TECHNOLOGY

The design of the bikes ASCENDU has been submitted for intellectual property protection. Reference *

3x3x3 system

Our design is based on the utilization of three support points principle. The tricycle has three wheels to maintain balance at ultra low speed or even backwards. There are three longitudinal planes, one across the main frame and the other two in each of the front wheels, the structure of the tricycle in these planes can move upwards or downwards independently, allowing stability in inclined or bumpy terrain. Finally the head tubes of each fork are hold from three points. We call it 3x3x3 system an it is the core of the tricycle that allows you to cycle extreme off road climbs.

Three piece handlebar

This is a unique handlebar formed by three, again, pieces that move separately although they are coupled by linkages. The central handlebar behaves as a normal handlebar where you control steering as in a conventional bicycle to keep balance by steering, it is used at normal and high speed. The other two lower handlebars are joined to the vertical movement of the front wheels, therefore by applying different forces on these pieces, either by pushing or pulling, you can vary and control your balance on the tricycle without the need to keep a minimum speed. This is used at low speed climbing.

100% INCLINATION

Despite what happens with most conventional trikes, the two front wheels are not a handicap for extreme off road terrain. The transverse beams are designed to work with side inclination greater than 100%. You would be able to cycle across a 100% side slope or roll over stones of considerable size thanks to its leaning or tilting suspension. Front wheels travel is 430mm without taking into account the travel of the fork.

Long chainstay crawler

Almost any modern mountain bike has short chainstays to make it nimbler and to increase the traction by placing more weight on the rear wheel. The drawback on these conventional bikes is that the front wheel tends to pop up from the ground and loose steering and balance. Conversely, uphill motorbikes have long chainstays to keep the front wheel on the ground even in the steepest climbs. This is the solution adopted by ASCENDU. The long chainstay gives you longitudinal stability in the steepest climbs to the point that you can mount and dismount without hassle in the middle of these steep climbs.

Extreme gear range

Modern top of the range mountain bikes with a 1x12 set up have a gear range of around 500% - 520%. The trike ASCENDU 3x3 has a gear range of 1045%. In the shortest gear the bike travels 0.65m every turn of the crankset ! It is literally half the shortest gear of a top of the range mountain bike. It makes easier to regulate power and torque and helps to keep traction. These numbers may change with the actual selection of components of the bike but expect extreme short gears.

Splittable frame

The ASCENDU bikes have a splittable frame without tools for convenience. You can transport it inside your car and get the bike into a small flat in a city. It goes through any door and even fits inside of an average size wardrobe. You might need to split the frame and remove the wheels but you do not need any tool for doing this.

How important is weight in a MTB bike?

If you do not want to go through all the physics and maths the summary is this: A 1 Kg lighter bike saves you approximately 24 seconds per hour of mountain biking.

Calculations

Let’s assume an average track of the XCO UCI World Cup that is 4 km long and has 200m of climb.

Let’s assume a winner cyclist that is 65kg, a bike that is 10kg and 1 kg of clothes, helmet, water…

Let’s assume a race with 7 laps that the winner cyclist takes 90 minutes to finish. In this track the cyclist pedals 84% of the time, the rest of the time 16% he does not pedal. When he is pedalling, he does it with 380W of power.

The total distance is therefore 28km and the total climb is 1400m.

Let’s assume that 2/3 of the track are uphill and 1/3 downhill. Upon checking the descriptions of the tracks in the UCI World Cup, the steepest climbs are normally 23% or less while the downhill parts have a steepness of 40-60%.

The potential energy created when climbing is E=mgh=76∙9.81∙1400= 1043784 J

The work done by the cyclist is Work=P∙t= 380∙90∙60∙0.84=1723680 J

Therefore, 60% of the work is used to climb. This is consistent with other studies.

If the bike is 1 Kg heavier, the cyclist would need to do an extra work to lift that extra weight on the climbs. The extra work would be E=mgh=1∙9.81∙1400=13734 J

Therefore the cyclist would need a little bit of extra time to make the extra work needed to climb with the power he has available 380W. This time is

t=E/P=13734/380=36 s

That is an extra time of 36 seconds.  It would mean to loose two or three positions for the winner of the race and around four or five positions if the cyclist is finish after the 20th. That means that a 1 kg heavier bike could make you loose the race but if your position is around the 50th , it will still be around the 50th with the heavier bike.

On the other hand, if the bike is 10 kg heavier as this is the case of the ASCENDU 3x3, the extra time would be 360 seconds, or 6 minutes. This is consistent with our experiments where we took a conventional bike and did a 1 hour 30 min route and with the ASCENDU 3x3 was 1 hour 39 min, the greater difference would be due to the drag of the third wheel and increased aerodynamic drag. Nevertheless it shows that a Sunday morning 3 hours route with ASCENDU 3x3 would still be 3 hours route approximately, 3 hours 18 minutes to be more precise.

By the way, this study shows also that the average XCO track is somehow designed to fit the XC bikes rather than to emulate the paths that you find in the mountains. In the mountains,  the same path of 30-50% is used for the climb and the descend, since there is no alternative route. ASCENDU bikes allow you to climb these paths riding instead of the unavoidable hike with your top of the range mountain bike.

* Patent numbers: 201831583, 202019000003608, 202019105748.3, 16/598002, 19382119.6, 16/784936