Do It Yourself

it won’t last and is unlikely to be the right choice for anyone other than a very beginner. Bikers looking for durability need to check out Trek mountain bikes.

Full suspension bikes, hardtails, road bikes and women’s bikes are all offered as part of trek mountain bikes’ range. Almost all of their frames are available as carbon fibre or aluminium models. As experienced bikers will know, many prefer carbon fibre frames because they are lightweight. For too many bikes though, with lightweight comes a lack of durability: not a problem with Trek mountain bikes.

The durability that is so apparent in Trek mountain bikes is owed to the technique used in the production of their carbon fibre frames. Optimum Compaction Low Void, or OCLV, is a process of production which was invented by Trek mountain bikes. Trek mountain bikes can boast of being the only manufacturer to use this method.

The technique means heat and pressure are applied to multidirectional layers of carbon fibre to densely compress them. The process may sound complex but it is in reality just a variation on the typical process of heat treating carbon fibre and resin. Trek mountain bikes say that this technique achieves ‘an optimum ratio of fibre to resin’ giving plenty of strength but minimising weight. In other words, this technique gives the best weight to durability ratio possible.

The low void part of the name refers to the elimination of voids. Voids are the very small, sometimes even microscopic gaps found between layers of carbon fibre. With these gaps being the typical source of fatigue failures, there are durability benefits to eliminating the gaps.