Museeuw Bikes MF-1 Frameset 2010

Flax is a plant,  a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae and history shows that Flax was extensively cultivated in Ancient Egypt.

From flax, two distinct types of raw materials are found; flax fibre, used in the production of textiles and flax oil, used in the production of linseed.

Over the last decade, the bicycle industry has seen a rapid increase of composite materials: frames, handlebars, seatposts and so on; every single component could and has been made in this exotic black material. The industry has become saturated with the terms “extremely lightweight” and “extreme stiffness” but the full potential of composite materials is yet to be discovered.

Museeuw Bikes is the first bicycle company in the world to build their bicycle frames with a hybrid weave, consisting of carbon fibres interwoven with natural flax fibres.

When looking at the current offer of bicycle frames, almost everything in the top range is produced using carbon-fibre reinforced composites. From an engineering standpoint these are the most obvious solution when designing for low weight and high strength and stiffness. High strength and stiffness however have some very important drawbacks:

Difficult bicycle handling: an exceptionally stiff frame will have a natural tendency to follow a straight line. Take a look at time trial bikes and how difficult it is for some riders to take sharp corners.

No shock absorption: stiff fibres will transmit all the impact energy throughout the structure. The rider will have to dampen these shocks with his/her body.

In order to compensate for these drawbacks designers have to work around the exceptional properties of the material to give the bicycle some “vertical compliance” for comfort or flexure of the frame for better handling and cornering. Basically, designers are already making their structure less stiff with an extremely stiff material.

There is a clear distinction between metals and composites both in weight and stiffness (expressed through Young’s Modulus or E-modulus). These properties, however, are not taking the application into consideration. When using the material in actual structures designed for optimal weight and stiffness different parameters come into play; material efficiencies!

These parameters are obtained by analyzing the deformation of structures and show the potential difference when constructing a tube or shell/monocoque with the same structural properties. If you then look at the difference between metals and composites, there is no misunderstanding of the engineering benefits of composites.

But if these figures show that a carbon fiber bicycle only has to weigh 50% of an aluminum frame, why are these not yet made? The reason for this is the behavior of the riders: frames have to withstand many other loads than only the theoretical bicycling loads (eg. side impact).

Imagine a carbon fiber frame with the same weight as an aluminum frame and from these numbers it can be seen that the increase of theoretical stiffness is spectacular, but probably not enjoyable for the rider.

Museeuw Bikes is therefore working with a different blend of materials to come up with the optimal compromise these features: mixing natural fibers with stiff carbon fibers to get the optimal power transfer without compromising for comfort.