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It is not completely uncommon to see bikes made out of wooden – and we’ve had a look at this TWMPA bike before – however they’re not often constructed within the UK and from British wooden. As Black Friday and Cyber Monda gross sales are rampant, it is maybe time to sit down again with a mug of cocoa and delve into this wood-constructed bike that may remind us of the softer, extra sustainable facet of the trade.
The TWMPA GR 1.1 right here belongs to Rory Hitchens, a model marketing consultant at Greenleaves Cycling. It incorporates a body product of engineered wooden, particularly ash, and has fairly a novel look due to that. Chatting to Hitchens about his bike, he highlights how one of the first causes to go for wooden as a body materials is the mobile construction of wooden, which implies it provides pure damping properties.
Not like body supplies like carbon fibre, wooden’s mobile make-up permits it to soak up shocks and vibrations, making it particularly good on gravel. And naturally, using wooden additionally provides an environmentally-friendly dimension, given its renewable and sustainable nature.
Though Hitchens’ purpose was to make this bike as carbon-free as doable, the body itself does incorporate somewhat little bit of carbon into it on the chainstays, the place some additional stiffness was wanted. That’s the place the carbon stops although, as a result of the remainder of the ending package is all alloy and metal (until you depend the luxurious carbon rear rack, courtesy of biking baggage specialists Tailfin).
The body itself is hole and weighs round 1.7kg to 2.0kg, relying on dimension, and full builds tip the scales at round 9.5kg. The structural security of a wood-engineered bike body is probably one of the vital frequent considerations, however TWMPA has examined the frames to the BS EN ISO 4210-2:2015 commonplace. If this implies nothing to you, it basically measures the construction for affect and fatigue, simulating 10 years of use.
“Initially you see the body, you assume that is stunning!”, says Hitchens.
“However inside is the place the correct stuff is happening. You may see a few of that engineering experience by way of a number of the laminates and likewise on the joints that are very intelligent. They’re basically a jigsaw piece joint.”
These jigsaw joints do not solely puzzle you visually, however they add loads of structural energy to the construct. It is because the bonding wooden glue could be utilized to a bigger space, and the best way the 2 items slot collectively already varieties a bond in itself.
Hitchens received his arms on this bike after the maker of it, Andy Dix, satisfied him of its capabilities, and constructed an XL body that might go well with its rider.
The body can accommodate as much as 50mm tyres, and could be custom-built to the rider’s measurements or made in commonplace sizes that Dix has listed on the TWMPA website.
Going for the custom-build possibility, Hitchens has geared up the bike with a RockShox Rudy suspension fork with 30mm of journey, and there’s additionally a dropper seatpost for reaching higher weight distribution on steep and rowdy descents.
The bling hubs, stem and cranks from Hope add somewhat little bit of color to distinction the ash body, and the SRAM Pressure AXS XPLR groupset takes care of the shifting duties wirelessly. The wheels are from British elements specialists Hope, and clad in Schwalbe G-One Ultrabite gravel tyres.
To substantiate if the hype is justified, we’re about to take this bike on a check spin ourselves in each gravel and street configurations. Preserve your eyes open for these items dropping right here sooner or later!
Additionally, do not forget to take a look at our different Bike at Bedtime features…
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