese: Not so much....
  • 2 1
 Decouple decouple decouple. Diversify supply chains. Don't ditch China all together, but actively look for alternatives.

It seems pretty simple. Don't give 95% of your money to one single country, period. Especially not "a fast growing fat kid from the countryside", who turns up in his BMW, parks in the disabled spot and walks to the meeting in his flip-flops, then signs a multi million dollar deal even though he's never been to the dentist in his life. And then next week changes the deal without telling you. And don't you dare complain because you will "Hurt the feelings of all Chinese."

Am I sounding like too much of a snob? My apologies for that.

I do say a lot of shit about China. Really, I could tolerate most of it if they would just leave Taiwan the f*ck alone, accept that it's a country in its own right like everyone in the world knows it is in everything but name, and get on with life.

I've often said "Who cares the most about Taiwanese independence? Foreigners in Taiwan". The locals just want to get on with the business of living. They've grown up with the pressure from the CCP, and the murders and oppression from the KMT before it. I feel a bit jealous that Taiwanese are culturally free from this horrible western sense of right and wrong, justice at all costs mindset to be honest.

The Chinese are among the hardest working people on Earth. It's the party that I hate, not the people. Sure, they need to get some manners in most cases, but that will come in time. They are good hearted, dedicted and friendly for the most part.
  • 2 0
 @jaame: I suggest you not to say like this or when someone find this we in China will have no chance to view pinkbike. But the truth is that Xitler want to show all around the world support his party.
  • 4 0
 @jaame:

China only accounts for 6.6 percent of UK imports - we do not give 95 percent of our money to the Chinese.

You don’t sound like a snob, you sound like you think you’re McArthur, it’s the 1950s and the Reds and the Yellow peril are out to get you.
  • 1 0
 @Tom-W1987: that’s your problem. They actually can get you. Sorry maybe just everything they find valuable on the way to Atlantic Ocean. BTW Reds and Yellows don’t like each other. If you are birn in 1987 you have no clue
  • 1 0
 @WAKIdesigns:

They might get you seeing as you lot are good at fleeing from Finland whenever they turn up.
  • 1 0
 Most would agree that China will replace America as the world's next superpower. The CCP will be the de facto shot caller globally in fifty years. I'm not really keen on that. I would rather have America. America does a lot of shit. China does a lot of shit. The shit that China does is worse, and it's just beginning. With more money comes more power and more influence. It doesn't look good for our way of life.
  • 2 0
 @jaame:

How will the man on the street notice his way of life changing?

Do you mean the Chinese are going to invade and install dictatorships?

Or do you mean the cost of living for us goes up because other people are being lifted out of poverty?

Or is it because the west will no longer be able to act as either colonialists or the “worlds policemen”?

If it’s the latter, what gives you the right to carry on being much more effluent than the rest of the world?
  • 4 0
 @jaame:

And how is what China does worse than bombing all of the following countries since ww2?

China 1945-46

Korea 1950-53

China 1950-53

Guatemala 1954

Indonesia 1958

Cuba 1959-60

Guatemala 1960

Belgian Congo 1964

Guatemala 1964

Dominican Republic 1965-66

Peru 1965

Laos 1964-73

Vietnam 1961-73

Cambodia 1969-70

Guatemala 1967-69

Lebanon 1982-84

Grenada 1983-84

Libya 1986

El Salvador 1981-92

Nicaragua 1981-90

Iran 1987-88

Libya 1989

Panama 1989-90

Iraq 1991

Kuwait 1991

Somalia 1992-94

Bosnia 1995

Iran 1998

Sudan 1998

Afghanistan 1998

Yugoslavia – Serbia 1999

Afghanistan 2001

Libya 2011

Are they worse because “they hate our freedoms?” - is it only bad or terrorism when dictatorships do it?
  • 1 0
 @Tom-W1987: That's a long list. How many of those countries had a full scale invasion of Canada or USA? Let's see Japan and ......
  • 2 0
 @Sshredder:

Cuba (attempted)

Vietnam

El Salvador

Panama

Grenada

Yugoslavia – Serbia

Afghanistan

Iraq
  • 1 0
 Two wrongs don’t make a right, Tom.
  • 2 0
 @jaame:

Agreed.

But don't think that the rest of the world is going to take your side if they see you as hypocrites. There is a reason why China and Russia are 1) Making considerable economic gains in the developing world at the expense of western influence 2) Able to sow anti-western discontent easily.

That's because the west has a nasty history of not praciticing what it preaches, colonialism and exploitative trading practices - on the otherhand China is winnning the hearts and minds of many developing nations through huge infrastructure projects, hilariously more equitable trade deals and by not dropping 2000lb JDAMs on them for giggles.

