Future Bicyles : 5 Technologies that will change your bicycle

 

Graphene:

Regular carbon is old hat these days, sure it's brilliant for making those laterally stiff vertically compliant bikes we all froth over but the basic concept of laying up carbon with epoxy hasn't changed all that much in recent years. The one carbon atom thick wonder material Graphene appeared on the scene a few years ago promising to revolutionize everything but we're still waiting for it to take over in bikes. UK brand Daphne has already made a Graphene road bike called the Interceptor. This incorporates the material in the resin that binds the carbon together producing a stronger frame for a given weight. The process is much the same as for standard carbon bikes and its designers reckon a 500 gram aero frame is achievable. Graphene also has conductive properties which could be exploited in the creation of frames with some sort of built-in intelligence that possibilities are intriguing.

 

Cycling

 

 

Self-Cleaning Bikes

Imagine if you never had to clean your bike ever again. How amazing would that be? Various nonstick and water repellent coatings have been around for years so why couldn't we have them on our bikes. Back in 2014 Miss Anne treated a car with something called Ultra ever dry and it seemed like mud just wouldn't stick to it. The problem with such coatings is that they need regular application to work so they're not really a labor saving. A permanent nonstick finish for bikes would be a godsend for winter riding and what a difference it would make in cycle across. Washing bikes in winter is an unpleasant task and one that can actually damage your pride and joy if you do it wrong and blast water into your bearings. The bike of the future might just need a quick shake for all the mud to slide off.

 

Wireless Everything:

We’ve already got wireless gear shifting on the road and it will certainly appear on mountain bike soon. Enough but what about the rest of your bike's components like brakes droppers and suspension could all be controlled wirelessly making for cleaner more user-friendly designs. Magura has already made an electronic dropper called the Virus, although a hefty price tag and lack of user friendliness mean it's not been terribly popular. Imagine if you never had to route another cable through a frame and if swapping your dropper post between bikes were as simple as undoing a single bolt and yanking it out more. Wireless kit would mean keeping extra batteries charged but if it simplifies frame design drops weight and makes maintenance easier than we reckon the trade-off might, well be worth it convincing riders to use wireless brakes might be a little tricky.

Wireless cycle

 

 

Magnetorheological Suspension

However modern mountain bike suspension is pretty incredible, combining lightweight with truly impressive performance at the moment on-the-fly adjustments tend to be limited to climbing lock outs and the like but what if you could precisely adjust damping? As you rode “Fox” is never quite available live valve promises to offer something along these lines but what we'd really like to see is a true magnetorheological damping setup as found on certain super cars like the Audi R8. Magnetorheological systems use a damping fluid containing tiny magnetic particles whose behavior can be trolled by electromagnets by precise adjustment of a magnetic field. The viscosity of the fluid can be altered in practice this means you could radically adjust the feel of your suspension with the flick of a switch or a computer could manage its behavior for optimum performance like electronic gears such a system would need to be powered and that brings us to our final piece of tech.

 

Piezo-electronics

Piezoelectric materials generate a voltage when they are subject to mechanical stress and this phenomenon can be exploited in some interesting ways way. Back in 2008 researchers at a French University were able to demonstrate that a piezoelectric generator could be used to produce a few milli watts of power theoretically enough to power a small LED light. We’d love to see such a system employed to keep batteries topped up or to power your Garmin on a bike packing expedition as more and more electronics make their way onto our bikes the possible applications are multiplying while there's no such thing as a free lunch in engineering this is probably about as close to one as you'll ever get.