SAN DIEGO, Calif.–A range of exciting new products for male and female cyclists awaits visitors at the KVA STAINLESS(TM) booth at Interbike, (booth 37081), September 14–16, 2011.

For those that love photogenic bikes, a cluster of NAHBS award-winning builders will display a range of their genius designs and artisanship in KVA STAINLESS' MS2(TM) stainless steel. NAHBS award winners Ellis Cycles (best road bike), and Rosene Bicycles (best new builder) will show their work. A stainless steel, prototype thin-walled MS2 bicycle frame tubing for women and very light male cyclists will be on display too. This is designed in consultancy with another NAHBS award-winner, Sam Whittingham, of Naked Bicycles.

Arizona based company, Vyatek Sports, has worked with KVA STAINLESS to design Exogrid, a carbon/stainless steel composite tubing, which has been built into a road bike by Dean Titanium Bicycles; also on display at the KVA booth.
Since the formal launch of MS2 tubing at NAHBS in February this year, frame builders across the USA, Europe, and Asia, have been familiarizing themselves with the specific fabrication requirements of this US-made and sourced corrosion-resistant rolled tubing. The feedback is widely positive.

The popular SoCal builder, Ritte, (booth 24155) has rapidly built a reputation making road race bicycles, and is excited about building with MS2 tubing. Company founder, Spencer Canon, said, “We have noticed a certain liveliness in the ride quality of oversized stainless tubes that complements carbon fiber and it gives the frame a lot more feel. Of the stainless manufacturers, KVA offers more tubing options, which has allowed us to experiment more and come up with a design that has a carbon front triangle, and stainless rear triangle, lugs, bottom bracket shell, and head tube. From what we've seen, some of the stainless steel bikes and hybrids will be able to hold their own against all-carbon frames in a race.”

Not all builders working with KVA's MS2 tubing are custom manufacturers. Colossi in Asia, and Cielo, by Chris King, in the USA are presently using the tubing on high-end stock bikes. The Cielo Sportif Racer SE will be available in Europe and the USA.

More detail about the Exogrid tubing
KVA STAINLESS has teamed up with Vyatek Sports, which has invented patented technology for hybrid carbon/stainless steel tubing. Together we are developing composite tubing for road, cyclo-cross, and mountain bikes, that combines the best attributes of advanced carbon composites with those of MS2 stainless steel. The resulting hybrid tubing can be incorporated into frames using conventional lugged, fillet brazed or TIG welded construction methods, and offers builders unprecedented design flexibility and superior performance.

KVA's vice-president of sales, Douglas Gore, explains,“The starting point is an MS2 stainless steel tube. We then design and engineer a precise pattern to be laser machined to remove the optimal amount of material from the tube. The resulting lightweight metal skeleton tube is then fused with a patented carbon technology that has an advanced composite inner structure. The characteristics of the different materials in a multi-material tube structure allow for a tube lighter than the original stainless steel tube with stiffer bending/torsion performance. With this mix, we could achieve 1050 – 1110 gram (37-39 ounce/sub 2.5lb) frames.”

More detail about the KVA STAINLESS process
KVA STAINLESS' MS2 tubing uses a patented welding and thermal processing technology that turns rolls of stainless steel into bicycle tubing for road and mountain bikes.
Already proven and tested by KVA STAINLESS in other industries, notably automotive, the patented KVA STAINLESS martensitic stainless structural tubing can now be integrated into high performance bicycle frames to reduce weight and increase strength, at a significant cost savings over many existing metal alloys.
MS2 tubing is made in the United States from first quality, domestic stainless steel alloys, using the most modern forming, welding and precision thermal processing technology available to produce custom-made butted bicycle tubing.

About KVA Stainless KVA STAINLESS(TM) is a privately owned company that provides innovative, low-cost, advanced, high-strength, martensitic stainless steel processing technology and solutions to an industrial customer base. It specializes in first-rate research and development, high quality manufacturing standards, and uncompromising customer service. KVA STAINLESS has grown out of Hi-Temp inc. Founded in 1953, Hi-Temp was one of the largest processors of martensitic stainless steels in North America. KVA STAINLESS owns several proprietary and patent-pending processing, joining and manufacturing methods for martensitic stainless steels.