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NAHBS 2016 – Bastion Cycles changes the game with 3D Printed Ti and carbon bike- that customers design

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When it was announced that automotive company, Toyota, was shutting down manufacturing and development in Australia, vehicle dynamics engineer and cyclist Ben Schultz developed a business plan for a high concept custom carbon and 3D-printed titanium race bike. Little did he know that his coworker, James Woolcock, was independently developing his technical concept for the same bike. At lunch one day, they pitched the same concept to one another.

The bicycle, shown at NAHBS, is technically impressive, but the bike itself is really just the tip of the iceberg as far as what makes the product and brand compelling. And that’s what’s really exciting – James and Ben, along with their partner Dean McGeary, have brought their experience in automotive process, business and design to cycling. The result is a clever, buttoned-up deep custom consumer experience package that puts total control of the design directly in the hands of the customer and seems to have exploited every ounce of opportunity within the bicycle design, ordering and fabrication process. And the final product is, well, pretty mind-blowing as a result. It is my pick for most compelling new bike I saw at NAHBS – maybe the most compelling bike I’ve seen all year.

Buckle up for this one. In order for the bike to really blow your mind, you have to wrap it around the whole concept first…

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The big picture concept of the frame is that it allows for total frame geometry customization via 3D printing titanium lugs and frame parts, which are then bonded to carbon tubes chosen by the customer based off of their chosen riding style or needs.

The soon-to-be-launched consumer interface (we’ll let you know when it’s out there) is designed to put control entirely into the hands of the consumer. Rather than allowing for any interpretation of the customer’s needs by a builder or sales professional, the customer enters their own fit numbers and is allowed to tweak handling and sizing characteristics. Before the dealers, builders, and bike designers in the house start wincing, it must be understood that the program developed for the ordering system takes great pains to give the rider feedback in such a way that educates the consumer so they have a greater understanding of what they are getting. The program shows users when the head tube angle they’ve chosen brings the front tire unacceptably close to the down tube, and won’t allow them to proceed with the design until it is modified, for example. It also shows the consumer in live space how the visual geometry of the bike changes with various geometry.

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But here’s where it gets really interesting: as a team of former vehicle dynamics engineers, they’ve created a visual tool for understanding bicycle handling characteristics. In order to establish this, they’ve created algorithms based off of factors examining wheel flop, steering ratio, and response factor – which examines front-center, rear-center, and bike and rider weight distribution. When you create a geometry and tweak angles, the program plots your handling characteristics on a chart along with familiar stock production models so you can better understand your riding experience before you place your order. At a time when production geometry is often set by bike companies with an emphasis on satisfying rider perceptions of what angle and offset numbers look “good” without regard or discussion for what the numbers actually accomplish, the Bastion Cycles user interface passively educates and builds consumer confidence in the final product through good old math and science.

The custom experience goes even deeper. Consumers chose between three levels of stiffness in their frame. So if you’re a sprinter and you’re buying your bike purely for racing, you can specify the highest modulus option. If you’re a smaller person and/or looking for a more compliant ride, you can specify the least stiff option. Or somewhere in between.

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The laser sintering process, which is the technical name for 3D printing metal, utilizes lasers to fuse together titanium powder, in this case Ti6Al4V, in an inert medium. The technology, which has gotten a bad rap for cost or quality, has gotten to a point where it is being used on mission critical components in aerospace and cost has come down quite a bit in the last few years, so the process is ripe for adoption within cycling (there were at least three other builders using it at NAHBS, and we’ve covered others before). The lugs are oriented in the print so as to mitigate the appearance of the printed lines and material support infrastructure interfaces that are common within the printing process.

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And it gets cooler. The engineers have taken special pains to refine the program so that the lugs and frame parts require little to no finishing after the five stage printing process. This is because the titanium parts produced only have an exterior wall thickness of 0.5mm. And what allows them to hold that thickness is the physical construction of the parts.

Photo provided by Bastion Cycles
Photo provided by Bastion Cycles

The parts are actually hollow with a webbed internal structure. This structural strategy is emerging as titanium laser sintering is taking off because it’s a strategy that can really only be accomplished by that process; you can’t cast or machine this type of part with these thicknesses or precision. If the idea of it may make some readers uncomfortable, it is because this structural strategy is brand new. And we’ll only be seeing more of it as process costs come down and capability increases. Lastly, after the titanium parts are printed, they spend a day in heat treatment before they are ready for assembly.

