Technology Overview
With technology, there are certain rules you have to follow. At NeilPryde, we enjoy breaking those rules every once in a while. For decades, we've pioneered the technology, promoted the talent, and pushed the boundaries with an indomitable spirit of progress. Today, we bring that same spirit to the world of road cycling.
We're the new kids on your block, but we've been developing cutting edge technology and materials for 40 years to design and make things go faster. That's what it's taken to become an official Olympic supplier. And we mastered the art of using carbon fibre in our windsurf masts and booms years before most bike companies even considered using it to make frames. We are pioneers and that's what gives us the edge over our competitors.
But we also rely on many "traditional" tools and skills.
Many of our rivals use the same technology we pioneered yesterday, today, and this drives us on to be even better tomorrow.
We're the new kids on your block, but we've been developing cutting edge technology and materials for 40 years to design and make things go faster. That's what it's taken to become an official Olympic supplier. And we mastered the art of using carbon fibre in our windsurf masts and booms years before most bike companies even considered using it to make frames. We are pioneers and that's what gives us the edge over our competitors.
But we also rely on many "traditional" tools and skills.
Many of our rivals use the same technology we pioneered yesterday, today, and this drives us on to be even better tomorrow.
| Extended Kamm: Progressive truncated profile in the down tube and specific proportions of the lower seat tube create an extended Kammtail. The result: an aerodynamic bottom bracket with high-stiffness that enables efficient power transfer from rider to road | |
| OTP Aerodynamics: Optimised tube profiles create an aerodynamic road bike that allows rider and machine to cut through | |
| Stiffness: Tube profiles refined for maximum stiffness | |
| OTP Lightweight: High stiffness? Check. Lightweight? Check. The tube profiles are designed to achieve the optimised balance between both characteristics. The result: the ultimate racing an climbing bike | |
| C6.7: 20 years experience utilising carbon fibre in high performance products. NeilPryde C6.7 high-modulus unidirectional carbon fibre developed exclusively for our cutting edge racing bikes | |
| Exoskeleton: Tubes, joints and transitions incorporate continuous carbon fibres in strategic locations for optimum power transfer and riding performance | |
| QFIT: A seat post widget that allows the rider to set their saddle height easily |
The QFIT/Aero Seat Clamp System
All NeilPryde bikes come fitted with QFIT and integrated seat clamp. In normal use, the QFIT indicator sits right on top of the jacketed seat clamp. Both systems are a proprietary patent protected design by NeilPryde.
QFIT
The QFIT system is a tight-fitting grey rubber seal, which marks the rider's saddle height whenever he needs to remove the seat post from the frame, for example when shipping.
Main Benefits:
- The rider always has a point of reference to work with for saddle height, this means no more inaccurate measuring.
- The QFIT also prevents water, grit and dirt from getting inside the seat tube.
Please refer to the owner’s manual how to set up the QFIT system.
Aero Seat Clamp
The aero cover for the seat clamp is a simple to use design, that helps to reduce the drag by creating an aerodynamically clean shape around the seat clamp. Combined with the QFIT, it creates an intelligently designed solution for an area of the bike often overlooked.
QFIT
The QFIT system is a tight-fitting grey rubber seal, which marks the rider's saddle height whenever he needs to remove the seat post from the frame, for example when shipping.
Main Benefits:
- The rider always has a point of reference to work with for saddle height, this means no more inaccurate measuring.
- The QFIT also prevents water, grit and dirt from getting inside the seat tube.
Please refer to the owner’s manual how to set up the QFIT system.
Aero Seat Clamp
The aero cover for the seat clamp is a simple to use design, that helps to reduce the drag by creating an aerodynamically clean shape around the seat clamp. Combined with the QFIT, it creates an intelligently designed solution for an area of the bike often overlooked.
Computational Fluid Dynamics
You can't refine the design of an aerodynamic road bike without conducting extensive wind tunnel testing, and you shouldn't venture into a wind tunnel before understanding the aerodynamic performance of each tube, joint and transition. This is only possible through utilising
Traditional airfoil shape of head tube maintains laminar airflow
Traditional airfoil shape of head tube maintains laminar airflow
Computational Fluid Dynamics to understand the intricate nature of air flowing around the complex structures of a road bike. It isn't just about making a bike look skinny from the front; decreasing the frontal area of the frame. If only aerodynamics were that simple.
Extended Kammtail effect in lower section of down tube and seat tube
Extended Kammtail effect in lower section of down tube and seat tube
Finite Element Analysis
When we first began to dream about developing cutting-edge, high-performance road bikes we started as we do with most of our projects, with a blank piece of paper. However, while the paper may have been blank, the knowledge base from which the designs came from was extensive. We've cut and stitched, molded and formed, machined and extruded, a variety of materials over the last 40 years to make a wide range of products that enable athletes to push the boundaries.
When you're developing high-performance products you need to understand the properties of the materials you're working with and the forces involved. In the early stages of development we used Finite Element Analysis extensively to investigate the structural performance of the bike frames and their response to dynamic loadings. This method considers the components of the frame as a mesh and mathematically determines the displacement of the nodes of the mesh under applied loadings so that the performance of the frames can be optimised for their design function.
Finite Element Analysis - Side view
When you're developing high-performance products you need to understand the properties of the materials you're working with and the forces involved. In the early stages of development we used Finite Element Analysis extensively to investigate the structural performance of the bike frames and their response to dynamic loadings. This method considers the components of the frame as a mesh and mathematically determines the displacement of the nodes of the mesh under applied loadings so that the performance of the frames can be optimised for their design function.
Finite Element Analysis - Side view