Imagine a world without potholes. Imagine a bike frame that is stiffer than one made from carbon fibre yet 20% lighter. Imagine a bike that transmits a potentially endless amount of data, without any wires, and with all the sensors built into the components (and also your clothing). Imagine an elevator that could take you from the earth to the stars.

Lizzy and Tom imagine all of those things and find that they are closer to reality than you may think, and the key is Graphene. Remember Graphene? That wonder material that we were all told would revolutionise the way bikes are designed and built? So far we’ve mainly seen it in our tyres and none of the big brands are making their components with it. In this month’s Service Course we ask what happened to Graphene and hear how brands like Dassi are using it to push the limits of what is possible in bike design. We also visit the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre to hear about the science behind the material and find out how scientists are working to make the Graphene revolution a reality.

Dassi bikes (https://dassi.com)

The Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre

(https://graphene.manchester.ac.uk/about/geic/)

Service Course’s theme music is Beyond The Black Veil by Moscow Youth Cult. (https://moscowyouthcult.bandcamp.com/track/beyond-the-black-veil)

Additional music in this episode by Cody Butler, Experia, August Wilhelmson, From Now On, Emil Axelsson, Nicky Dowling, Mochas, By Lotus and Silver Maple.

All additional music and effects licensed through epidemic sound.

(https://epidemicsound.com)

Service Course is produced by Tom Whalley

Rapha (https://Rapha.cc) and Science In Sport (https://scienceinsport.com)

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