Guapa and MSA Manufacturing launch the Urban One bike

MSA Manufacturing has announced it will be the launching the Urban One at the Composite Engineering show from stand G181. Urban One is the first model of bicycle manufactured by Guapa Cycles, a young start-up British bicycle company founded by two brothers.
Guapa Cycles was founded in 2013 in a small workshop in England with the hugely challenging goal of producing the world’s most highly engineered wooden composite bicycle. Its company philosophy is ‘Natural Evolution’, seeking a different path in product development - utilising new natural materials, modern manufacturing technologies, integrated modular design to create a product which brings about a stronger connection with nature and performs better than what currently exists. Guapa Cycles are no ordinary machines. The company says it is designing for a new era of cycling and a new breed of urban cyclists. Creating bicycles fit for the future of everyday cycling, caring more for the design, environment and end user. Using technologies from a vast array of industries and materials unseen before in the bicycle industry a prolonged and intense R&D phase was embarked upon. The design, its construction and the manufacturing techniques of the bicycle design has been challenging due to the inherent difficulties working with natural materials and the advanced composite processes fused into this construction. Guapa Cycles’ bicycle frames are comprised mainly of a bamboo and flax composite with some intricate structural parts that require precise and complex machining. The company came across MSA MFG during the Composites Engineering show in 2013 and after discussing its project and outcome goals with MSA MFG it was kind enough to give it time and resources to aid R&D development of its machined parts. The past year Guapa Cycles has been working closely with MSA MFG in the manufacturability of its 4-axis machined parts, visiting them a multitude of times and really understanding how it can both work together to get its prototype pre-production frames off the ground. Fast forward a year from the 2013 show when Guapa Cycles was investigating suppliers it has come a very long way. It now has four competent pre-production bicycles, one of which has been tested completely through ISO and EN standards testing in Germany. This tested frame survived a two-week extensive testing programme; pushing it through hundreds of thousands of repetitive loading during fatigue tests and ultimate impacts tests. It should be noted that it achieved this with one frame and no failure; usually the testing house expects to break an aluminium or carbon frame during this testing. Once again proving the strength, construction and potential of this naturally fused bicycle design. Unlike any other ride Using the natural properties of wood complemented by flax creates a very unique riding experience. In comparison to steel or aluminium frames Urban One is seemingly vibration-less yet equally as stiff, agile and responsive. Urban One is unlike any other ride before, the new materials and construction creates its own segment of frame classification within the bicycle industry. The manufacturing process allows the creation of composite frames that are produced using eight times the pressure of a conventional carbon frames, providing a very strong laminate consequently creating a high performance wood composite bicycle. Urban One boasts the first fully-integrated frame bumper protection, incorporating ABS into the frame sidewall to prevent dents whilst leaning your bicycle up against a railing. In addition a specialist finishing post process creates a strong barrier to water ingress and UV light to protect the frame. The components complement the premium materials and design; using the highest quality aluminium CNC parts, titanium head tube and bottom bracket, Brooks Cambium saddle and grips, Nuvinci continuously variable transmission coupled with Gates Belt Drive culminates in a highly desirable bicycle that will stand out in any city. Urban One will be available in two versions, a geared option using the Nuvinci N360 (equivalent to a 10-speed) and fixed single speed. The first production run is to commence in the coming months, orders will be accepted for the first 50 customers from then tooling will be made and bicycles will have an expected delivery of Spring 2015. A material whirl In order to reinforce the bamboo and maintain the strength requirements of the frame a composite material that complemented the flexural stiffness of bamboo was sourced. On an R&D trip to France the potential of flax as a composite became apparent. Flax being half the weight of glass fibre and mechanically very similar it was decided to design a laminate that could deal with the forces of urban cycling. Flax is grown predominately in the fields of France and then woven into a composite the same as glass or carbon. It has unique characteristics for which Guapa Cycles has extracted to give much added value to our bicycles. The sustainable credentials of using flax are significant; to produce 1kg of flax uses five times less energy than to make 1kg of glass fibre and up to 20 times less energy to produce 1kg of carbon. After weeks of testing different laminates, flax suppliers, wet layup, prepreg, cure times, resin types, resin ratios, moulding pressure and temperatures it was possible to determine a flax laminate that for Guapa’s desired requirements, out-performed carbon or glass fibre. Bamboo is really an interesting material that Guapa has utilised fully on its bicycle designs. Its hollow bicycle frame construction is achievable by using specially designed 3-axis pressing tool that allows constant and even pressure distribution on all sides of the frame during manufacture. Bamboo is sourced by MOSO Bamboo of Holland. The consistency of moisture content is fundamental to producing an engineered laminate that is consistent, which is vital considering the innate variation found in natural materials. Guapa says its working manufacturing process is completely new in the bicycle industry and in terms of working parameters, it believes it is pushing composite technologies that are seen in very high value bicycle construction. This is something it is very excited about for future developments in its range of cycles and other products. www.msamfg.co.uk