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Vélos Uses 100% Recycled Carbon Fiber to Craft All-New Holocene Aero Road Bike

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, complete
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It’s no secret that carbon fiber manufacturing can be wasteful and at times disposable, so Vélos Advancements decided to create their all-new Holocene as a more sustainable aero road bike, made from recycled carbon. “Imagine owning a bike cut from the same roll of carbon that a rocket, an America’s Cup yacht, or a race car was made from.” That was the goal of composite technical Dan Burrows. Started back in 2019 as a carbon bike repair & repainting shop, Vélos set out to build a better carbon road bike. A carbon bike that is easier on the environment…

Vélos Holocene handmade recycled carbon aero road bike

Vélos Advancements carbon birk repair
Vélos Advancements carbon frame repair business (Photos/Vélos)

According to Burrows, “having spent over 3 years closely studying and building a business around repairing everybody else’s products we have come to the understanding that we can manufacture a better quality, race bike our own way and in the process remove the manufacturing defects and common design flaws that plaque mass produced products more often than one might care to think.”

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, toptube

So partnering with leaders in the sailing and aerospace industry, Vélos Advancements developed a more sustainable way to build new carbon bikes. Vélos repurposes pre-consumer recycled prepreg carbon fiber taken out of the waste streams of these high-performance industries. And they turn that waste into new high-performance bikes.

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand of prepreg carbon

Not all prepreg we recover is usable for frame building. We selectively choose only the correct weight and modulus Toray prepregs to optimize our frames for performance, weight, and durability. Any out-of-spec carbon is then turned into other products such as bike boxes.”

A new Superbike made in New Zealand

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, complete

The result is the all-new made-to-order sustainable carbon Vélos Holocene aero road bike. Engineer “Aero Dave” Higgins of Kinetic SIM designed the new monocoque carbon Holocene. He was the old head of engineering at Avanti bikes, with many of his bikes taking big World-level track victories.

Tech Details

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, headtube detail

For now details remain a bit thin on the integrated and aerodynamic, disc brake road bike.

Vélos does highlight a few key features, though. Like the fully internal cable routing developed with partner FSA and a T47 threaded bottom bracket. They also 3D-print titanium bottle cage mounts that are bonded into the carbon seat & down tubes for a super smooth flush finish. Zero compression fittings / rivnuts.

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, seat mast

And a unique type of integrated seat mast design. Vélos says their mast system eliminates the need for a seatpost clamp, insert or wedge – typical failure points. It promises a fully adjustable saddle height. But doesn’t really explain how their sleekly integrated proprietary aero seatpost system works.

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, tech details

In the end, Vélos provides buyers a fully personalized custom service for an ultra limited edition bike. Geometry is generally stock in six standard sizes (50-60cm). But everything from ride quality to paint to complete bike build is custom. And they’ll likely be adding an extra size on either end as well, sometime next year.

Apparently it is ultra-lightweight, too. Vélos claims a complete frameset weight for the new road Holocene weighs only 900-950g “for a unpainted 56cm frame and fork” made of “100% reclaimed carbon fibre“.

And gravel too?

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, maybe gravel too?

Lastly, they haven’t share any details about it yet. But the aero road Holocene apparently has a gravel sibling in the works too. Technically it doesn’t seem like you can pre-order the gravel bike now, but… The non-refundable deposit is “transferable toward other product or services” from Vélos suggesting you kind of could use this semi-crowdsourcing Holocene pre-order process to pre-order a future recycled carbon gravel bike, too.

Vélos Holocene – Pricing, options & availability

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, chainstay drivetrain detail

Officially the new Vélos Holocene aero road bike is open now as a pre-order only, with production estimated to begin early next year. They will only produce 100 bikes in 2024, so Vélos Advancements suggests ordering early to secure your build slot. To do so, you need to put down a non-refundable deposit of $2500 NZD (approximately $1525 or 1395€) now. And Vélos will not start making bikes until they secure 50 pre-orders. Vélos slates deliveries for “late 2024” worldwide.

Vélos Holocene recycled carbon superbike, 100% post-consumer reclaimed carbon fiber aero road bike, made in New Zealand, 
frameset

Final price is still up in the air, since every bike will get its own custom build. Including a one-of-a-kind paint scheme, something Vélos has built a name for over the past 3 years. In the end, Vélos suggests that a premium baseline price of around $25,500 NZD / $14,800 / £12,000 | 14,000€. That will get you a complete bike with a top-tier Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 spec with carbon wheels. Pre-order now direct from Vélos Advancements:

Velos.nz

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Grillis
Grillis
1 year ago

Imagine owning a bike cut from the same roll of carbon that a rocket, an America’s Cup yacht, or a race car was made from.

“pre-consumer recycled prepreg carbon fiber”

This sounds like they’re just using fabric scraps from other industries. That’s not exactly “recycling”. Semantics perhaps.
Regardless, it’s not a scalable system

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
1 year ago
Reply to  Grillis

Recycling is most definitely an enormous stretch here

Dinger
Dinger
1 year ago
Reply to  Veganpotter

“Recycle” is the wrong word but if they’re repurposing material that would otherwise be waste then that’s a nice step forward. Presumably this drops raw material cost, offsetting higher costs incurred by their extremely low volumes.

I’m always a little leery of small brands that come forward and accuse larger brands of being full of “flaws”. High tech material production at scale is hard. Sometimes I wonder if these small shops aren’t aware of the differences or are just being disingenuous. I wish them luck but practical money is better spend on established brands with large engineering teams and reliable warranty policy.

Gavin Bufton
1 year ago
Reply to  Grillis

You’re right, it’s not recycled. More of a click bait article title. As quoted from text ”Vélos repurposes pre-consumer recycled prepreg carbon fiber taken out of the waste streams of these high-performance industries.”

We make carbon fiber skis and have been keenly following the “recycled carbon” trends for the past few years. It’s all pretty much this; repurposing otherwise scrap material from production lines. There is however one development of interest; taking these same scraps and removing the resin through a chemical process, and returning the fiber to its original condition. Essentially making it recycled. But we’re not so keen on the chemical processes and downstream effects of the resin /chemical residue. Although, again, research into mushrooms to break down the chemicals are ongoing to help reduce the impact of these toxins in our environment.

Nonetheless kess, reuse of otherwise waste material is a good step forward.

Keep on pedaling…

Czechmate
Czechmate
1 year ago
Reply to  Grillis

“Regardless, it’s not a scalable system.”
They know it and they’re using it to their advantage. “They will only produce 100 bikes in 2024…” Rarity is the best marketing gimmick ever created.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
1 year ago

100 ft long off cuts nice

Oliver
Oliver
1 year ago

This seems like thinly disguised crowdfunding with a significant likelihood of the prospective buyer losing their deposit, which they say is non-refundable. How they plan to make any money as this is cottage industry production scale is unclear. Do they really only plan to make 100 next year? Or is that just to entice people with ‘limited edition’ … something also promised by another NZ brand for various paint schemes and then quietly dropped. And how can they possibly have a gravel model too, when production is so limited? Another alarm bell … no geo chart, but a bunch of sizes listed.

yogibimbi
yogibimbi
1 year ago

recycled: good. You know what’s better? If we had the technology to get the carbon from plant resources, not from fossil carbon.

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