Thursday, August 28, 2008

Bike made by the aliens? The Delta 7 Sports Arantix mountain bike...

Is this bike made by the aliens? Looks like it, but nope, by a BYU graduate from Payson, UT and it sells for $11,995. And there are only 200 of them in the world now. This bike is a hardtail that uses IsoTruss carbon fiber and kevlar spider web like, open-lattice top tube, down tube, seat tube, seatstays and chainstays. IsoTruss technology combines two ideas into one. The first is to apply a truss design to tubes similiar in shape and diameter to a traditional aluminum-tubed mountain bike frame. This feat is tough to pull off with steel, aluminum, or titanium, so the second trick is to use the right material. Using a composite of carbon fiber and Kevlar allowed the Delta 7 Sports engineers to pull off the truss architecture of the tubes.
They claim they can better tune the frame using the IsoTruss tubes by positioning more fibers on the side of the tube for improved lateral stiffness and then back it off on the top and bottom of the tube so the bike doesn't beat up the rider.
Is it flexy? Hell no, lateral flex is not an issue. While it is hard to quantify this from the saddle, the Arantix may be the most responsive hardtail they've ever dropped the hammer on. The IsoTruss guys should pitch their design to NASA, because this bike takes off like a space shuttle. Pushing massive gears didn't faze the rear triangle or bottom bracket area, and spinning insanely little gears didn't result in any detected frame "bounce" or flex.

This is mom and Becky...