We’ve seen plenty of bike frames made out of wood over the past few years, but few have taken advantage of the material’s workability to add more customization into the frame building process. My Esel takes that issue head on. While their plywood-based bikes built in Austria will surely appeal to some cyclists’ sensibilities, it is really their customization process that make the bikes unique. For each bike that they produce, My Esel uses a configuration tool that lets buyers enter their exact body measurements and desired riding position, to scale the frame fit specifically to them, before it is produced through a CNC manufacturing process tailored to each buyer….
The way My Esel puts it “the bike should adapt to its rider – not the other way round”. The key to that customization has been developing a parametric design software that lets My Esel plug in all of the key measurements of a rider’s body and translate that into a scalable frame layout part of which is then produced on a CNC mill. You have longer than normal lower legs? The software can accommodate a taller seat height without impacting reach.
The software also adjust to three primary riding styles Sport/Racing, Urban/Trekking, or Comfort/Holland (a lot of buyers are looking for upright fit commuters) so you not only get a bike the right size for you put with a position adjusted to your intended style of riding.
