Composite Bicycle Design

The bicycle industry is a high visibility and (perceived) high-tech industry which has a relatively high volume of composite manufacturing and is often used as a showcase of composite design and performance capabilities. This presentation will dive into the details of composite bicycle design. This is a follow-on presentation to the Jan 2025 CKN presentation “The Current State of Composite Materials in the Bicycle Industry”, – CKN Presentation https://compositeskn.org/KPC/A377

This presentation will start with a quick review of composite bicycle materials and manufacturing, as presented previously. The main part of the presentation will dive into the details of general bicycle design – starting with categories of bicycles, safety standards and geometry. From this starting point we will discuss bicycle tube shapes and alternative design concepts. This will be used to investigate design tradeoffs of aerodynamics, stiffness, weight and comfort. After discussing tube shapes we will proceed to layup design details, including general rules, simulation and layup effect on manufacturability. Finally we will summarize with some predictions and potential directions that the industry may take in the coming years.

Presenter: Richard Matthews, MacFarlane Matthews Innovations Inc.

Date: November 4, 2026, 9:00 am Vancouver Time** | 11:00 am EST

** Please note that British Columbia has moved to permanent Pacific Time (PCT) and will not be “falling back” this November. 

A recording of this webinar will be available at https://compositeskn.org/KPC/A420 after the event.