When professional cyclists retire, it is not uncommon for them to supplement their income by selling racing bikes bearing their name. There are plenty of examples of this, with Coppi, Moser, Fondriest and Merckx among the most illustrious names. The fame of bygone days and racing successes, immortalised as a brand emblem on the down tube, is an attractive selling point - at least for fans.
However, the name Johan Museeuw has lost a lot of its ring since the days of his classic victories in the 1990s. Most recently, in December 2008, Museeuw was sentenced by a Belgian court to a suspended prison sentence of ten months plus a fine of 15,000 euros for an offence against the Narcotics Act. Like many other professional cyclists, Museeuw had also doped.
Museeuw's reputation as a professional notwithstanding - one particular aspect makes the Belgian's racing bikes interesting: Museeuw uses flax fibres as the raw material for his framesets. Due to their lower modulus of elasticity compared to high-quality carbon fibres, flax fibres are said to give racing bike frames unprecedented riding comfort. In addition, flax is an attractive renewable raw material for ecological reasons, which is why this traditional crop - the basic material for linen - is currently experiencing a renaissance. The automotive industry in particular has recognised the potential and is using flax to make dashboards or side panels for doors, for example. The Belgian company IPA from Lokeren specialises in lightweight construction materials such as fibre mats for the aircraft industry. The company has recently started producing not only carbon fibre mats, but also those made from a carbon-flax mix. IPA produces prepregs exclusively for Museeuw, from which frame tubes can be wound. This is new, at least in the production of racing bike frames. However, the material is not processed into frames in Belgium, but at Silvio Billato, a small frame manufacturer founded in 1954 near Padua in the Veneto region of Italy. Museeuw has Billato build a total of seven models, each with a different proportion of flax, and the frame tubes are glued into sockets.
According to the manufacturer, the fibre mats of the "MF-5" down tube, top tube and seat tube contain 80 percent flax fibres, while the seat stays and fork contain 65 and 42 percent respectively. The chainstays and all sleeves are made entirely from high-modulus carbon fibres. The difference between carbon and flax mix is visible due to the brownish shimmer of the flax fibres running lengthways, which gives the racer an individual touch.
In pursuit of the promise of comfort, we took the Museeuw for a test ride on selected poor roads. First impression: The saddle of the "MF-5" yields noticeably on rough surfaces. The Museeuw also feels compliant on the handlebars, but not only vertically, but also laterally. The handlebar-stem unit from the Taiwanese brand "SASO", which is unknown in this country, turned out to be very soft and prone to twisting, while the flat fork left a less comfortable impression. At the centre of the equipment is the top "Red" groupset from SRAM, complemented by products that have rarely been seen on the German market. In addition to the aforementioned handlebar/stem combination, the seatpost also comes from SASO, and its yoke design is very reminiscent of the Tune "Starkes Stück" seatpost. The lightweight wheels weighing around 1,000 grams with EDCO hubs and carbon rims are supplied by the Dutch brand "Speedcomposites"; they give the bike noticeably more agility, whose geometry with its long trail is otherwise rather sluggish. Despite special carbon brake pads, the braking performance remained poor when riding in the rain.
In the test laboratory, the racer achieved average values. The frame weight of 1,300 grams is decent from a technical point of view, but not a revelation given the price of € 3,550 for the frameset. Just under 70 Newton metres per degree in the steering head is a modest value, which suggests that tube dimensions or fibre layup plans for the new material are not yet comparable with the state of the art in carbon frame construction. The comfort value on the saddle is good on the test bench, but not yet record-breaking. Competitors such as Specialized or Canyon achieve better values in this category with their carbon frames even without "soft" flax fibres. The fork was more stiff than flexible on the test stand, in line with the riding impression on the test lap.
Conclusion: The Museeuw is an independent construction, particularly interesting due to the use of the renewable raw material flax. This could stimulate an exciting discussion about ecology and sustainability in bicycle construction, although there is still no experience of the durability of the material and the wheels. The comfort promise of the Belgian-Italian co-production did not stand up to the practical and laboratory tests, but development potential is recognisable.
PLUS: Concept with renewable raw material
MINUS: no more comfortable than intelligently designed full carbon framesets
*test bike frame size greased; **projected measurement from centre of bottom bracket to upper edge of head tube/seat tube height at 75 cm seat height (centre of saddle frame-upper edge of headset cover); ***adjusted weight for frame size 57 and fork steerer length 225 mm; ****the grade includes further individual grades which we cannot print for reasons of space.
