How Carbon Fiber Rims Work, and What Makes FusionFiber Different

Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast

Travis Tomczak is the Global Marketing Director at Forge + Bond. The company manufactures bike wheels and accessories using a lightweight material known as FusionFiber.

• How does carbon fiber rim manufacturing generally work?
• What are some of the challenges associated with carbon fiber manufacturing?
• Are there limitations in terms of how the material can be used, or how it performs?
• How is FusionFiber different from carbon fiber in terms of the materials used and the manufacturing process?
• How are sheets of FusionFiber manufactured?
• How is a sheet of FusionFiber shaped into a product at Forge+Bond, for example a rim?
• Are there any performance advantages of FusionFiber over traditional carbon fiber?
• Is it more expensive to manufacture rims from FusionFiber than carbon fiber?
• Is FusionFiber infinitely recyclable, or does the material degrade each time it's recycled? Can the scraps or recycled rims, for example, be used to create new rims?
• Where can consumers recycle their FusionFiber rims?
• With so many different polymer choices and layups available, could a particular blend of FusionFiber make sense for handlebars or even bike frames?
• What is Forge+Bond's connection to CSS Composites, the company that produces FusionFiber rims for brands like Evil and Revel?
• With such a new material and technology, what sort of product testing has Forge+Bond done? How do you handle product warranty claims?
• What's next for Forge+Bond?

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