Watch out, Superman! Valley startup firm develops ‘stronger than steel’ Power Cordz cable for bikes 

Tony DuPont is one of those soft-spoken inventors who solves a small problem, but opens the door for big advances.

For starters, his company, Io DuPont, has engineered a new type of bike cable called Power Cordz, which uses durable high-tech fibers that are both lighter and “stronger than steel,” according to the company’s Web site, www.powercordz.com. You can’t construct a building with them, but they’ll last longer on your bike than traditional cables.

When attached to a high-performance racing or mountain bike, overall weight is reduced by 45 grams – a big advantage for serious bikers. The cords, which are made from 10,000 individual strands of PBO liquid crystalline polymer, can be used for brakes or gears; don’t rust, fray or stretch like steel; and, if they’re properly installed and maintained, they can last three years before needing a change.

Phil Vega, co-owner of Joyride Cycles in Boise’s North End, was an early adopter of Power Cordz back when they first hit the market about five years ago. Today he uses the cords on three of his four personal bikes.
 
“They are a lot lighter than a standard cable, so if you’re looking to reduce the weight you’re looking at reducing about 75 percent of the weight of a steel cable,” he said. “For high-end biking it’s a pretty big deal.”

 Io DuPont’s Power Cordz are currently distributed around the world – from Australia, New Zealand and China, to the U.K., Portugal, France and Germany. That’s not bad for a company started about five years ago in DuPont’s Boise garage. Now he’s located in the WaterCooler business incubator in downtown Boise, and has seen sales double over the past three quarters.

But, while the high-tensile, lightweight fibers are great for bikes, DuPont said his cords could prove revolutionary for robotics, aeronautics, home appliances or energy generation.
 
“Anywhere you use a steel cable you could use a synthetic fiber cable,” he said. “It’s a superior product. … We can significantly make an energy dent on anything that (currently) uses steel control cables.”

Motivated by the potential, he’s already fixed his eyes upon another, allied, innovation.

“The Power Cordz was kind of a stepping stone project we started working on to make money and learn about business,” he said. “Really the big deal with the company is the new transmission that we’re working on.”
Cradling a prototype, DuPont’s eyes light up as he explains the idea behind the cylindrical transmission unit he came up with as a student at the University of Idaho.

He said that any type of vehicle uses the most energy when it’s starting or stopping. The rest of the time, energy is either being used to propel the vehicle, or being lost in its mechanism.

His transmission is what’s called “continually variable,” meaning that rather than simply shifting among a set number of gears like traditional transmissions, bikes (or any other vehicle) equipped with DuPont’s drivetrain could adjust gear ratios from among an infinite range of values.

“Basically you’ll be able to pedal one time and your back tire will move zero times for the low range and, on the high range, you’ll be able to pedal one time and your rear tire would spin six times,” he said. “And then you have every possible combination in between.”

In other words, DuPont’s transmission would effectively turn your 10-speed into a 100-speed.

The advantage to riders would be the ability to optimize the amount of energy they’re expending to move their bike, and also the elimination of the need for derailluers – the mechanisms needed to change gears. The advantage to other vehicles, like cars, would be peak engine speed efficiency, improved gas mileage and reduced emissions.

“If we use our transmission for a windmill we can potentially increase the energy take by 5 percent,” he said. “If it was adapted for use in a car, we could increase gas mileage by 5 percent.”

DuPont said the new transmission should be released this year or early 2010. In the meantime, the company has letters of intent to deliver more than 250,000 units over the next three to five years, and a car company in Asia is also interested in developing the transmission for the auto industry, he said.

Realizing that potential, however, will depend on how much money the company can raise. DuPont said he’s looking for just under $500,000 this round, with a further $2 million needed for production.

With two employees – Kate Nelson and John Burdekin, who handle sales, marketing finance and operations – the company is still in startup mode, and DuPont said he’s looking for investors who are both familiar with the industry and interested in forming a relationship with the firm that goes beyond cutting a check.

In the meantime, DuPont said he’s looking into a Small Business Administration loan, and hopes for Power Cordz sales to reach between $3 million and $5 million over the next three to four years. Someday, when the new transmissions have caught on, DuPont said he hopes to see sales in the nine-figure range.

“I just like to make cool things better, and bikes are cool,” he said. “It’s a good first product that we have.”

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