Bridging The
Performance Gap
Selective Carbon Reinforcement is a process HTech Bikes has developed to change the way wooden bikes are perceived and ridden. Traditionally wooden bike frames are made almost entirely of wood, apart from the dropouts, bottom bracket and headset cups, or are also reinforced with aluminium tube, down the seat tube and head tube, providing extra strength.
At HTech Bikes we aren't content with just copying an already used building method that all our competitors use. Everything is a challenge for us - how can we make it better, faster, stronger, stiffer and lighter. When HTech started we brought the HTech ONEFRAME to the market creating the first true monocoque bike frame made from wood. By removing unwanted excess wood from joints and adjusting the wall thickness, we created the desired ride qualities while reducing weight. The HTech ONEFRAME also makes internal cable routing easy with no internal bracing or solid bottom bracket to work around.
Inserting aluminium into a wooden bike frame is a good idea and works well. Our early prototypes used aluminium reinforcing and even our older HTech frames. Any metal has a major disadvantage though, adhesives do not bond well to metal as it is a non-porous material. Some industrial epoxies are designed for metal bonding; however, these must be cured at high temperatures where wood will self-combust or lower temperatures where the wood will become extremely dry and brittle not something to ridden on.
The answer is carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is made of carbon strands held together in position with epoxy. With SCR HTech Bikes insert a carbon fibre tube down the length of the seat tube, bonded to our PF86 carbon fibre bottom bracket. The machined carbon headset cups we use are bonded to another carbon fibre tube running the length of the head tube and then to the wooden frame.
SCR or Selective Carbon Reinforcement really gets its name from the UD carbon fabric added to the inside of all remaining frame tubes. The UD carbon fibre in layered across the wood's grain, stopping the timber from splitting along its length and increasing the torsional stiffness of the tube it is bonded to. Carbon fabric is also layered in the appropriate amount across joints and any hole in the frame, such as bottle mounts and internal cable mounts. Every little piece of carbon fibre is careful considered as to its position, orientation and thickness so as to provide the perfect balance of desired characteristics throughout the overall bike. Working SCR Technology and HTech ONEFRAME together we can replace large amounts of wood with carbon fibre to aid the strength & stiffness of the frame and reduce weight, all without compromising the smooth ride of a wooden bike.
All of this creates a blend of carbon fibre and wood to create the perfect frame, stiff and well handing with comfort and performance. Only a HTech Bike can combine all these unique qualities.