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The main triangle tubing of the bike is produced out of house, but Bastion engineers had to develop a special process in-house for creating the chain stays. The carbon members are bonded to the titanium lugs and dropouts in a special fixture that allows them to hold the angle tolerances down to +/-0.10 degrees (for reference, a production frame would be fortunate to hold a +/- 0.25 degree angle tolerance).

Photo provided by Bastion Cycles
Photo provided by Bastion Cycles

In all, it takes 15 days to build a single frame from beginning to end, but the Bastion Cycles production strategy allows for five frames to work through the assembly line at different stages of completion. Also, they have designed their facilities so that production can go as low as 50 frames a year and as high as 200 frames without requiring further infrastructure investment.

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The complete frame itself designed to give consumers the best of both worlds as far as the materials used. As Ben articulated during our chat, the titanium isolates vibrations at high frequencies while the carbon fiber provides damping. Also, because of the printing process, they are able to keep routing portals in the frame mostly isolated to titanium pieces.

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The seat mast contains a system that allows for 20mm of seat height adjustment through the use of internal rigid spacers, ensuring that your saddle height is fixed. (Cool saddle shown is not included or available, I asked).

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Also, James designed a clever seat mast plug printed from plastic to contain the Di2 battery, junction box and integrated wire guides to keep it tidy. It utilizes an acme thread so that with a twist the battery pops up out of the mast, easy peasy. The frame at the show featured a flat mount disc rear brake mount.

But there’s even more. The last really interesting point about this bike is that it can be repaired… by Bastion. They keep every frame design on order so that if a new lug needs to be made, it can be. Also, carbon tubes can be removed and replaced rather than having to be patched. Engineers at Bastion want this to be your forever bike.

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All in all, Bastion Cycles has conceptually knocked it out of the park with their product. Consumers can place an order knowing how the bike will handle and with a deeper understanding of their frame – as its designer.

Bastion-Cycles.com

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32 Comments
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SF
SF
8 years ago

This 3d printed part are really well made, better conception that the ones made by moots.
But I prefer the idea to weld the parts to titanium tubes.

Rich
Rich
8 years ago

That’s f-ing awesome. And the bike looks great!

chase
chase
8 years ago

Wow. I love it. But if its on Bikerumor. Don’t they have to offer a Bamboo or Balsa wood option so they are sustainably grown?

Mike
Mike
8 years ago

Man that thing is technically impressive. I’m guessing I can’t afford one…

traildog
traildog
8 years ago

So cool

kbark
kbark
8 years ago

Very nice looking bike.

onion
onion
8 years ago

Undoubtedly thousands of dollars spent getting the prototype DMLS lugset in Ti; you’d think they could take the extra few minutes to get their graphic designer to layout the text on their dropouts a little better? In a font other than Arial?

But otherwise an incredibly slick looking machine. Very neat to see these guys pioneering the custom ‘printed to order’ geometry concept. Hopefully this becomes the inevitable future of many other metal products, as the technology becomes more affordable. I imagine these aren’t very cheap yet.

As with any other bonded design between isotropic metal lugs and anisotropic composite tubing, the fatigue life of the joints does make me nervous. We’ll see!

TheKaiser
TheKaiser
8 years ago
Reply to  onion

Not feeling ya on the graphic design comment, Helvetica FTW! 😉

It will be interesting to see how the bonds hold up, given the dissimilar materials and relatively small surface areas in some cases. Not that it is ideal but, from the sounds of it, if a bond loosened up after 5-10yrs, you could always just have them throw a new tube in there and be good for another 5-10.

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  TheKaiser

You are 100% correct. One of the advantages of this construction is repairability enabling is to offer a lifetime warranty.

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  onion

Thanks for the great feedback!

Regarding bonding… We use an aerospace grade adhesive that is formulated to withstand changes in environmental conditions like temperature, humidity, and chemical attack. The joint designs account for differing thermal expansion and surface preparation is taken very seriously. We checked models from the 80s and 90s using similar designs only with castings and they hold up very well.

