Forge+Bond on Envisioning, Designing, Testing, & Refining a Carbon Fiber Wheel Design

Designing, prototyping, testing, and refining a carbon fiber wheel is deceptively complicated. Things like weight, stiffness, vertical compliance, and durability are the standard buzzwords for talking about a new wheelset, but how do you strike the right balance between all of them, and how do you go about validating a new design? And what how does athlete feedback factor in, especially considering that the needs of top-level pros aren’t exactly the same as those of mere mortals?

We sat down with Kell Kirby and Travis Tomczak of Forge+Bond, as well as F+B athlete Jill Kintner to talk about all of that, and along the way, we get into the differences between thermoset and thermoplastic carbon fiber, why Forge+Bond uses the latter when the vast majority of carbon wheels (and other carbon fiber bike parts in general) take the thermoset path, and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• The founding of Forge+Bond (2:29)
• Travis’ role (3:44)
• Kell’s intro & roll at Forge+Bond (6:10)
• How Jill got involved (7:48)
• The vision for Forge+Bond (9:35) 
• Why thermoplastic carbon fiber and what is thermoplastic carbon fiber? (15:58)
• Why aren’t thermoplastics used more widely in the bike industry? (18:05)
• Where do you start designing a wheel? (20:57)
• Jill’s feedback and the role of athlete testing (30:39)
• Forge+Bond’s design philosophy (35:43)
• How to iterate on a design (39:45)
• Learning from prototyping (42:15)
• The current Forge+Bond product line & the recyclability of carbon fiber parts (46:33)

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• BLISTER+ Membership
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• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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• Off The Couch
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• CRAFTED
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