What do you do when you've already made one of the most stunning lockdown projects of the year? The answer is probably to just make it again, except this time from titanium. That's exactly what Ralf Holleis did and the result is this fully titanium, 3D printed Moorhuhn trail bike.
When Ralf Holleis first showed off
his 3-D printed stainless steel trail bike earlier in the year as part of the European Bike Challenge, it showed us a different way to build steel bikes with Reynolds 953 tubes for the front triangle, Columbus Zona for the rear triangle, and lugs made from either 17/4 PH or 316 L stainless steel. The bike was
polished to a mirror finish and its lugs-and-tubes construction brought a swoopiness (that's the technical term) to steel frames that isn't often seen in the classic all-tubes style frame.
Details:
Frame Material: Titanium
Rear Travel: 129mm
Front travel: 140mm fork recommended
Head angle: 67°
Seat tube angle: 76°
Reach: 469.6mm
Chainstays: 434mm
For this version, all the lugs have been printed from Ti-6Al-4V and then they were connected by Grade 9 titanium in the front triangle and Grade 2 titanium in the swingarm, with all tubes supplied by
Dedacciai . The bike was a collaborative effort with
Mathias Scherer of Mawis BIkes, a frame builder with 10 years of experience working with titanium. Ralf doesn't have much experience working with the material but helped Mathias with a fork crown on one of his recent builds so, in return, Mathias was able to weld together this bike for Ralf.
Why titanium? Well, not only is it a bit of frame builder exotica but it gives Ralf the ability to drop the weight of his creation without resorting to carbon. This frame sheds a whole kilogram - the weight drops from 3.6kg (7.9lb) to 2.6kg (5.7lb). On top of this benefit, Ralf prefers the fact that titanium has a reduced carbon footprint compared to the black weave and can be recycled at the end of its life. Finally, as titanium doesn't corrode, Ralf can be more creative with the finish of the bike and use anodising and sandblasting, rather than just painting.
Frame material aside, there aren't actually too many changes between the two bikes. Ralf has transferred over the same geometry, travel and kinematics from the steel bike and he's also settled on a similar build of mainly European parts including suspension from Intend, wheels from TrueBC and Extralite, and an Ingrid Components drivetrain.
The other big difference between the two bikes comes from the finish. Instead of polishing the whole frame, he anodized the frame the same color as the Intend BC Hero lowers, then masked it with stickers in the shape of feathers and sandblasted it.
Much like the steel version of the bike, Ralf will only be building 12 of these frames a year. The titanium frame costs € 4,900 while the steel frame goes for € 3,400.
Watch a video of the bike being built, here:More info,
here.
Then just sit back and wait for your new frame to arrive in the mail.
Titanium does, like all metals, indeed corrode.
Let the downvoting commence.
Indeed gold doesn't corrode. But it would be more accurate to say that PURE gold doesn't corrode. Pure gold is soft and jewellers add other metals making it a gold alloy. These gold alloys technically can corrode. 24 carat is considered to be virtually pure gold and does not react with oxygen. Metals that don't react with oxygen are called 'noble' and so gold is the most noble of all metals!
I hope you have all enjoyed todays lesson! Join me again next week where we ask the question - Did Papa Shango have a club foot?!
On a serious note galvanic corrosion is why it's a good idea to use brass spoke nipples rather than alloy, especially if you live and ride near the coast.
Really we should actually all be putting a tiny tiny bit of lube on each spoke nipple after every time you ride in wet... How many folk can say they have ever done this even once? Full disclaimer: I haven't done it once in my life
Other Disclaimer* Admit to having lubed a nipple once or twice when I was young. Wasnt a spoke nipple.
Imagine the peace of mind this would bring mid race as you float over a big double, in a split second you'd know that your wheels are balanced properly, theres no imperceptible up/down wobble and you wont even need to lube each spoke nipple after the race.
Its these small incremental psychological gains that win races
Silver is indeed the most conductive metal. But gold isn't used purely for wow factor, its used due to the aforementioned high resistance to corrosion. Silver tarnishes much much more than gold and when it tarnishes the outer surface actually becomes less conductive.
This is why copper and gold are more commonly used as copper is much cheaper and pure gold doesn't corrode.
This is why you see on some higher end Hi-Fi the speaker terminals and inputs are gold plated. It helps stop corrosion on the terminals.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGx4g5WxK68
Then again I recently read that this is done with the utmost care so that they can be glued back together in time for the next concert. At least I understand this is how The Who used to do it. If we finally get more money into mountainbiking, riders could integrate this into WC racing. As far as I understand road cycling already is getting more than enough money so let's start there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTlFk-chSh4
Indeed, the singer of the band above.
With that said, at 12 units a year, it's basically a collector's item rather than a production bike, and hanging it on the wall probably isn't going to break it.
haha laughed out loud at that. Its true though, these frames really are just pure bike jewellery. Even tho I know Titanium(not sure about those other grades though) is up to the job, they do look a wee bit flimsy.
I just cant imagine seeing someone absolutely shredding on one of these on a cold dark wet afternoon in Scotland covered in mud.
I feel like if I seen some one riding a bike like this rather than hanging it on the wall I'd almost be a bit annoyed.
Fair play to the guy though, easy for me to sit and criticise but he actually built a pretty cool looking bike.
Titanium takes an incredibly large amount of energy to produce. How much less than carbon, Al or Fe... would be nteresting to know.
Provoking question: why not a "return deposit" on recyclable sporting goods?
That said, it’s a good looking ride.
Just using 3D printing for the sake of it (by replicating an easily cast part for example) unless you are taking advantage of the above doesn't make sense.
Works well in this case, a relatively expensive single part can provide big cost savings in the long run. German automotive guys are using this technique for years, and Lego apparently too.
Previously Ralph had told us the Steel bike was 3.9kg, Some revisionist history going on here.
I didnt look that closely... saw 67 HA and the rest got hazy
Wow such a beautiful bike