TIME BICYCLES

RTM consists of injecting resin under pressure into a mold to obtain a solid homogeneous structure of the future frame. This process ensures complete impregnation of resin into the fiber structure, creating a smooth surface and weaved layers without voids. The solid core ensures perfect complex structures internally.

This not only makes a TIME frame unique purely from a point of construction, but allows them to completely control each step of the production process, ensuring that every TIME bicycle rides as intended. This vertical production process lets TIME engineers experiment with a variety of materials to fine-tune the ride of their frames, such as the inclusion of Vectran in their popular TIME Fluidity frameset. Vectran is a very pliable, resilient material – used in spacesuits by NASA – and is utilized by TIME to absorb vibrations from rough pavement.

RTM represents true innovation in an era when most carbon frames came from bladder molding processes or have had tubes and lugs bonded with industrial strength glue. TIME also controls their carbon production by weaving all of their carbon in house and not relying on the same prepreg materials used by every other frame manufacturer. In this day and age when everything is constructed in Asia, a TIME bike stands alone being 100% built by hand and 100% built in France.

TIME believes that their frames last a lifetime, which is why they back up their frames with a lifetime warranty.

Conceptually, the Aktiv fork works on the same principle as a noise canceling earphone, via destructive wave interference. The movement of the damper itself is designed to mute out or dissipate unwanted vibration. In the Aktiv fork’s case, this is a small weight mounted to an alloy/composite lever arm inside the fork blade. It is simple in execution, but effective in practice. The tough part is first figuring out what frequency range you want to try to cancel. Luckily, TIME has years of research isolating which frequencies are fatiguing to our body or detrimental to controlling the bike. Ultra high frequencies don’t have the same negative effect on our body as a lower frequency. Second, how the damper performs in one size or model of frame is different than in another size or model. In other words, the damper has to be precisely calibrated for a frame based on stiffness of the frame.

So that’s a lot of science. Does it work? The answer is undoubtedly yes. The frame and fork are still surprisingly stiff, leaving the steering to be extremely precise instead of the elastomers and shock setups other brands use that leaves bikes feeling rubbery. In a world where spongier bar tape or swapping from 23mm to 25mm wide tires has everyone chattering about how much more comfortable their bike is, the Aktiv fork might be the start of the second French Revolution.

Our initial testing on Salt Lake City streets with a set of 23c tires has us amazed the fork’s effectiveness. Although you still feel the bigger bumps, the effects of cracks or seams in the pavement are greatly reduced and overall road chatter seems to be minimized. An Aktiv fork and a set of nice 25mm tires eats up chip-sealed roads voraciously, leaving riders better able to track their bike through high-speed sweepers better than nearly any other brand on the market.

While TIME was researching new methods to take their carbon frames a step further they studied the mass-tuned dampening systems found in F1 race cars and, in turn, filed a patent for what has become the Aktiv fork. This award winning development adds a tangible level of comfort through completely eliminating the vibrations caused by riding on asphalt, chip seal and other rough pavement.

Aktiv fork technology is only available as part of a complete frameset as the vibration tuning is calculated to match specific Scylon Aktiv, Izon Aktiv, and Fluidity Aktiv models.