Composites Manufacturing is a bimonthly publication of the American Composites Manufacturers Association. They recently featured our carbon fiber base plate used in the RideOut Technologies comfortable bike seat line.
Bike seat comfort has been an issue since bikes were invented, just about 100 years. Traditionally, leather has been used as both the seat itself and the cover. Leather however gets wet, can stretch has no softness or padding and is rather easily torn. When developing the first seat, I wanted several things: First was a seat that would respond to the rider’s movements by flexing under the rider’s body movement. Hence the infused Carbon fiber base plate. Second an all-weather cover is critical to rider comfort. If your seat is soggy, you will not have a comfortable ride. I choose the highest quality weather proof vinyl I could find. Lastly, I wanted a seat that could withstand the rigors and consequences of daily riding. This means that when we lean a bike against a brick building or cram it into a narrow bike stand the side of the bike seat would not get scratched. For that reason I developed side panels of Kevlar. This reviews highlights the manufacturing but the net result is a seat that will last for years and years.
Read the article on Composite Manufacturing Magazine online here!