Video: Designing & Manufacturing a Bike Frame
We have been in the bike industry for many years and besides our components, we also design bike frames. We are particularly interested in optimizing the kinematics for long travel mountain bikes. Some years ago we realized that there is something going wrong with the development of the axle path on long travel 29er bikes, so we started to analyze the market. One year ago when we found the solution to the problem, we started this project. The goal was to design and build a virtual high pivot point bike with an idler pulley for optimized anti-squat and no braking issues, and then document it on video. Now we are already riding the first prototype and we are super stoked about the performance. Today we would like to share the production videos with you and in the next article we will feature more details about the bike itself.
As a German Developer we recorded the videos in our mother language but we provide English Subtitles for our international audience (click CC in the lower right).
Watch episodes 7-10 of our YouTube series featuring the production of the first prototypes:
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 7 // CNC Milling the Rocker
In this episode, we take you to our friend Jonathan Debus from debus-fraestechnik.de and show you how the Rocker is made for this bike.
Left: Jonathan Debus at work / Right: The Rocker half donel
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 8 // CNC Parts
In this episode, we show you all the CNC parts that are needed for the welding assembly group of the frame. We do some QC and explain some technical details.
The CNC parts ready for Quality Control
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 9 // Tubing
In this episode, we show you how we save 200 gram on the tubes using a CNC lathe. This only makes sense for prototypes as the industrial process would be butting from inside.
Standard tubes losing some weight on the CNC lathe
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 10 // Welding
In this episode, we finally take you to our frame builder and give you some interesting insights.
Left: Welding the mainframe Right: Controlling the trueness
Chain Stays, Seat Stays and Main Frames ready for the heat treatment
Left: The Kinematics Modell / Right: The 3D Modell
You can read more about the development process here.
As a German Developer we recorded the videos in our mother language but we provide English Subtitles for our international audience (click CC in the lower right).
Watch episodes 7-10 of our YouTube series featuring the production of the first prototypes:
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 7 // CNC Milling the Rocker
In this episode, we take you to our friend Jonathan Debus from debus-fraestechnik.de and show you how the Rocker is made for this bike.
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 8 // CNC Parts
In this episode, we show you all the CNC parts that are needed for the welding assembly group of the frame. We do some QC and explain some technical details.
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 9 // Tubing
In this episode, we show you how we save 200 gram on the tubes using a CNC lathe. This only makes sense for prototypes as the industrial process would be butting from inside.
We Develop a Bike Frame / Episode 10 // Welding
In this episode, we finally take you to our frame builder and give you some interesting insights.
The main frame on its fixture
Proud of his work the welder Ingo Müller
The Final Geometry Sheet - Seattube can be 420 - 450 - 480
You can read more about the development process here.
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61 Comments
thank you.
...and still some hundred hours of mechanic's workshop!
Thank you all!
Funny how nobody mentions the most important "skill" necessary to design a bike.
Which is riding... a lot... can't understand geometry if you don't have at least 10 years of serious riding. Reading about it is not the same as felling it.
While we are thinking, im off to read up about spinal surgery as I fancy a go at that on the weekend, what do I need a doctorate for?
Out of interest, you don't have an engineering degree, do you?
No engineering degree and only about $3000cad in tools.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/16145875
It's not a super bike, but it's my super bike.
www.pinkbike.com/u/shirk-007/album/NPC144
It was mostly a huge timesink just to get a nice piece of paper.
My Dad left school at fifteen. Learned his trade on the job. Can build anything.
Degrees ain't everything.
I build my first hardtail and first full suspension bike with just vise, files, and a torch.
It's a bike not a spaceship, you'd be surprised at how crude you can build something and it will still ride well. Geometry is more important than fancy tools and pretty welds. Alignment just needs to be sorta okay, you don't notice a few mm's of misalignment when shredding trails.
Thats honestly amazing really. But isnt the geometry a bit extreme?
Thanks
The North Shore is my backyard, plenty of steep trails where this geometry is really nice. Steep seat angle is great for steep technical climbs, the slack ha is great for steep technical downs.
With that said I am planning to make the next one a touch less slack so that I can extend the reach and keep the wheelbase about the same as it is now. I also plan to bring the bb height up a touch.
Anyway, joke apart: that`s a great job and being transparent about it makes it even richer. Thank you.
Very interesting serie. You get to see those little things you wouldn't guess, like the headtube getting slightly oval after welding.