Bike porn

holy hell... Nice idea, terrible execution.

anti is that way >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

i don't do MTB, but this makes me want to.
it looks fucking cool, what's your problem, actually?

Yes, but it's also a poor choice. It can be made lighter for the same strength as steel, which is nice for weight weenies, but only at the cost of being less stiff. Even then, the cross section is larger, which kills the aerodynamics, an effect which is only compounded if you add spokes or make them thicker to match the stiffness of a steel spoked wheel.

Not to mention that if you want to save weight so much. You are almost certainly going to want alu nipples. Which seize very easily to Ti spokes.

Was your previous point regarding the woven fiber used on the Madfiber wheels. Directed towards the woven nature of the fibres?

My first thought was that unidirectional fibers from hub to rim would be better (a'la Lightweight). But thought maybe the woven fibers were used to better cope with the tension/de-tension cycles over time. Could just be patent avoidance I guess.

Ah! Demon Frameworks new offering ... antiqued copper plated tubing.

Could just be patent avoidance I guess.

It's clearly not a patent issue, since tensioned UD fibre has been used by plenty of people other than Lightweight, it's just rank stupidity on the part of Madfiber (clue is in the name). All the fibres at right angles to the tensile load are contributing precisely nothing to the strength of the spoke, and are probably increasing the probability that a crack in an edge will propagate across the full width of the spoke.

Sch-wing!

It's clearly not a patent issue, since tensioned UD fibre has been used by plenty of people other than Lightweight, it's just rank stupidity on the part of Madfiber (clue is in the name). All the fibres at right angles to the tensile load are contributing precisely nothing to the strength of the spoke, and are probably increasing the probability that a crack in an edge will propagate across the full width of the spoke.

Sure the perpendicular fibres won't be bridging any crack that wants to propagate, but increase the probability that the crack will propagate? magically reducing the fracture toughness by their presence? I find that unlikely.

transverse fibres would resist the propagation of longitudinal cracks, but they are not the problem. Transverse cracks are.

If some longitudinal fibres break you don't want their share of the tension transferred to their neighbours in the immediate vicinity of the break: that would be concentrating the stress in those few neighbours, and transverse fibres certainly don't act against this. The sharp edge created as the transverse fibres separate would focus the stress even if they aren't directly carrying the tension sideways.

What you do want to do is gradually redistribute tension from the broken fibres among all the rest, so that along the spoke from the break the broken fibre is still carrying a full share of the stress and can even take its share if other fibres are broken elsewhere.

I can see you could argue a case for shallow angle diagonal fibres (something like a traditional natural fibre rope), but maybe you can achieve the cross-transfer just with the resin bonding between the fibres. At the micro-structure level individual carbon fibres are formed from many shortish filaments tangled together and only gripping each other with weak intermolecular forces.

Hell yes.

Hell yes.

+1

Hell yes.

+1

Roger that!

It's clearly not a patent issue, since tensioned UD fibre has been used by plenty of people other than Lightweight, it's just rank stupidity on the part of Madfiber (clue is in the name). All the fibres at right angles to the tensile load are contributing precisely nothing to the strength of the spoke, and are probably increasing the probability that a crack in an edge will propagate across the full width of the spoke.

From what I understood the spokes are cross-directionally laminated (5 layers) which would irradicate any grain issues similar to plywood construction. The old Kevlar wheeldiscs used strands going in load direction, but I think the problem then becomes torsional stiffness which is why they used so many spokes.

As we speak!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yobananaboy/sets/72157626053782273/

Awseome

sterling effort, wanna see Obree on that thing now

Amazing, love it.

you guys have such funny taste in MTBs. No big deal

Kleins are a forum fetish. See also: GTs, Cannondale Tracks, Thomson seatposts & stems, Wound Up forks, etc.

yea but have anyone ever ridden one? they aren't exactly that great. plus all the components are crap on these posted. very few old MTB components are worth their weight in dirt

As we speak!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yobananaboy/sets/72157626053782273/

awesome. wanna see riding pictures!!

That pic is full of awesome!

I hope the white tyres don't rock the boat too much

it should say 'the worlds local bike' if its a bike top