Wow this is awesome. Great find!
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Here is some insight into Allied Cycles:
This plastic mold is interesting. They probably do not sell that many full suspensions yet, so the prototype/temp mold makes sense. Does anyone know how many frames you can pull out of a plastic mold?
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It’s awesome to get a peek inside the factory!
From the article: Each mandrel has a port where high-pressure air can go in, which will press the inner mold against a CNC machined aluminum outer mold.
Sounds like they are just using the plastic molds for layup to minimize downtime on the much more expensive molds. Since they use heat presses for curing, I would imagine the molds need to be made of metal. Seems like a solid process!
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Posted on the Radavist today.
Shoutout to @ChrisBlandford for doin the writeup. I thought this was great quote.
He (Caletti) sees the entire handmade niche as competing against something larger and more threatening. The real competition is the big-business models of Specialized, Trek, et al. Passing on knowledge to younger builders isn’t undermining his own business. Rather, it’s feeding a tide that can raise all these small ships, his own included.
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Glad you enjoyed it! It was a great week and super fun to document. Hopefully more of the long-time builders out there will do similar things in the future.
-Chris
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Has Peter Verdone seen this?
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Few items heard around the internet this week.
First- @Swood has a great interview on Shut Up and Build Bikes
Second- is four hours of banter with Adam Prosise. The audio is rough but he is such an interesting person with great ideas.
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I love a good process!
Why do you ask? Did they show something he’d love to go on a rant about how he’d do it so much more ‘correctly’?
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PVD does some good work, however in previous forums, not the best delivery. Let’s not let the past negativity creep in here!
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Fair enough!
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I’m pretty sure that’s a layup aid, not the tool. All their other tools seem to be anodized aluminum.
And it looks like @BS_Industries already covered that. Oops!
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Some good ideas to try out when I decide to build my next frame.
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Really cool video on bike spoke, rim, hub, and overall wheel production.
My favorite part - look how close to net shape the hub forgings are at 6:26!! I’ve never seen this before - there’s a Hope video showing their initial forging, which has noticeably more excess material on the outside profile and no internal features.
I’d love to see the (hot, cold?) forging process for the hubs and other bike parts.
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Spotted this in a framebuilding tools group on FB.
@maurerframewerks is selling his entire setup.
Equipment list:
Photos:
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I wonder if those castings used by Hope are generic castings for hubs vs made particularly for a single model of Hope hubs. Hope may want to change their design more often without changing the casting (that would be another reason for it)
OR - Formula invested in better castings because it saves them a lot of money given the huge amount of hubs they make vs Hope where such investment may not means savings.
Either way it’s mesmerizing to see those machines working
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Here’s a great conversation with Jeff from Wilde Bikes about starting and running a bike company. Lots of interesting topics - overseas vs domestic production, selling frames vs completes, the logistics of paint, margins, branding/content/marketing/sales, etc.
Jeff seems like a great guy and really knows his stuff, highly recommend giving it a listen:
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Check out the way this guy miters his tubes. It’s total DIY and pretty brilliant.
-Jim G
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