world's first carbon fiber monocoque mountain bike

 📢It's Story-Time!📢

Meet the creator of the world's first carbon fiber monocoque mountain bike: Chris Hornzee-Jones!

In the early 90s, Chris moved from the UK to California to work in aerospace composites, in his baggage there was a love of cycling, including a fascination with human-powered vehicles. The lot came together in a sketch that morphed into a prototype that evolved into an extraordinary, original off-roader that was eventually sold back to the UK under the Lotus brand.

The frame of this bike is a true monocoque, made in one piece. Attempts by others in the early days had all been of two pieces (or more) joined together. Its shape may or may not have been inspired by Chris’s interest in dolphins, which he’d studied in the Bahamas. Internal cable routing keeps the lines clean.

The chainstays came in for special carbon attention too, because of that Softail element: the sides use high-grade aerospace material called Intermediate Modulus Carbon, and along the top and bottom fiberglass is used with a Kevlar surface for impact protection.

In Chris' own words: “This mountain bike was built like the proverbial brick shithouse and is very, very robust.”

He still finds time to ride his very own model regularly, when he’s finished working for clients around the world who enlist the world-class expertise of his Brighton-based wind turbine design company, Aerotrope.

A true composite legend!

Source: Article "Mountain bike history: world’s first carbon monocoque mountain bike" written by Jamie Darlow.

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