Foldable Bikes Party: Reimagining bikes made from trees, HTech Bikes blends wood and carbon

Wednesday, 2 November 2016

Reimagining bikes made from trees, HTech Bikes blends wood and carbon

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Bikes made from wood are nothing new, and there’s no shortage of craftsmen out there making bikes with trees.

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However, a small outfit out from Western Australia is combining wood and carbon fiber to create boutique performance-oriented frames — yes, you read that right, wooden race bikes.

Hayden Francis, HTech's frame builder told BikeRadar: “Wood is a naturally stiff and strong material, one of the strongest found in nature. Today, with modern woodworking machines and extremely strong and durable adhesives, wooden bike frames can be made as strong and stiff as carbon frames with more comfort than a steel frame.”

Problem solving

The trouble with wood, however, is under forces on a specific axis, it splits up the grain, a problem many wood bike makers haven’t efficiently been able to solve. However, it seems Hayden has solved the problem and the answer was staring him in the face the whole time.

Hayden's dad Jason also works for the company and says that “It seemed logical, you’ve got a carbon frame so why can't you blend carbon into a wood frame." He tells us that "We’ve experienced them [the frames] splitting up the grain of the wood, but we use unidirectional carbon across the grain to provide additional strength. So you still get the grain running long ways and the carbon is used to combat torsional flex, which is what causes the wood to split.”