The world’s first road bike frame constructed from carbon fibre and Kevlar crafted into the patented IsoTruss open lattice tube design has just been launched by Delta 7 Sports.
The Ascend frame weighs a reported 1.8 pounds and is, according to Delta 7, the strongest road bike in its weight class.
So, what is IsoTruss and how is it made? Well, single carbon fibre strands are mechanically weaved around metal rods to create the open lattice structure, which is then wrapped in Kevlar and baked at 225°F for four hours. To finish, the ends are machined and joined with moulded carbon fibre lugs.
In response to uncertainties raised about the frame’s wind resistance capacity, the company took it to the wind tunnel: "What we verified was that in a head-on direction, the Ascend frame has slightly less drag than a typical cylindrical-tube road frame with tubes slightly smaller around than the IsoTruss-based Ascend tube structures,” said Tyler Evans, Delta 7 Sports general manager.
“Specifically, the Ascend frame generated 597 grams of drag at 30 miles per hour while the slightly smaller cylindrical-tube road frame generated 620gms of drag at 30mph. In other words, we won; not by much, but we won nonetheless."
Full builds using the Ascend frame start at $10,995US and the frame-only price is $5,995US.
For more information on IsoTruss technology, head to the IsoTruss site.
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