Mad Fiber: Carbon fiber bicycle wheels from the center of the universe

Mad Fiber located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood designs and manufactures bicycle wheels - not just any wheels, but rather, extremely light wheels. Seattle has long been a vital technology leader with aerospace at its heart. Knowing this, it is no surprise to have entered into the carbon fiber wheel world. Take a Boeing aircraft designer, a wheel expect, and a business ace, and Mad Fiber Wheels became a major contender in the carbon fiber wheel industry.

While touring their facility, President Ric Hjertberg explained that this is not a re-making of the wheel. All the laws of physics that apply to the wheel are present in the carbon fiber wheel. It is just that these wheels are made with a very different material, and because of the material, the manufacturing procedures must be redesigned. As he talks, his passion and wheel dynamics expertise is evident. At Mad Fiber Wheels, emphasized Steve Dempsey who serves as Director of Sales, carbon fiber isn’t just being used as black metal applied by the old techniques of construction, carbon fiber is being employed to build wheels the way it should be — as a textile, albeit, a very unique textile.

Carbon fiber by itself, according to the website HowStuffWorks, is composed of very thin strands of carbon twisted together and woven together. Though the strands individually are thinner than human hair, again using HowStuffWorks, carbon fiber is “five times as strong as steel, twice as stiff, yet weighs about two-thirds less.” Pretty amazing stuff. Mad Fiber wheels are made entirely of carbon fiber except for the axles and end caps. Twenty-five pieces compose the rims and five layers make up each spoke. Each wheel goes through fifteen major steps and five bonding processes.

Whereas other designs wrap carbon fiber around a bladder and then apply outside pressure opposing the bladder. Mad Fiber’s wheel’s multiple parts are built by layering and then bonded together. Another difference, most manufacturers are using a conventional spoking process which requires drilling a hole in the fiber rim to insert the spoke nipple. The process weakens the rim. In Mad Fiber's design, flat carbon fiber spokes are bonded to the rim walls spreading the tension and increasing strength. They are similarly bonded to the hub flange complementing the effect and creating superior integrity. Some designs use tubular carbon spokes, but this process still poses an issue of joining with the rim.