Velo Mule

I worked in a bike shop at the time that Ross started working with Tom Kellogg. I was impressed with the direction that Ross was moving. Then they got serious with mountain bikes, betting Schwinn to that market at least at that point, but following the leaders.

When I was in college for Engineering, I was working on Hydrogen Fuel Cells for my senior project. There was a company near by that my professor told me to call them up, see if I can talk to them and find out if they could help me. They were an engineering company that was researching and looking to build fuel cell components and fuel cell powered devices. I talked to them, arranged a visit and as I'm on at their facility I see a bicycle frame shaped object. So I asked about it. The president of the company said that they were working with Ross to develop a molded bicycle frame. The frame itself was made of a high fiber engineering plastic that was injection molded. The color was a matte black. The frame was made in two halves. A left and a right that fit together like a model airplane. Epoxy was use to bond the halves halves together. I don't know if there was any reinforcing along the parting line because I only saw the frame in the un-assembled form.

At the time I though this was pretty "out there" to think that a plastic molded frame could support the loads of a rider on a bicycle. They may have intended to cover the molded frame with a reinforcing material. I don't know if this ever made it beyond prototyping.

By the way, I am not trying to be mysterious about the engineering company that was doing this work, they had me sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement that as far as I know, would still be in effect now. I may be revealing more than I should have already about the details and about who the was the bike company behind this project.

If anyone knows anything more about this, please post.

Edit: I know, since you are all know your stuff and you are going to ask about the rear triangle. I don't remember it vividly, however, I thought that they molded an insert to fill in the inside halves of the four members of the rear triangle. Dropouts? I don't remember at all.