FC500

One of the beauties of quality carbon frames is that they effectively show the areas where strength and stiffness is important in frame design. Because all carbon frames are molded it’s possible to shape them for ultimate performance. There has been a natural evolution of higher end frame to look very similar in shape. In particular, the headtube and downtube and to a lesser degree, the drive side chain stay. They do the bulk of the work in transferring power to the rear wheel.

The beauty of carbon fiber is that you can do that while at the same time giving a very compliant ride at an incredibly low weight.

The frame on the FC500 bike has all of the bells and whistles found on Pro Tour bikes. The oval square downtube, oversized tapered headset, and BB 30 are now pretty much the norm for very high end bikes. The oval square downtube is enormous compared to bikes of 5 or 6 years ago but a main reason for such excellent power transfer. The same can be said for the huge headtube area that houses the tapered headset. The tapered headset uses a larger bottom bearing (1.5”) for better handling and additional stiffness. The BB30 is both lighter and stronger than a standard bottom bracket.

The fork is a full carbon fork with carbon dropouts. The oversize crown gives it additional stiffness and better overall performance.

FEA (Finite Element Analysis) design helps optimize the design through a process of virtual and error estimation. This enables the best possible strength to weight ratio and carbon lay-up designs. The materials used are nano carbon composites that are stronger and lighter, and are more flexible with higher fatigue resistance than other carbon materials.