What we are reaping now is the result of a few hundred years of umitigated geoploitical stupidity and ignorance, carrying on right up to the present day, in the near and far east.
  • 1 0
 @Tom-W1987: I’m originally Polish mate. In 1939 when Germans invaded, people were running east. Then Russians invaded 2 weeks later and people were running Back West. They prefered to be killed by Nazis than Bolsheviks. Just saying... Hard to decide what’s better Holocaust or Horodomor and Gulags. A part of Swedes understands that but lefties and greenies don’t. They want to hug it out with Putin. Like Ghandi thinking sending a letter to Hitler would stop the war...
  • 1 0
 @WAKIdesigns: Ghandi was no saint
  • 1 0
 @makripper: Yoda was!
  • 1 0
 @anthobroncos: Well no not really when planes flying to Taipei have to by China's force/bulling have to put on the arrival/departure signs that they are flying to Taiwan with no mention of Taipei. WTF
  • 1 0
 @knarf1
A Taiwanese passenger checking in to a European airline to fly from a European country to another European country using a Taiwan passport which is visa exempt in the Shengen zone, scans the passport and is then given the choice between “People’s Republic of China” or “People’s Republic of China - Taiwan Area”. Obviously this is not an accurate description of what it actually says on that passport. The next step says “No visa required. Proceed to bag drop.”

In other words, the airline and the European immigration authorities know and recognise the Taiwan passport, but to keep the CCP happy they make Taiwanese self identify as Chinese citizens if they want to fly - within Europe.

Absurd.
  • 3 0
 @jaame: Ones personal freedom almost always results in the subjugation of many. Destroying freedom in the name of freedom. It's the American way.
  • 1 0
 @DrthVadr: Yes, Noam Chomsky will lead us
  • 1 0
 @WAKIdesigns: Yes, this is the same delusional phenomenon African Americans/Pan Africanists have viewing Africa as a country and not a continent. One wonderful homogenize place that isn't cutting off arms in the name of tribalism. Everyone plays a part and there is never a lone conspirator.
  • 1 0
 @DrthVadr: the problem with people who see problems is that they are so focused on looking for problems that they have no energy solving a single problem. I highly recommend Steve Pinkers work.
  • 44 0
 I read Ghost Shifts Production... and I thought it was an article about the e13 cassette
  • 20 3
 This is the drive the industry needs. no more shit overseas, from a environmental perspective its exhausting. Create jobs where it matters and stop feeding China's socialist economy.
  • 6 5
 Almost all carbon production has moved out of China already due to the USA - China tariff war.
  • 5 0
 @shredddr: Carbon frame production has been moving away from China for years, long before the tariff war. Mostly because of rising wages and labor shortages in China.
  • 7 2
 "they are using robots and thermoplastics to bring carbon manufacturing back to Europe"
Create jobs for robots... Smile
  • 6 0
 Guerrila Gravity makes carbon frames in Colorado, just south of you. Also, Devinci welds aluminum frames in house in BC. Don't forget there is also a couple carbon wheel mfgs in North America, Nox in Tennessee and We Are One in BC. Make sure your money speaks for your mouth.
  • 7 0
 China is totalitarian/fascist at this point, more than anything, not socialist. But I agree about not feeding China's economy any more.
  • 1 0
 Yeah. There's actually a topic at a Czech bike forum about something related. One guy ordered Nextie rims with TPP delivery (so that he doesn't have to do and pay customs), which Nextie screwed up and send it regularly. After it arrived at our customs and he received message from our post office about it, he contacted Nextie and they told him, they can refund him the difference in the shipping. After more messages they offered either $20 or the return of the rims to China and afterwards they will send them again by TPP. Outrageous solution. So either he get's ripped off and has to pay the customs, which he said are around $120, or the rims go there and back again. All because Nextie and China are so money oriented, they won't pay a damn customs fee, because they screwed up.
I actually ordered rims from them too for the first time and I am waiting for them. Hope this won't happen, but will probably not buy from them again seeing this kind of service not only to customer, but to the planet. And they are even bragging that their paint-less rims are more eco friendly, would you believe that?!
  • 1 0
 @nurseben: Geography, geography : Devinci "in house" is about 5000km to the east, in Québec...
  • 15 0
 So it is blend of carbon and steel. Carbon-Steel is surreal!
  • 7 0
 Will you shinny carbon frame rust in years then?
  • 3 0
 @Clem-mk: Yep! All those advanced materials researchers forgot about rust again...Do'h! *sad trombone*
  • 3 0
 Carbon steel is already a cheap steal product.
  • 13 0
 It sounds similar in concept to what Guerilla Gravity is doing? Does anyone know what the differences are?
  • 6 0
 They are using thermoplastic resins as well, but more traditional carbon fibers as far as I can tell.

compositesweekly.com/how-guerrilla-gravitys-revved-carbon-technology-is-disrupting-the-mountain-biking-industry
  • 4 0
 Similar process. Great frames, great company, highly recommended.
  • 4 0
 Aerospace have been experimenting with different resin matrices and fibres for years. It'd be cool if companies used bikes more for their proof of concepts as a frame is slightly less safety significant than an aircraft wing.
  • 1 0
 I believe Fabric does some stuff with Airbus including that 3D printed saddle. More please!
  • 6 2
 The thing is, when an aircraft wing fails, it will result in death, but a snapped head tube on a road bike has the same potential...
  • 9 3
 Trek worked with Lockheed I believe at one point when developing their 700 Series OCLV. There was a production restriction on that series of carbon that required the bikes to be made domestically. That was back in 2011 I believe. So manufacturers do leverage the aerospace industry.

