MUNDOMATERIAL

A while back I wrote a post about Bicycles and the materials they are made of. I gave some examples of bicycles made with renewable materials, like composites reinforced with flax fibres. I’ve already show you a few pics of bicycles made with bamboo that I’ve found while visiting Expoquimia. Today I’d like to show you more bamboo bikes, adding laminated bamboo and engineered wood ones. First is the Bamboosero Bikes project, lead by Craig Calfee. It helps developing communities to produce bamboo bikes, which are then sold around the world. The ease to find the raw material and to work with it to produce sustainable and reliable bicycles is clearly shown in the video below. Right now this project is set in Ghana, but the promoters would like financial support to export the idea to other countries. Renovo Hardwood Bikes (Portland, USA) builds hollow frames with engineered wood and complete bikes with laminated bamboo. Although Bamboosero bikes are a more complete project... 
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While living in England, I bought a bicycle and I used it to move around in my daily errands. To me it’s just a brilliant form of transport, although for many out there is much more than that. But what about the materials used in bicycles, do you know them? I’ve been asking around and it seems a lot is going on in the fascinating world of bicycles. So, let’s do a quick tour looking at materials used in the different parts of a bicycle, to then move to the newest trends in design. Of course, I’ll have some interesting examples of what you can do with the old but never aging bicycle. Looking for general information about bicycles I’ve found this great image in wikipedia, which saves me explaining all the different parts you can find in a modern bike. If you want to look at other great bicycle images, follow this wikimedia commons link. bicycle diagram. Source: wikipedia, author: AI2 Materials There are many available options for a bicycle designer. I asked a... 
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Have you been wondering what those swimmers have been wearing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games? Me too! If only because of all the discussions about the fairness of using technology in sports and how many of the new world records are due to the suit and not the swimmer. But what is the technology behind Speedo‘s swimwear and is it really that much of an advantage? What is clear is that with its price tag, not all kids dreaming of becoming olympic swimmers can afford it, especially those from developing countries. But then this debate should be touching almost all sports, not only swimming, because technology is used in many of them, from carbon fibre bikes to running shoes. But let’s take a closer look at our suspect, the Fastskin LZR Racer suit produced by Speedo and then you can decide by yourselves. What is it? Although it is creating a bit of upheaval right now, the LZR Racer is just the last suit in a series that started in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with the S200 swimsuits.... 
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If up to now I’ve discussed materials and companies that produce them, today I’m going to change a bit the perspective. Today I’m going to talk about skateboarding. I know is not a traditional product, but I got curious yesterday watching them jumping around about what kind of materials can withstand such treatment. It also exemplifies one of the most innovative markets in the materials world, leisure sports. If you still can’t see my point, then think about skiing, surfing, windsurfing or snowboarding. And I don’t mean only the boards themselves, there is also all the market generated by accessories like protective equipment, things like helmets, kneepads, elbow pads, etc. It’s a big market, it’s growing and a substantial part of it is added value products. It’s also a good place to test materials and judge their performance. The product I guess there aren’t that many material’s experts that know much about the fascinating world... 
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