Made For You: Robot Bike Co

Is this the way bikes will be made in the future? Robot Bike Co certainly think so, and whilst it is early days yet, we have to agree that the concept is sound. Robot Bike co was founded by a bunch of guys with lots of bike and high-level manufacturing experience between them, and the concept was simple: create a bike that can be tailored to the individual rider. This is in itself nothing new, custom frame makers have been around for as long as we've had bicycles, but what is new here is the manufacturing process and the frame construction. Robot Bike Co's bikes are made from carbon tubes held together by 3D printed titanium lugs. Quoting RBC directly:

"We take the best characteristics from aerospace titanium and carbon fibre materials to provide you with a strong, resilient and lightweight frame. In short, composites work well when shapes and loads are simple – a wing spar for example. Metals work well in areas of high shape complexity and when loads come from different directions – aircraft landing gear for example. To take advantage of these fundamentals we put high strength to weight ratio titanium in the areas of maximum stress and connect these together with high stiffness to weight ratio carbon composite tubes. Then we move the joint away the area of peak stress and employ a state of the art double lap shear joint design."



Robot Bike Co just launched, and for now, the company only proposes one model, the R160. As you might guess from the name, it is a 160-mm travel full suspension frame, built as a go-to bike that needs to do it all - trail riding, enduro, call it what you want.



The hardware and the carbon tubes are manufactured to spec for each and every individual frame. The sizing and geometry data are input, following which a CAD program spits out the exact dimensions for every component of the frame (except some parts like the suspension rocker arm which remain the same from frame to frame). The lugs are then 3D printed, whilst the carbon tubes are laid up (using a unidirectional carbon layup that is said to be stronger than "classic" carbon weave). Specific bonding processes are used to get the parts to stick together (the company has used a lot of aerospace and F1 design expertise in coming up with all this stuff), and the frames are then assembled. It's all made in the UK as you would expect for an undertaking of this kind.



As we mentioned previously, the whole point of the construction method is to allow RBC to tailor each frame to the exact specifications of the customer. They can literally change every part with "the press of a button" in software, and build the bike using the exact same process every time. Of course, this level of customization has a price, at approximately $6500 USD (US prices still to be confirmed) for the frame alone the R160 won't be for everybody, but if you've always wanted to design your own frame right down to every parameter, this is your chance. The "base settings" provided are for a typical modern enduro bike, but you could go to town on any of them if you so desire:

FRAME SPECIFICATIONS:
Recommended head angle – 65.5 degrees
Recommended seat angle – 73.5 degrees
Recommended chain stay length – 430mm
Recommended bottom bracket drop – 10mm
ZS44 – ZS56 headset
73mm threaded bottom bracket
ISCG tabs
31.6mm seatpost, stealth dropper compatible.
216 x 63mm shock
M8 x 22mm shock hardware
142 x 12mm rear axle
27.5” wheel size
Custom fit frame price – £4395.00

Dave Weagle was brought in to provide the rear suspension layout, and he came up with DW6 - the 6th iteration of the DW link. It combines the anti-squat performance of the previous version with added tunability with regards to leverage ratio and braking characteristics. Additionally, the stiff and compact linkage design was specifically developed to work well with the R160 frame design and manufacturing process.

So there you have it. The bike industry never stands still, and we'd say that's a good thing. If you want more information on this exciting new concept, head on over to http://robotbike.co/ - and let us know what you think of the R160 below!