On a side note, that picture of the carbon layup of a downtube/headline section is like 50% waste. Apparently Rein4ced didn't get the memo on environmental stewardship that GG did when they developed Revved.
  • 4 0
 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: This waste is less of a problem here if they really use thermoplastic resin as they can remelt it. PEEK has a melting point of around 340°C, so it's not even that much.
  • 8 0
 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: luckily, the excess can be cut and reused (source: the original article).
  • 1 0
 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: it was a chap called Jim (James) colegrove from a company called closed mold composites he did all the early work on OCLV from memory ....iirc first demonstrations of it was golf club shafts
  • 1 1
 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: scratch that it was Ron nelson Jim was after Ron Closed mold did all the precursor work fr bladder molding
  • 1 2
 @Compositepro: I was aware that the original process stemmed from golf club shafts, however my reference was more about the woven/UD materials they were using.
  • 1 0
 @BikesBoatsNJeeps: ah your talking about the restricted materials lists, we still have those
  • 3 0
 In case anyone is interested: the resin is PEEK. A plastic that is more expensive than the carbon fiber.
Wonder how the finish on the frames is gonna look like. But i like automation in bike layup just for the sake of consistency...
  • 2 1
 so, basically a bike from lego bricks, got it
  • 7 0
 @f00bar: Lego bricks are made of ABS, if I'm not mistaken.
  • 1 0
 @f00bar: Peek is an engineering plastic that has far superior properties compared to ABS.

PEEK (polyetheretherketone) is a high-performance engineering plastic with outstanding resistance to harsh chemicals, and excellent mechanical strength and dimensional stability. It offers hydrolysis resistance to steam, water, and sea water. PEEK has the ability to maintain stiffness at high temperatures and is suitable for continuous use at temperatures up to 338oF (170oC). This engineering plastic has a proven track record in challenging environments such as aerospace, oil and gas, and semiconductor. www.curbellplastics.com/Research-Solutions/Materials/PEEK

@SleepingAwake you're not wrong... but at least they are doing something different and trying to find a better solution than traditional carbon fiber. My main issues with carbon fiber's use are durability, recyclability, and cost. Using peek would help with durability but I question how recyclable it is. Since it has an operating temp that is so high and it is not very widely used, I can't imagine there are many facilities that will process it nor is there much opportunity to reclaim old material. If the recyclability claim is legit then cost could come down as well. I feel the look could go one of two ways depending on which color they use but the black plastic along with the steel fibers could look pretty sweet!
  • 1 0
 I can't help but think as more efficiencies are found in carbon production there will be less of a need to rely on human labour, which will see carbon production brought into the countries that are buying it. Not that carbon excites me, but if I bought some I'd rather pay someone local.
  • 2 0
 Would be surprised that hemp was not used to build frames, if not for its stoner cousin, or players in paper industry?
But I would like to try, If I could grow my own materials
  • 2 0
 Well Hope this works better than when GT did thermal plastic/carbon fibre bikes in mid 90s as it put them out of business!
  • 1 0
 Doesn't Unno also use thermoplastic resin? They're still in business. You just need to charge a little bit more for a frame.
  • 3 0
 @vinay: Just asked Unno & it is epoxy resin, which is not thermoplastic, so no
Plus GT was selling thermoplastic bikes for a few years before became a serious problem!
  • 2 0
 @aljoburr: Ok, thanks. I thought Unno used something more environmental friendly. But it was a conversation I had here in the comment section with them quite a while ago, so I may have mixed things up. Thermoplastics are less stiff and strong, but usually they have better impact resistance than thermoset. So it is also a matter of using the materials the right way.
  • 3 0
 Modern thermoplastics have the potential to make old-school epoxied carbon frames extinct. There have been some huge advancements in resins over the last few years.
  • 3 0
 Oy. QC will need to measure beer content in the resin.
  • 3 0
 It smell of $10K hardtail bikes and bankruptcy in the room!
  • 1 0
 Once they figure out everyone in aerospace and automotive already has tape laying and automatic fibre placement bots and it aint that lucrative ...this is the most likely outcome
  • 1 0
 My 10+ years old fatta i italia columbus muscle carbon fork from my now-broken cinelli cnc frame has some kind of ti-mesh weave embedded in the carbon weave AFAIK
  • 1 0
 I am not excited as Accell groups bike brands go bust or get sold after lack-luster enthusiam.
  • 1 0
 Feather... Fe = Iron on the Periodic Table.
  • 1 0
 Wonders however isf they should have made it at least look like a session
  • 1 2
 I am sick and tired of reading someone idiots post about "freedom" and "evil governments" as soon as a brand makes changes to their supply chain.
  • 1 0
 Saw a comment somewhere else - is Galvanic Corrosion a concern here?
  • 1 0
 This sounds promising.
  • 2 5
 Cool! I just hope these frames are not as heavy (in their class) as the GG frames. Otherwise there is no point in using carbon and they could just stick to alu.
  • 7 0
 In their defense, the GG frames weigh about the same as any other mid/long travel frame and less than a lot of other carbon frames.
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