Louis Bradier has taken his career of mechanical engineering and design and manufactured this gnarley board. Bradier’s site describes the carbon fiber board in detail,

“It features a foam core construction with a torsion box, an impact tough injected polyurethane edge and load distributors. Tech. Spec.: Length: 1050 mm, Max width: 260 mm, Wheelbase: 900 mm, Weight: 1.5kg, Longitudinal and torsional flex: close to none”

The SPC#1 is definitely not intended to show off your latest and greatest tricks but instead provide a nice and easy ride. Carbon fiber’s lightness assists the SPC#1 in lowering energy absorption thus increasing speed. Not only will you get to your destination faster, you’ll be comfortable the whole ride there as Bradier designed with comfort in mind.

Make sure to check out the shape of the carbon fiber board, it’s meant to resemble the shape of a human body. And next, check out the graphic on the bottom of the board, reminding you of a smooth ride. I don’t know about you but the SPC#1 makes me want to take up skateboarding!

The Garia Golf Car; the ultimate European luxury golf cart, was designed via innovation and quality craftsmanship. It is also manufactured in the same factory as the Porsche Cayman and Boxster.

The carbon fiber in the Garia Edition Soleil can be found in its roof. Other features include two-colored hand-stitched luxury seats, alcantara roof lining and a number of hand crafted details to present a truly unique and luxurious golf car.

The company’s press release states

“Built to the highest standards of the automotive industry The Garia features a double wishbone front suspension similar to those found in sports cars and inspired by Formula 1 cars. The drive train is built by an Italian company that also produces Ducati gearboxes, and the aluminum profiles in the frame are made by the same company that supplies aluminum profiles to Aston Martin, Jaguar and Volvo.”

The Garia Edition Soleil starts at a base price of $17,499. But of course that is pre-luxury upgrade, which can swing that price all the way up to $52,000. Some special customizations that can be made are color choices and a built-in refrigerator. Personally, I would opt for more carbon fiber usage! But all in all, we can guarantee the Garia Edition Soleil will take you on the smoothest ride you’ve ever been on in a golf cart and you’ll look pretty fine in it too!

Want to learn more?  Head over to Garia’s website.

Video

[Source: Autoblog]

Blueseventy and Blue Fuzion Group have combined efforts to develop the first pair of swimming goggles to go against the norm of standard polycarbonate material, and instead use carbon fiber. The carbon fiber allows for a 22% weight reduction when compared to standard goggle, which equals faster swimming and more comfortable swimmers. We call that a win.

Blueseventy has been designing and distributing an array of swimming products for competitive swimmers since 1983.

Blue Fuzion Group spent the last two years extensively testing usable materials.

“Throughout the prototyping, swim testing, and production trials, the Teknor Apex polyamide consistently ranked as the leading choice,”

said Mr. McConnochie.

“Teknor Apex engineers worked closely with us in every step of the design and development process, helping us to meet the demanding challenge of achieving exceptional aquadynamics while saving weight.”

Similarly to all carbon fiber products, they are created for a high-end target audience. The ‘Carbon Race’ goggles are being sold for $100 a pair and can be bought from the Blueseventy website.

Zai is based in the Swiss Village, Disentis. Since 2004, they have been manufacturing an array of high-end ski accessories such as goggles and helmets. They take pride in their handmade craftsmanship and their differentiating factor of utilizing unique materials.

Bentley is proud to have their name attached to these skis, representing everything they have produced in the past; beauty, speed and durability. Maximum performance with minimum weight was the goal Zai and Bentley set for the final product and we think they deserve a pat on the back.

Produced in a limited quantity of 250 pairs, each pair of skis is fashioned from a carbon fiber material known as “Zaiìra” with a natural rubber core and chrome-steel-infused carbon fiber for the flexible components backed up by Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites. The poles themselves use a brand new technology, ExoGrid. The use of carbon fiber and titan in the skis and poles assist in the reduction of weight and enhancement of stability. The ski bag is custom designed and manufactured by Zai. The kit is being sold for $9800 apiece.

[Sources: Autoblog, TheCoolist]

Produced by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, this carbon fiber folding bike was sponsored by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. This six-month research process was “part of government efforts to advance local bike building technologies.”

The Korean engineers further explain,

“The new bike model, which measures 1.42 meters in length and 1 meter in height, has 16-inch wheels and incorporates special design features enabling the bike to fold into a compact form, convenient for transport or storage.”

The institute has acquired a local patent for the new Carbon Fiber Folding Bike. They intend on pricing each bike around $2,630. Not too steep, if you’re rich!

[Source: BornRich]

When developing the Factor 001, the engineers did not want to be limited by any preconceptions surrounding traditional road bike design.  This allowed them to start from the ground up and make an outstanding ride experience.  The bike is extremely light and riders should experience rapid acceleration with minimal exertion.  Every component was crafted in-house using the same techniques used to produce Formula One components.

The Factor 001 has a lightweight and extremely rigid carbon fiber monocoque structure.  They use a twin vane system that offers lateral stiffness with no weight penalty.  Each frame will be custom tuned to the rider geometry, allowing small changes in the frame dimensions to ensure a full custom fit.  The carbon-composite material has load sensors, wiring, control cables and lines for the hydraulic braking system fully integrated during construction.

