Fascinated by the incredible strength of spider webs and the beauty of such a thin structure, we created a bicycle. No 3D- printing, no welding or bonding. The forces should be transmitted over long carbon strands.

The engineer Dr. Ralph Funck with his company CirComp can do such things. We met at the plastic network Rheinland- Pfalz in Germany and the idea of the collaboration was born. From the start of the project we did not have the intension to make compromises. No commercial interests yet the creative freedom with a lot of challenges on the manufacturing side. Pushing the envelope. What a luxury in our business.

We refused standard connection parts and a diamond frame structure typically used in the bicycle industry. The aim was to show the opportunities of the wet filament winding process. A fabrication technique mainly used to create open cylindrical shapes. Filaments are winding under tension over a rotating mandrel. In our case the core was a complex freeform, fare from a cylindrical shape. Then we reduced the amount of material being necessary to the minimum. At this stage the frame is a mere from just 5 carbon fibers, who do the job. The core is made of 2400 single surfaces. All different. The seat itself is a web of fibers, which can be upholstered with fabric "overcoats" or simply by adding a plate of carbon fibre. The height of the bike is tailored to the rider. Here you can see our first prototype and more is to come.

paul martin