The great thing about working with startups is learning a lot about new technologies in a short period of time. In the collaboration with the Eindhoven based Gravaa I learned that cycling is all about control. Control over speed, braking, weight and above all: grip on the road.

With a gravel bike or mountain bike you will encounter different types of surfaces on your route (asphalt, sand, mud, gravel) and so a constant tire pressure is not optimal: for optimal grip, a soft surface requires a different tire pressure than a hard one.

Gravaa solved this problem and developed KAPS: a technology in which tire pressure is regulated using kinetic energy. During the realization phase, questions arose: how are we going to design it, how are you going to operate it and what are we going to call it? Rake Lijnen guided Gravaa through this phase of product development and designed the hardware for the system. In close collaboration we developed a product set that is completely at the service of the cyclist and designed it in such a way that it is intuitive to operate and maintain.

The collaboration with Gravaa and Total Support (cad engineering) resulted in a highly innovative product. KAPS was successfully introduced at the Eurobike bicycle fair in September 2021 and the wheels with KAPS technology can now be pre-ordered via Gravaa.com.

Photo credits:

Hubtech.nl, vojomag.nl and cyclingtips.com