Regarding font, point taken, but our CAD package does not have the same options as Illustrator! We will investigate how to improve it. If you have any other questions let us know!

Ol'shel'
Ol'shel'
8 years ago

When will we hit peak-elitist-bike?

nsp234
nsp234
8 years ago

Do I only like this because of the old S-works Ti-Carbon Frames of yore?

Quite nice, apart from the UGLY hashtags on the dropouts. I get the message, you can put a message there (3D-printing, yay!) but they could’ve also done this in a nce way. After all, it’s a show bike, innit?

Craig
Craig
8 years ago

This is the most impressive frame design I’ve seen in a long time. That frame is perfection in my eyes. And the online ordering process sounds just as awesome. That’s taking custom frames to the next level.

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  Craig

Thanks! A bit more info on the design tool shown here

http://youtu.be/J_wMOvBQC74

Jude
Jude
8 years ago

This company will usher in the new era of your local bike shop using this same process. Except the bike shops will probably adopt adjustable geometry frames to dial in the angles and fit at the same time. You can’t tell what adjustments do to head angle or effective trail unless you ride them

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  Jude

Hey Jude, thank you and actually we believe you can! Check out the video from NAHBS for a bit more insight…

http://youtu.be/J_wMOvBQC74

EatRideGrow
8 years ago

It’s official; Charge Bikes have missed the boat…

riley martin
riley martin
8 years ago

everything about this bike is badass…….the only thing that is not the ridiculous waffle fry graphic last picture……so sick of the waffle fry nonsense!!!

RD
RD
8 years ago

This is awesome. Any word on weight?

Agree with SF – would be cool to weld to titanium tubes, which would remove some repairability perhaps, but also be less likely to need repair..

Good on these blokes.

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  RD

The NAHBS bike was 6.8kg or 15lbs with disc brakes. Frameset is 990g (2.18lbs) in a medium 55 including ISP and cap (no hardware).

Pete
Pete
8 years ago

Awesome industry breakthrough, dare i say revolutionary?
And as with most everything, the process, the offerings, and hopefully the cost, should only get better.

Me
Me
8 years ago

Man that I a very ugly Brake Caliper.

Sean
Sean
8 years ago

Aus$7500 is the price of the frame and fork.

Mr. De Facto
8 years ago

Are you all hiring?

emmamaaranen
8 years ago

What a beautiful bike! Metier Velo is doing the same thing and mine is being delivered next week! (How did BikeRumor not notice Metier Velo at the show?) The Métier Vélo guy (Jamie – so fun to work and dream bikes with) will do full custom so you can design your own bike and he’ll build it. I don’t think Bastion is taking orders yet so go to metier-velo.com

2016.handmadebicycleshow.com/exhibitors/exhibitor-bike/2016/02/01/winter-training-bike-metier-velo/

Kristi Benedict
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  emmamaaranen

Hey Emma, give us a few days and we’ll get the rest of our NAHBS coverage up.

Emma maaranen
8 years ago

Awesome, I can’t wait to see what other forward thinking, fun bike stuff you found.

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  emmamaaranen

Hi Emma. Glad you like it. BTW We are taking orders. It is only our online interface that is not live yet. Customers are welcome to contact us in advance to secure a place in production.

drjwbriand
drjwbriand
8 years ago

i’m assuming you could produce a frame that would hold up to say a random 275 lb clydesdale too! heavy duty lugs and such?? looks great!

Bastion Cycles (@BastionCycles)
Reply to  drjwbriand

Hi, and yes we can. We spoke to some customers about this at NAHBS. We can easily adjust thickness of the Ti and Carbon to accomodate. Our standard bike is tested to a rider weight of 265lbs so it isn’t much more needed to get to 275… Send us an email if you are interested, we are taking pre-deposits to secure production places.

jb
jb
8 years ago

puzzled over the high price. machines are doing all the complex work that was done by skilled welders. tubes are also manufactured by robot. only human labour is bonding/finishing the frame…

jmanbball
jmanbball
8 years ago
Reply to  jb

Laser Sintering Titanium isn’t cheap. It requires a bunch of time, energy, and an inert atmosphere.

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