These fabric bicycle spokes will lighten your load and keep you moving

By Albert Khoury Published February 18, 2018

Berd PlyLight bicycle spokes — Image used with permission by copyright holder

First they reinvented the wheel. Now they’re rethinking the spoke. And all to save a few tenths of a gram.

Recommended Videos

When it comes to improving bicycle performance, weight is crucial. With so many parts, designers have endless opportunities to shave a gram here or carve off an ounce there. The caveat is maintaining the bike’s integrity and strength when making reductions. To solve the weight problem, engineers at Minnesota’s Berd are building spokes from an odd material: “ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)” — essentially fabric.

According to GearJunkie, wheel sets sporting the spokes will be up to 250 grams lighter. The spokes are patent-pending, and Berd offers custom builds on its site.

Berd PolyLight spokes, as they’re called, “leverage the latest advances in polymer technology to create the world’s lightest spoke while maintaining exceptional strength, aerodynamics, and durability,” the company states on its website. They are supposedly lighter than anything you can find on the market. And just as importantly, Berd claims that its PolyLight spokes are “stronger than most” of the spokes out there.

PolyLight spokes are compatible with standard rim and hub connections, so you can easily add them to your rig. On the hub side, they use an eyelet that is pulled through the hub hole and secured with a rod. On the rim side, a stainless steel rod is screwed into a nut. The polymer spokes can be maintained in the same manner as steel spokes, so you won’t have to learn any new methods.

In addition to their weight-saving properties, Berd’s spokes damp road vibrations and are more resistant to impact, smoothing out the ride while reducing rider fatigue.

Polymer construction give the spokes a long life thanks to reduced stress on the material itself. Steel spokes are more susceptible to fatigue as the wheels turn and deal with bumps in the road.

Berd’s special spokes use a customized coating to increase resistance to wear and tear, abrasion, moisture, and UV exposure as well.

If you’re concerned about the legality of the spokes when it comes to racing, Berd has answers. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body for sports cycling, has itself approved Berd’s PolyLight spokes for competition.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Al started his career at a downtown Manhattan publisher, and has since worked with digital and print publications. He's…

Outdoors

This Costway outdoor pizza oven isn’t messing around — $169 off for Black Friday

Costway outdoor pizza oven on patio

Forget those indoor-friendly pizza ovens. Forget the low-flame and low-smoke options. Me, personally, I want the real deal. That's why when I came across the Costway outdoor pizza oven I knew I had to share. It comes with a pizza stone, for authentic stone-cooked pizza duh, and a waterproof cover to protect the grill. But here's the best part: It can fire-cook a 12-inch homemade pizza pie. Oh, yes. Normally $309, it's on sale today for $140, which saves you $169. That is an incredible deal, let alone for something like this that can handle the fire and brimstone. It's live already alongside some other great early Black Friday deals.

Why should I buy this Costway outdoor pizza oven for Black Friday?
The best thing to do when it's time to cook, in my humble opinion, is to head outside and light up my trusty Blackstone. It works great, but if I want to wood fire a pizza I'll need something else. That's precisely where this Costway outdoor pizza oven comes in handy. You can adjust the level of fire and smoke to create a perfectly cooked pizza for your family, charred or not. The dual thermometer makes it easy to adjust the temperature when it's lit. Moreover, the under storage allows you to place some wood, utensils, or whatever else you might need -- so you're not always traipsing back to your shed, house or garage.

Outdoors

Be ready for storm season: Dual fuel portable generator is $150 off today

Pulsar dual fuel portable generator with gas can in background

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that a ton of early Black Friday deals have dropped. There are the usual suspects like laptops, electronics, gaming gear, and beyond. But me, I prefer to pick up unusual items during the huge holiday sales. You know exactly what I mean, the kind of stuff that doesn't usually go on sale any other time. One of those items is a portable generator. Where I live it seems like they rarely go on sale, and when you need them most they're never in stock. People flock to the stores to buy them just before a big storm. Well, right now, Pulsar and Walmart have an incredible deal on a 12,000-watt dual-fuel generator. Normally $900 it's down to $749 which saves you $151. It can run for up to 12 hours on an 8-gallon fuel tank.

Why shop the Pulsar 12,000-watt dual-fuel portable generator for Black Friday?

Outdoors

Save up to $550 on the Velotric Discover e-bikes for Black Friday

We're not even to the official Black Friday yet and already I'm feeling the deals fatigue. If I'm going to get around these next couple of weeks I'll need something that does all the work. Something like, you guessed it, an e-bike. Enter Velotric with its excellent selection of e-bikes, which tend to rate highly here amongst my colleagues. The Velotric Discover 2, for example, received high marks -- 4.5 stars. But while we do love a good product or two here at Digital Trends, we also love us some great deals and discounts. That's why we couldn't pass up the opportunity to share these Velotric on the Discover 1 Plus and Discover 2.
Velotric Discover 1 Plus e-bike -- now $1,049, was $1,599 34% off

Best Features: