The life cycle of a bicycle seat cover is demanding enough. Now, imagine setting out to build “the last seat you’ll ever buy” in the face of the friction, the elements, and the temperature swings that each mile exacts on riders and the seat. Spongy Wonder Noseless Bike Seat inventor Jeff Dixon says his creation, which is designed as a prostate, perineum, and tailbone-friendly solution, has an even higher set of demands. These rigors set him on a more than decade-long hunt for the right top surface fabric until he zeroed in on Mega Grip® from TVF.
Mega Grip® is a 100% expanded PVC fabric with a rayon backing and a non-slip face. Water resistant and mildew resistant, Mega Grip® has been engineered to withstand 12,000 revolutions on the Taber Abrasion Test. In addition to seating systems, the material can also be used for glove palms, equestrian clothing, shoulder straps and bag, case, and luggage panels, and more. Mega Grip® is cold crack tested to -40F.
Mega Grip™ helps the specialty bike seats overcome several challenges:
The Spongy Wonder’s design calls for the upper seating surface fabric to be laminated to the core material. Until he found Mega Grip® and its rayon backing, Dixon says, “there was always an issue of some description.”
Many other upper seating surface materials create what Dixon calls “slicker” conditions, whereas the non-slip face of Mega Grip® keeps riders’ bottoms in place. Additionally, the seat needs a fabric that is tougher than the material their pants interface with. Because of the friction-fighting strength of Mega Grip®, Dixon says “there’s not really a wear issue” over time with the fabric on the seat.
Unrelated to the performance of the fabric, Dixon says TVF offers a leg up in another way: “TVF has no problem catering to smaller businesses, which allows me to make the product I want to make.” His company can spend less up-front on material costs, and he doesn’t have to pay for storage space for larger rolls of fabric that might take him a while to work through.
Dixon says his Canada-based company likes working with a USA-based supplier like TVF because both operate under a similar business regulatory environment. “We kind of all know we’re playing by the same basic rules,” he says. TVF, Dixon says, provides “great product, ease of communication… you get, basically, a stable source. Very short and sweet: you pick up the phone, you order what you want, and you’re done.”
The Spongy Wonder Noseless Bike Seat features a dual-platform, adjustable design that focuses the seat’s pressure points in different locations than a traditional bike seat.
Mega Grip® is available from TVF in 54-inch rolls and features a diamond-embossed textured face in black that delivers superior grip in wet, dry, hot, and cold conditions. Reach out to the TVF Sales Team to find out more about Mega Grip® and our full scope of textile solutions to help your business grow.