The wheels for the bike were completely redesigned as well.  It also uses carbon fiber, but unlike existing composite designers, which can be fragile in exchange for weight savings, the Factor 001 wheels are designed to cope with the real world.  This was the most difficult component to design, they had to construct a narrow hub because of the disc brakes, and wanted to use as little spoke material as possible to improve aerodynamics.

Each bike takes six highly skilled engineers a week to make, and only a few hundred will be made.  The bike is for sale at Harrod’s while being displayed in the London Science Museum.  You can pick one up for yourself now for about $34,000, or wait for the model with integrated electronics in April 2010 which will run slightly over $40,000.  You can read more about the bike at Factor001.com.

[Source: Autoblog]

Now I don’t know much about curling, but I believe it’s pretty popular for our northern neighbors.  How much would you guess a carbon fiber curling broom will set you back?  About $150 (CAD)…which is almost twice the price of its fiberglass counterpart.  Olson Curling also has a “Fiberlite” broom which, while still up there in price, is cheaper than the carbon fiber variation ($115 CAD).

The carbon fiber broom features a carbon fiber handle with an 8″ polycarbonate shell, weighing in at just 240 grams. They call it the Reactor2.  The broom design has a swivel head that can be tightened to your desired angle using an Allen key on the built-in tension adjusters.  The included Allen key can go into the holder built into the base of the broom.

Aside from colors, Olson Curling Supplies also lets you choose a head style between a synthetic pad or the upgraded horsehair head ($22 CAD).

If you’re looking to make it into the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia for the sport of Curling…make sure you’re training with the best of the best equipment, and go carbon fiber.  Olson sells the brooms directly on eBay, which you can find here.

Peugeot hasn’t released much information on the bicycle yet, but as you can see in the picture it’s a radical design that can potentially change the future of bikes.  What we’re more interested in is the carbon fiber construction, but we also found the chainless drivetrain interesting.

Bike Rumor believes that the tension rod (or cable) that goes from the seat to the head tube keeps the bike together once a persons weight is put on it.

The other interesting thing is the tires.  Are those just covers?  Or are those some sort of new tire concept?  We’ll have to wait for Peugeot to come out and better explain these pictures.  In the meantime, we’ll continue to gawk at them.

[Source: BikeRumor]

Oakley released something called The Elite Collection, which are products made in limited quantities that represent the most innovative technologies, aesthetics and ideas.  Part of that collection will of course be their upcoming carbon fiber sunglasses.

The sunglasses now have a name, the Oakley C SIX.  Oakley claims they are the most technically innovative sunglasses ever created.  That’s quite a statement.  They say that using carbon fiber was one of the greatest challenges.

As was mentioned in the teaser video one pair of C SIX frames uses diamond-tipped milling heads at spinning a 10,000 rpm, shaping 40 layers of billet carbon fiber composite for over 24 hours.

To deal with the rigid nature of finished components, Oakley engineered spinal structures of Beta Titanium memory metal to achieve precise zones of tuned flexibility. Radial cams augment the stem mechanics, and the lenses are a showcase of the best optical technologies ever invented.

The result is C SIX, a premier design in the new ELITE Collection and a technological masterpiece that elevates eyewear to the pinnacle of engineering. And it is coming soon.

Flickr user mpmcgaughey noticed that Lance Armstrong was wearing the glasses at the Tour De France:

We’ll continue following the development and release, stay tuned.  In the meantime, check out how one of our readers custom made Oakley Juliet sunglasses out of carbon fiber.

[Thanks Steve!]

Just kidding, there’s some great benefits to these shin guards, of course the main one being the extreme light weight, and dashingly good looks.  Aside from being light weight, from the reviews I’ve read, they are very comfortable.  The inside has laser etched foam channels to wick away moisture:

Nike uses a dual-layer Poron foam for better impact absorption, and it includes a seamless Dri-FIT sleeve for breathability.  They are also NOSCAE certified.  Check out what one reviewer (stick103) from Soccer.com had to say:

these things are sick!!!!!!! i love them i got them a couple of weeks ago and played several games in them. the are light and extremlly strong! they also come with sleeves which have some sort of material that comfortably sticks to your legs which gets rid of the annoying tape. the sleeves also have a pouch so the guard isnt actually touching your leg. But overall i love them the only problem is coming up with the money lol. but once you have them they will definatley last!! SO GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!

As you would expect, they don’t come cheap, expect to pay $100 to wrap your shins with a bit of CF.

Videos

Here’s a video of somebody that had just purchased them and opened them up, it gives you a good idea of what you can expect:

Here’s the highlight reel that Nike created themselves, which shows you all of the benefits:

Related Links

• Nike’s product page
• Check out our post on the carbon fiber Nike Mercurial Vapor SL cleats
• Buy these on Soccer.com
• Look for these on Amazon
• Look for these on eBay

[Thanks Joe! - Also SoccerBible.com for a picture]