Jason Ford

Bespoke bike company puts additive in the frame

News

A Monmouth-based company hopes to break the mould with a bespoke mountain bike frame that has come to fruition with Altair, HiETA, and Renishaw.

Finished_Frame

For £4,395 the Robot Bike Co (RBC) will build customers a bespoke frame with carbon fibre components and tubing bonded into the double lap joints of additive manufactured lugs made from powdered titanium.

Despite the price tag, RBC maintains that the R160 fulfils criteria missing in today's mountain bikes, with AM parts allowing for customisation in a market more used to moulding carbon fibre frames in three sizes. RBC founding partner Ed Haythornthwaite added that technology developments would eventually bring bespoke bikes to a wider market.

To order a frame, customers use RBC's website to input their height, inside leg measurements and arm span, from which the size of the frame is then calculated. A CAD model of the entire bike frame is quickly generated to ensure the optimum fit, with 11 titanium lugs built around the customers’ exact requirements.

Altair

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