According to data from Companies House, Reap Design Ltd was founded in 2014, but in the past 3-4 years the Reap Bikes brand has begun to establish in the field of road bikes. 

Owned by veteran Iron Man triathlete Martin Mair and run with his son, the brand will be joined by British olympian Ed Clancy and

whose existing v-shaped monocoque Vulcan triathlete bike was already proof of that but this weekend's Ru Rules Live show will be the first of its kind. In the hall of the Truman Brewery in Shaw, the brand was exhibiting a prototype new bike. It was conceived less than 2 months ago, and the brand describes it as the "future of gravel." 

It is labeled Reap type 300K5054 and has a more appropriate name for a newly discovered asteroid than a bicycle. 

At its heart, it is an aero gravel bike with wide tire clearance and an interesting shock absorbing tube shape. According to Ben, who is 1 of the Meir sons, it is being laid using a new shape of biological fiber that works together with carbon - it will be described in more detail soon

A gravel bike with a wide tire arrangement is nothing new, but it is typically an adventure of relaxed geometry, countless mounting points, and often some forms of suspension. Or bikepacking, aimed. Recently, however, there has been a growing trend towards gravel race bikes, where aero tubes and aggressive geometry have become wide tires. The new Ridley ASTR RS, launched last month, is such an example that tech-savvy gravel racers like Dylan Johnson are squeezing mountain bike tires into gravel frames. 

The Reap prototype here has a 50mm tire clearance. In particular, it is paired with a standard road width bottom bracket to ensure ergonomics and aerodynamics are not compromised by increasing the q factor, ensuring the rider's pedaling stance.

To achieve that, the seat stay is slightly more than 3 millimeters thick when surrounding the tire, but its shape spreads out and flattens towards the rear on the opposite side. 

Ben Meier explained to Cyclingnews that these more rear flat sections, combined with seat stays that extend 10cm horizontally from the seat tube and then bend down toward the axle, add a small amount of vertical flexion to the rear triangle of the bike, increasing vibration absorption and theoretically increasing power transfer to the gravel road below. It was. 

However, the trick of raising the sleeve of the prototype bike is not visible to the naked eye. Carbon fiber looks perfectly normal under the lacquer, but, as Ben Meir explains, it blends with biocomposite materials from the American company Scale Advanced Biocomposites. 

The Scale website states that "Natural fibers can be used together with carbon fibers to improve performance, reduce costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Lance Johnson, co-founder of the company, told cyclingnews that the benefits of his material are multifaceted, including significantly reducing the carbon footprint of bicycle production, improving bike comfort and ride comfort, and enhancing the ability to withstand shocks. 

Previously, the profile of the head tube was given an equal amount of attention to detail and the fork crown integrates neatly with the lower tube. The brake hose is fully integrated through the one-piece cockpit and into the head tube of the frame. 

In this prototype bike, the seat post of the frame is fixed to a set height, rather than having an adjustable seat mast as seen on the brand's Vekta road bike. This was one of the shortcuts the brand was forced to make to prepare the bike in time for the show, but somewhat conveniently, the height of the selected seat post was set to the exact saddle height used by Ben Meier himself.

"I've put a lot of time on this bike, I deserve it," was Meir's half-joking reply, referring to the toil he has experienced over the past few weeks to prepare the bike in time for the show. It's probably quite natural for brands on display to rush late to get things ready in time ahead of industry shows like Rouleur Live, but for the Meir family, the "slow rush" isn't starting to tell the story. 

The idea of making this bike was conceived less than two months ago, and over the past few weeks the brand's Instagram account has become a video diary of Ben's progress amid autoclave failures and late-night finishes.Instagram account gets it to get over the line. Just a week ago, there was little more than a fork to show for their efforts.

The bikes on display were completed by 11 p.m. the night before the show, and Ben boasted that he actually managed his night's sleep.

According to the brand, this bike is expected to launch in 2025 and Cyclingnews will be the first line to review it when it becomes available. 

At the time of writing, tickets are still available on Rouleur Live on Saturday and can be purchased here.