Bike Like an Egyptian

Tiny pyramids make for the toughest mountain bike frame yet. If a simple polygon can hold up to pharaoh's tomb for 4,500 years, it should survive some off-road riding.That's the thinking behind the 2.75 pound Arantix mountain bike frame from Delta 7 Sports. It's 10 times as strong as a steel frame of the same weight would be and has enough to survive the company's informal "run-over" test with a Ford F350 pickup.
The Arantix draws its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio from rods composed of several hundred layers of carbon fiber, wrapped tightly with Kevlar cord and woven to form a long series of little pyramids. The rods intersect to create hundreds of stress-bearing joints that add strength and isolate damage, so a crack in one part of the frame won't spread to another and wreck your ride. Because each frame requires up to 300 hours of hand-weaving, Delta 7 will make only 200 this year, selling just the frames for $7000 each starting in the spring. Spread over a few millennia, that's a bargain.


Weight: 2.75 lbs. (average)
Sizes Available: 16, 18, 20.5 in.
Price: $7000, frame only; full bike from $12000
Get It: delta7sports.com