Silicon Valley-based company is using its expertise in composites manufacturing and 3D printing to produce the “world’s first” 3D-printed unibody electric bike. (It’s not really the first, but more on that in a bit.)
For all ebikes can do to make transportation easier and more pleasant, there’s one complaint that continues to haunt them: weight. Slowly but surely though, we’re beginning to see more ebikes approach the weights of traditional bikes using clever designs and lighter components.
An upcoming bike called the Superstrata, launching for pre-order on Indiegogo today in both regular and electrified versions, claims to push the boundaries of lightweight ebikes even further by using a 3D-printed, unibody carbon fiber manufacturing process.
Coming in at around 24.2 pounds for the electric model, dubbed the Superstrata Ion, the bike is not only lighter than practically every other ebike out there, but it also claims to be far more durable than existing carbon fiber, steel, and aluminum models. And I say ‘around’ 24.2 lb because the Superstrata has another trick up its sleeve: the 3D-printing process means each model is custom-fitted to the individual rider, allowing up to 500,000 variations of the unibody frame.
