49 - Velocite Bikes and Venn Wheels Founder Victor Major

What this episode covers

* 2:00 marketing hype vs marketing honesty * 5:30 legitimate Velocite / Venn innovations: filament winding for wheels and AI-assisted design * 6:15 the Velocite design process: their aero road bike, the Syn [https://www.velocite-bikes.com/?product=velocite-syn-carbon-aero-frameset] * Designed to be fast in real-world use at realistic rider speeds  * Specific design towards integrating bottles, resulting in a concave downtube * 10:00 carbon fiber composite construction * Carbon fibers are only strong in one direction, so fabric orientation in the assembly is supremely important * There is quite a bit of variability between products that are are layed up (manufactured) by hand * Innovation in carbon fiber construction favours automation where variability is eliminated * 14:45 carbon fiber construction using filament winding * Here's a video of filament winding in action [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ihtyjydzqA] * Issues with the original wet resin process and transition to a pre-preg manufacturing method * 24:45 why doesn't everyone build rims using the filament winding process? * 27:00 on intellectual property and the struggles of enforcement * 31:15 the end user benefit of using filament-wound rims  * Easier to build up into wheels and trusted by pro wheel builders * Rims are completely uniform, so they stay true longer and experience fewer failures * Very consistent end product with minimal variance in weight or mechanical properties * 38:30 what else can you make using filament winding? * Anything tubular: lugged frame members, seatposts, potentially handlebars * Making monocoque frames is not possible - yet * Possibly non traditional bike frames too like the Ventum or the Cervelo Px series * 41:00 the possible future of carbon fiber construction * 45:00 AI-assisted rim design: the Venn VAR77 rim * First iteration was a rim that was 42mm wide! * A 30mm max width version was eventually chosen to be fastest * 50:30 a discussion on fork stance width * 58:30 the future of AI-assisted design * No software exists that can use AI to design a complete bike and rider * 3D-printed bikes * 63:00 Victor weighs in on rim vs disk Learn more about Velocite Bikes [https://www.velocite-bikes.com/] and Venn Wheels [https://www.venn-cycling.com/] at their websites. To order a set of custom-built Venn wheels, reach out to Corey of Cognoscenti Cycles [https://www.cognoscenti-cycles.com/].