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FRM weaves Dyneema frame, spokes & rims into an ultralight full suspension mountain bike

Written by Tyler Benedict
FRM Dyneema carbon fiber lightweight full suspension mountain bike
28 Comments
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FRM is known for their lightweight parts, and now they’ve got a $4,900 frame made with Dyneema and carbon, and only a light clear coat. The result is this striking full suspension bike, complete with Dyneema-enhanced cockpit parts and other tricks to deliver a bike that’s under 10kg (22lb) complete. Claimed frame weight is just 2kg (4.4lb) with shock.

FRM dyneema carbon fiber mountain bike is one of the lightest full suspension mountain bike frames

Why Dyneema? It’s strong, but it also removes vibrations.

And they’ve used it everywhere on this bike, from cockpit to rims to spokes:

Wheels are 1,300g with a 30mm internal width rim. The Dyneema spokes are flexible and ultralight, but don’t stretch, so they work to prevent flex while still allowing the wheel to absorb impacts.

FRM XC dropper seatpost is the lightest dropper seatpost in the world

Another big weight saver is their 60mm travel dropper post, which comes in just under 300g. It puts the moving parts on the outside of the main tube, giving it a larger overall diameter to resist flex and create a stronger part…that’s also really light. Retail is €619.

FRMbike.biz
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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28 Comments
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Luiggi
Luiggi
5 years ago

Wonderful material innovation. However, they need to update their molds. Most of the folks I know who have purchased a FRM full susser have ended up getting rid of them within a year, because the geometry is pretty outdated for today’s standards. The most common commentary about them is how uncomfortable they are.

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Lycée la martinière montplaisir
Lycée la martinière montplaisir
5 years ago
Reply to  Luiggi

Yes those frame head tube are way too steep. I can’t believe the Spark is so old and still one of the only XC Bike with good angles.

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pinko
pinko
5 years ago
Reply to  Lycée la martinière montplaisir

You know many people with a FRM… ? and they said the geometry is outdated and the bike not comfortble… ? sure… wonder where you live? these things are super rare in italy and you are defiitley not italian, so the changes are you never actually seen one. These are racing bikes, not general consumer, the angle is normal for a racing bike.

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TimE
TimE
5 years ago
Reply to  Lycée la martinière montplaisir

Lol the headangle is 69.5 degrees and that’s considered out dated for an xc race bike lol . Ride more comment less

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pinko
pinko
5 years ago
Reply to  TimE

I am sure you are somebody that rides a lot and understands geometry. And does not get brainwashed by marketing stuff to make your current bike feel outdated and push you to get a new one.

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bill
bill
2 years ago
Reply to  TimE

by only a half degree to one full degree. I bet you couid’t tell the difference racing one. Especially on a tight and twisty true xc course and not a downhill ripping rough one

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mic
mic
5 years ago
Reply to  Luiggi

well, in reality this frame is supposed to use a 120 mm travel fork (look what official riders use on their bikes). with this set up the head tube angle opens and the frame get more stability.

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Cheese
Cheese
5 years ago

The spokes are flexible so they work to prevent flex?

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Ken Staley
Ken Staley
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheese

Cheese, spokes are flexible but they don’t stretch so they help to absorb flex. Don’t take it out of context and expect it to make sense. Each spoke is in tension tuned to all the other spokes in tension so when placed in compression it translates to the opposing spokes as tension absorbing and relieving compression, comprehend?

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Velo Kitty
Velo Kitty
5 years ago
Reply to  Ken Staley

The engineering-related comments in this thread are so bad that I want to cry: “spokes are flexible but they don’t stretch so they help to absorb flex” “The spokes are flexible, so they dampen the vibrations well”

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bill
bill
2 years ago
Reply to  Velo Kitty

I agree Vel Kitty.. Everyone is an engineer and expert bike tester these days.

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blahblah1233445
blahblah1233445
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheese

The spokes are flexible, so they dampen the vibrations well. As for wheel stiffness, the normal pull strength for the spokes is so high that under any hit possible there’s no way the force is gonna change from pulling to compressing. With proper tension, the wheel flex is all about the rim and spoke spacing.

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JBikes
JBikes
5 years ago
Reply to  blahblah1233445

The spokes aren’t flexible, any more than any other spoke is flexible.

From the specs, Dyneema is more “elastic” than steel, yet has a much, much higher ultimate strength. So you get very nice stretch of the spokes for a given tensile stress (more than steel). This keeps them from going slack. May also result in a more forgiving wheel. I don’t think one can really take advantage of the very high ultimate strength due to rim limitation. These properties also make it great for “catching” things…like bullets. They’ll stretch, but takes a lot to break them.
It seems dyneema also dampens well which is a different set of properties.

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blahblah1233445
blahblah1233445
5 years ago
Reply to  JBikes

If it’s “elastic”, then it’s flexible (obviously :P). It being tensioned is a completely different matter.

