A Nanaimo geotechnical engineer is looking for a manufacturer to put his high-performance mountain bike prototypes into production.
Chris Hudec has experimented with full-suspension mountain bike designs he's created since 2008, but while his designs have gained traction with local riders, his ideas have yet to catch on with major bicycle manufacturers.
Mountain bike manufacturers use various types and variations of types of suspension systems, all of which attempt to maximize a bike’s pedalling efficiency while keeping the tires in contact with the ground to optimize climbing, handling and braking performance while scrambling up and down steep inclines and traversing tight twisting trails over roots, rocks, loose dirt and other surfaces.
A main goal of mountain bike rear suspension design is to retain, as much as possible, the pedalling efficiency of a hardtail bike frame, which has no rear suspension. A rear-suspension mountain bike frame, on the other hand, allows the back portion of frame, known as the rear triangle, to flex when a bike rolls over obstacles for better traction, control and comfort for the rider, but the trade-off is a loss in pedalling efficiency from changes in tension on the chain that connects the pedal crank to the rear wheel – an effect known as 'chain growth' – as the rear triangle flexes relative to the front triangle. The bike will also bob up and down with each pedal stroke. Methods to minimize these effects include limiting suspension travel or locking out the suspension altogether, hindering or even negating suspension performance. Hudec’s approach to frame design eliminates those compromises.
“The simplest thing to say is that the link that is the front triangle is arranged so that chain tension does not affect the suspension action,” Hudec said.
His bikes use “long-travel” suspension with 170 millimetres of suspension travel, but maintain pedalling efficiency with or without the suspension locked.
“The bikes perform like hardtails under power,” Hudec said. “So your feet and your legs and your body, when you’re pedalling and accelerating, they tell you that you’re pedalling a hardtail. Your eyes see bumps on the trail, but you don’t feel the bumps through your feet and what you’re seeing and what you’re feeling don’t agree … It is literally mind-bending if you’re sensitive to performance like that … I think if I try to explain what’s going on, people think I’m crazy because it sounds unbelievable.”
Difficulty explaining the how and why of his bikes’ performance and handling is a reason he didn't more aggressively pursue marketing his early designs.
“I felt it was dishonest to make up a reason why to market the design,” he said. “There are many bicycle suspension patents that claim benefit from something of marginal or of no benefit, and I didn't want to join the incorrect chorus.”
Explanation aside, the bikes' ride characteristics give even relatively unseasoned riders the confidence to take on obstacles in the trail instead of looking for a less challenging line around them.
Tracey Justice, who took up mountain biking in 2018, rode Hudec’s bikes for the better part of a year.
“Chris’s bike was the first one I actually felt confident on,” Justice said. “It was an absolute confidence-builder. My timing was better. My descent was better. Honestly, in a year I only went over the bars one time, which is pretty amazing … Right from the first time I threw my leg over that bike I loved it … Even if I took a poor line choice, 99 per cent of the time I was OK. I loved that bike. I actually asked him to build me one and he told me, no. I was kind of disheartened about that, but he just said for the cost of the frame I could get a full bike.”
Justice bought a high-end bike that came close to Hudec’s bike geometry, but said it doesn’t perform as well or feel as good to ride and its aluminum frame feels heavier and stiffer than the titanium frames used by Hudec. He couldn’t find an aluminum frame builder to make his latest prototypes, but found a Chinese titanium frame manufacturer willing to take the job.
Hudec's coworker, Jeff Scott, also a geotechnical engineer with 25 years of mountain biking experience under his belt, is equally impressed with the bikes.
“This one is very composed, especially for a long-travel bike. It’s most noticeable when you’re seated and climbing…" Scott said. "On most bikes when you’re climbing up a trail you almost try and go around the bumps, but on this one just going over them is perfectly fine. It doesn’t slow you down at all. This is all on a long-travel bike. It’s behaving like a short-travel cross country bike or a trail bike.”
Scott rode two prototypes – one with 27.5-inch wheels and the other featuring a 29-inch wheel front and 27.5-inch wheel on the rear and both have different rear suspension types – and aside from noticing the difference in frame sizes, found the pedalling and suspension performance equal between the two. He also noted how immediately comfortable he was on the bikes and how quiet they are on the trails.
“Even on the descents I also found, when you’re pushing hard on the pedals, most bikes will start to bob and you really sink in and lose efficiency through the suspension, but this one when you’re just cranking on the pedals going downhill it was just so composed and hardly any bobbing at all,” he said.
Hudec has patents on his designs and wants to see them being applied by major bike manufacturers, but has found the industry a tough nut to crack. Bike manufacturers are invested, both in branding and development, in their own suspension designs. Also, the bike industry, Hudec said, is in an economic slump after a surge in bike sales during the COVID 19 pandemic has tapered off, as many pandemic purchasers have lost interest in riding are selling their steeds and flooding the used bike market.
“I would like to license the designs. I don’t want to start a bike company,” Hudec said.
