corrado33

You realize that it'd be impossible to actually make a graphene bike right? Graphene is a single sheet of graphite. If you add any more sheets to make it stronger, it becomes graphite, which isn't nearly as strong. There is no way to "scale up" graphene. Yes, it's strong for what it is, but you can never make it stronger without making something other than graphene.

Homebrew01

Klien added boron fibers to his AL bikes in the 1980s

Phil_gretz

I'd like to see a frame material that is organic, living, able to regenerate itself and *heal* after having been damaged. Oh, and I'd like it to be both edible and tasty, as well as being a good source of quick energy and protein.

Fly2High

Boron is great... until you get a fiber in your skin. It is like a barb and can penetrate bone. Real nasty to remove.

I think the next material will be improvements in carbon called graphene. It can be much thinner for the same strength.

Here is the layout of the carbon atoms. Graphene is 200X stronger than steel where as carbon fiber is only 2-3 X if I recall.



Here are some details from wiki:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

erig007

I hear you and raise you

Carbyne

Carbyne: A new form of carbon that?s stronger than graphene | ExtremeTech

Fly2High

Well they asked what is next and since they have made in the lab graphene sheets and are working on production methods but carbyne is still only theoretical, I would postulate that carbyne would follow graphene.

AS it is, we use carbon fibers to bear the load, nothing says we cannot use graphene ribbons instead. I think it would resemble spread tow fabrics

andr0id

Whatever Boeing is using to make whatever comes after 787s.

Stucky

That's matu...err...distin.... errr....experinced! Yeah...experienced!

Stucky

^The nice thing about that stuff is that if you get stuck on the side of the road, you can delaminate your bike and whip-out some chessmen from your saddle bag, and have a game with a passing derelict; or sharpen the end of your fork and do some sketching. (Or both...your latest work: "Derelict Playing Chess" )

Seriously though.....what are bicycle frames today (or even 30 years ago) lacking which all this high-tech gimmickry will fix? The bicycle is a mature technology. Adding gimmicks and high-tech whatever, doesn't improve them; just makes 'em more expensive (As if we need that!); often more fragile; and takes away from the real refinements which could be made if builders were concentrating on the basics instead of always trying to adapt the latest and greatest technology for no other reason than because it's the latrst & greatest.

Stucky

Wicker bikes will be the next thing.

Blue Belly

Cycling companies don't want stronger, they want lighter. The sooner you have to replace a $10,000 bike that cost $300 to produce, the better. Carbon fiber is a pretty amazing material. They can reshape it every year to look "new", it's light & it allows for directing strength into certain areas of the bicycle. It makes great wheels, hubs, saddles etc etc. & a large downtube is great for advertisement. I think CF is here for a while. Ti bits might be replaced with the latest greatest materials & frankly, i think retro materials may find Vogue from time to time.

Garfield Cat

Yes, and here are some things at M.I.T.

Carbon nanotubes | MIT News

doug59

OldsCOOL

Columbus SL has a way of hanging in there....

Stucky

According to my Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, Carbon Hexachloride comes after Carbon Fiber. It smells like camphor. Vick's may be the next big bicycle company!

dnslater

I'm assuming with all of these fancy fibers, the resin is probably the limiting factor?

fietsbob

Wallet size is the limiting factor. buyer's abundant Buck$..

HornedFrog

yeah, likely this.

to have a weld-less steel, ti, al frame with all the control over cross section changes would really push the envelope.

Fly2High

Resin doesn't carry load. It only holds fibers together. If it was temp, they have resins for various temp ranges too.

I doubt for bike related hardware, resin would be a limiting factor.

dnslater

I think that is oversimplifying, given that without the laminating resin, the carbon threads/fabric is ........... fabric, not effective in compression or lateral stiffness. Great in tension maybe - but it is just a limp fabric without the resin. I think the importance of the resin is often undervalued in these conversations. Assume more advanced resins will make the overall composite more fatigue resistant, UV resistant, heat resistant shrink resistant, etc...

Certainly a case of 1 + 1 being more than 2. As an architect I see the resin's role as sort of "continually bracing" the carbon fibers.

Doctor Morbius

Would they be sold at an all night wicker store?

Some places sell bikes made of bamboo. I'm guessing to cash in on the whole "green" market segment. I personally wouldn't want one, even if it is a sustainable resource. Either that or when Gilligan was rescued off that island he and the professor became entrepreneurs.

Erba Cycles - Bamboo Bicycles | Bamboo Bicycles Handmade in Boston

IcySmooth52

I bet an epoxy without fibers will be next because it would be soooo easy to produce. (Not that it would be better)

imi

Aluminium!! Good grief, I don't trust that new fangled stuff! +

Fly2High

I do not feel this is the proper forum for an elevated engineering discussion of composites. I wil leave it to an mechanical engineer who is willing to indulge in education to reply.

dnslater

Probably a good call. Definitely talking (speculating) above my pay grade. Fun to think about though. When I was in college 20 years ago my professors speculated that the next big think in building design would be plastic/composite beams. Not there yet though.