Custom Composites trike it out, lightweighting the Windcheetah tricycle

Custom Composites, a custom materials maker based in Rochdale, has improved chassis strength in Advanced Velo Design’s tricycles, reducing total chassis weight from 12.5kg - already considered ‘light' for trikes in its class - to 10kg.

Advanced Velo Design makes ‘Windcheetah’ tricycles, originally engineered for racing but now providing accessible cycling on the consumer market.

Karl Sparenberg, Managing Director of Advanced Velo Design, said: “The original Windcheetah was designed as a training aid for athletes looking to push the speed record higher for human powered machines. It was soon realised the immense fun that could be had, and so the Windcheetah went into production for anyone to enjoy.”

Windcheetah was the world’s first commercially manufactured tricycle, starting the revolution for recumbent style trikes in the early 1980’s. With its roots firmly in the performance end of the market, only sympathetic changes have been made as materials and manufacturing techniques have become available.

Sparenburg explained: "We were approached by a lady who suffers from Parkinson's disease - she wanted to liberate herself from riding the heavy machine she was using. It had an electric motor to assist her on the hills or if she got tired during her ride, but if the batteries ran flat, she was left stranded.

"The idea was to build a light enough machine to dispense with the additional weight of batteries and motors, then she would be freed and have the ability to get home under her own power."

Removing weight was a priority. Previous trikes had been made from aluminium and titanium. Custom Composites could step in, providing carbon-fibre tubes and tuning them to be strong, lightweight and compliant with all safety standards.

The Windcheetah was designed to remain a comfortable ride, especially crucial when many users will travel more than 200 miles in a single, long-distance event.

Sparenburg added: "Working with Custom Composites gave us the confidence to innovate. We can now invest in new tooling and techniques for further refinements in the years to come. We can now try new ways of wrapping tubes, and alter the orientation of fibres or try new materials as they become available. We are now investing in the future of our business and that allows us to keep one step ahead of our competitors.”