Carbon Fiber - 0010 A brief history of carbon fiber bikes

Many of today’s leading bicycle brands, such as Trek, Specialized, Giant, and Cannondale, were established during the cycling boom of the early 1970s.

In 1970, seven years after the carbon fiber production process was patented, Gerald O’Donovan of Carlton Cycles began experimenting with the material.

The first carbon fiber bicycle was unveiled at the Cycle and Motorcycle Show in Harrogate in 1971.

In 1975, Frank Appel, Richard Katner, Bill McCready, and Jeffrey Lindskoog of the F.H. Appel Company designed a carbon fiber bicycle frame. A year later, the ‘Graftek G-1,’ an aluminum-carbon fiber hybrid, was used by the 1976 U.S. Olympic team and subsequently made available to the public.

European companies began exploring composites in the early 1980s. In 1987, Giant launched the CADEX carbon fiber road bike, becoming the first bicycle manufacturer to use computer-aided design and mass production techniques for carbon fiber road bikes.

In 1989, Trek made a breakthrough by unveiling its first molded carbon fiber frame, the Trek 5000.

Carbon fiber gained popularity in the early 1990s after being introduced to professional cycling. Its lightweight properties, compared to steel frames of the time, quickly established it as the material of choice.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, carbon fiber was still considered an “exotic” material. However, advancements in manufacturing and reduced raw material costs have since fueled global demand, with an estimated 6.3 million units projected to be sold between 2020 and 2025.