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briannystrom
briannystrom
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheese

What they don’t tell you is that Dyneena (a.k.a. “Spectra” in the US) is very heat sensitive. Get it hot, like inside a car on a hot day, and it “creeps” (stretches permanently). It’s not particularly abrasion or cut resistant, particularly when it’s under tension. It was used extensively for bowstrings back when I was competing in archery and we had to learn to deal with it’s properties, or suffer the consequences. I certainly wouldn’t want it as spokes, especially for a bike that’s going to be used off-road, where abrasion is likely.

I can see it as having some benefits as a buffer/damping material in the frame, but it’s polyethylene, which is notoriously difficult to bond to, so I wonder how well it will hold up long-term.

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Binks
Binks
5 years ago
Reply to  briannystrom

They have changed formulas now. I used to use it as leader material when flyfishing for pike and yeah the older stuff used to get that heat creep, I stopped using it for a long time. It seems the newer formulas have addressed that issue at least for fly leaders so I would just be assuming the same for other Dynema/ spectra materials as well.

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Chris S
Chris S
5 years ago

wish FRM made a gravel frame…

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Patrick
Patrick
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris S

They do now!!!

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Josh Sanderson
Josh Sanderson
5 years ago

if you look at how the spoke material is threaded through the holes of the hub it looks like a shoelace through the eyelet of a shoe. it doesn’t look like it is properly mounted on the hub nor like it would hold up to actual stresses of riding around banging on the bike. I find that people who are obsessed with ultralight are the theoretical physicists of bicycling. while they may have some cutting edge ideas this bike looks very much like a fragile study in materials science and I doubt it would hold up under normal mtb conditions much less if used in a full torque full load racing environment. it looks like a temperamental study of a bike.

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Charlie Spanjers
Charlie Spanjers
5 years ago
Reply to  Josh Sanderson

Josh, these spokes are Berd Spokes and they are properly mounted. The hub connection can withstand over 300 kg, which is stronger than most steel spokes. Wheels built with Berd Spokes typically outlast the best metal spoke counterparts in fatigue tests, and are absolutely suited for racing. See http://www.berdspokes.com for more information.

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briannystrom
briannystrom
5 years ago
Reply to  Charlie Spanjers

Of course it’s not going to fatigue, but it’s sensitive to heat and it cuts, and abrades pretty easily. It would have to be made stronger than a steel spoke in order to survive for any length of time in the real world, as it’s bound to get damaged. It’s also UV sensitive and will degrade over time when exposed to sunlight. The bottom line is that spokes are a poor application for this material.

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Cyclechick
Cyclechick
5 years ago
Reply to  briannystrom

As it goes, because spokes don’t bare load, but tension instead, it’s an outstanding application for the material. Dyneema, Cuban fibre, Spectra, whatever you call it. If you imagine that your spokes aren’t like pillars to lean on, but are there to maintain the shape through tension. It stands to reason then that a fibre as insanely strong as Dyneema, would be used in this way as not only is it hugely UV resilient (even before resin), but can bare 15X the load of steel. (Have a look at the tension strength abilities through its use in shipping industry ropes on youtube). Given it’s a lighter wheel as a result, it’s stronger, it’s more UV resilient, it’s already an incredible fibre to use.
Add to that the fact that is dampens vibration as well, and you’re able to create a wheel, which frame geometry designers can go wild with because it also reduces twitch in the handling.
(Oh and try breaking a bag for life just for fun to see how strong this stuff is!)

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Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
5 years ago

How is the spoke connected at the hub? It looks like there’s a loop at the end of the spoke and it’s fed thru the flange hole, with another separate short piece going thru the loop to prevent it from pulling out of the flange hole. Is that correct?

Nice looking frame.

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blahblahblah
blahblahblah
5 years ago
Reply to  Eggs Benedict

checkout berd spokes (which they probably are)

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Charlie Spanjers
Charlie Spanjers
5 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

Yes, they are! See http://www.berdspokes.com for more information.

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J. Anderson
J. Anderson
5 years ago

Is using tensile strength really relative? Knots are well known to drastically reduce the strength of the structure….only as strong as the weakest link. Just gonna drop this here:

http://caves.org/section/vertical/nh/50/knotrope-hold.html

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Lolo Cwb
Lolo Cwb
5 years ago

69.5 HT angle seem to be with a 120mm on the front… No geometry chart on their web site… They know that their frame mold are outdated so they don’t communicate on geometry and let thé choice between 100 ans 120 fork to hide thé réal HT angle. ( seem to ne 71 with a 100mm fork. )

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Andy DuHamel Mackinnon
Andy DuHamel Mackinnon
5 years ago

Though Dyneema is a good material in itself its not the first use of within the bicycle industry, but to future proof carbon composite is to use graphene as the “filler” in the weave currently 7% is about the max before viscosity of resin “slumps”.

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