Why OCLV Makes Trek Mountain Bikes the Most Durable
All mountain bikers know the importance of durability for a good mountain bike. If your bike frame can’t handle the toughest of trails then where is the point in shelling out hundreds if not thousands of pounds on it? For anyone other than a very beginner, a mountain bike which appears to be struggling to handle the strain early on in its life is unlikely to be a good choice. Bikers looking for durability need to check out Trek mountain bikes.
Trek mountain bikes made full suspension, hard tails, road bikes and women specific (WSD) bikes. Almost all of their frames are available as carbon fibre or aluminium models. The majority of experienced bikers prefer carbon fibre frames because they are lightweight. For too many bikes though, with lightweight comes a lack of durability: not a problem with Trek mountain bikes.
The reason Trek mountain bikes are so durable is because of the technique used in the production of their carbon fibre bikes. A process of production known as Optimum Compaction Low Void was invented and patented by Trek mountain bikes. Trek mountain bikes are the only manufacturer to use exactly this process.
The process involves applying heat and pressure to densely compress multidirectional layers of carbon fibre. The process may sound complex but it is in reality just a variation on the typical process of heat treating carbon fibre and resin. Trek mountain bikes say that this technique achieves ‘an optimum ratio of fibre to resin’ giving plenty of strength but minimising weight. That means that the technique gives the best durability to weight ratio there is.
The low void part of the name refers to the fact that this method of production all but eliminates the presence of voids. Voids are of course the tiny, even microscopic gaps between layers of carbon fibre. With these gaps being the typical source of fatigue failures, there are durability benefits to eliminating the gaps.
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