Reclaimdesigns Speedster 2.0 is a recycled, carbon mini Nomad

Vancouver based Chris Clarke, aka Reclaimdesigns, turns an old Santa Cruz carbon Nomad into a sweet one-off kid’s ride.

Carbon fibre is an awesome material with standout properties that make it ideal for building bikes and bike parts from, BUT it isn’t the easiest material to recycle.

The current methods for recycling carbon fibre are to either simple press chunks of used carbon into moulds with resin to create attractive finishes, great for supercar dashboards. Or to break down material through mechanical and chemical processes to extract the fibres, a labour intensive and costly procedure.

Neither method is cost-effective and the end product isn’t likely to find its way back into a bike at some point, so because of this many old carbon bike frames tend to sit in garages, lofts or worse, landfills.

But that isn’t to say that those old carbon frames are useless, and actually with time, tools and skills an old carbon frame could be turned into something the next generation of riders could use.

Vancouver based mountain biker, Chris Clarke, or Reclaimdesigns as you might know him on Instagram, has been gaining a following online for his recycled bike creations. Rather than attempting to break old carbon frames down to their raw materials, Chris chops them up to rejig them as custom kids bikes.

His latest creation, the Speedster 2.0, started out as a carbon Santa Cruz Nomad. The frame was cut into sections that could be reused, BB shell, head tube, etc then bonded back together in a jig to produce this extremely cool mini Nomad.

The finished bike looks like something from a major brand rather than being a home DIY project, and the project is already receiving lots of attention from fans and pros.

Each reused frame section has an internal carbon sleeve and is bonded to together using Fusor T21 composite adhesive, a bonding agent so strong that two bonded tubes are able to carry 4 tons of weight! So plenty strong enough for a kids MTB.

The mini Nomad runs on 20in wheels with a 66-degree head angle, 74-degree seat tube, and 22in standover, and is built up with a collection of kid-specific off the shelf and homemade carbon parts.

And for those of you wondering what came before the Speedster 2.0? Well, feast your eyes on the original Speedster. The original Speedster started out as a Giant with a crack, and after a few cuts, some bonding and plenty of time and ingenuity became this!

If you have an old carbon frame knocking about and you’re looking for a lockdown project to keep you occupied, give Relaimdesigns a follow and be inspired.