Custom Builder Spotlight: Paketa Bicycles Makes Magnesium Rockets
In Russian, the word “paketa” means “rocket.” Colorado bike maker Paketa Bicycles builds bikes that will indeed rocket you down the road. Paketa’s secret sauce for speed is its super light frame material–magnesium. Mg, as it is known on the periodic table of the elements, has been called the lightest useful metal and it’s best-known use may be in in high-end “Mag” wheels for cars.
“Magnesium is the lightest structural metal currently available in the world,” says Paketa engineer Dave Walker. “It’s 34 percent lighter by volume than aluminum and 50 percent lighter than titanium.” Magnesium also offers excellent fatigue resistance, fights denting and buckling, and has the highest known vibration-damping capacity of any structural metal, Walker says. “The result is a much smoother ride than any other material out there.”
Paketa will be exhibiting at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Denver in February and plans to enter the Gates Carbon Drive innovative belt drive bike design contest. Come check out Paketa’s belt drive rockets at NAHBS. And if you’re a custom builder exhibiting at NAHBS, sign up for the contest for the chance to win more than $11,000 in cash and prizes.
