The rise of the gravel bike segment has little question helped to invigorate the bike commerce alongside the rise of electrics. The significance of this sector might be seen with each Shimano. Campagnolo introducing devoted gravel groupsets. There can also be one other area of the cycle commerce that has seen a lift with the arrival of gravel – that’s titanium frame manufacturing.
An increasing number of firms are including a titanium choice as their high-end offering in the gravel bike market, however where is the manufacturing of these frames coming from? While there are many small volume manufacturers in the UK now offering frames and bikes, the fact is that just about all of that production is done abroad. Why is this the case? Are there no body builders capable of welding titanium? Is it the cost of tooling up to have the ability to work with titanium tubing, or is it some other cause? Then once more, if the market is keen to help the sale of titanium frames manufactured overseas, be they custom or inventory sized, ought to it even be thought-about a difficulty?
There’s one enterprise that builds custom titanium frames in bulk within the UK – Enigma Bicycle Works. Yet even for this southern-based mostly operation, the calls for of building with titanium are so great that it has to employ a hybrid manufacturing plan; its customized frames are inbuilt-house while the inventory measurement frames are imported from a producing facility in the far East.
Another to make use of the design within the UK, manufacture overseas model is Vaaru Cycles, which imports its personal line of titanium frames and finishes them in-house.
Talking in regards to the lack of titanium manufacturing within the UK Jim Walker, founder and owner of Enigma, states, “As far as I know we’re the one UK producer who builds titanium frames in any numbers. For me, it’s vital that we construct in Britain.”
Despite Walker’s need to keep manufacturing within the UK the logistics of doing so are at present proving to be insurmountable. “We don’t build the whole lot here because we can’t. We haven’t got the capability. I would love to make every thing here, but titanium is horrible stuff to work with. There’s so much you’ll want to do to get it proper and it’s taken us a very long time to get to the level we’re at, to get to grips with it,” explains Walker.
For James Beresford, the founding father of Vaaru Cycles, overseas manufacturing holds no worries or concerns. “I ran design tasks and spent years bringing high-quality cycling merchandise to the market. I have very little concern about our frames being built overseas. I have labored with them on a variety of quality products for over a decade and have loads of belief of their expertise and skill to create a quality product.”
Despite his confidence within the operations of the distant frame builders he works with, there are some issues which might be beyond anyone’s skill to sort that may have an effect on business. “An problem that’s out of our management is shipping and freight, the value and the timescales fluctuate which might be difficult however with common and trustworthy communication we keep our clients up to date,” Beresford explains.
Even when manufacturing takes place in the UK, as with Enigma’s custom body, the same types of challenges can create considerations. “It’s not solely groupsets which might be late,” says Walker reflecting on the present troubles throughout the cycle trade, “but we’ve been ready for our tube deliveries. One appears to have got misplaced in a black gap with the courier company. We source our titanium tubing from all over the world; the USA, China, Taiwan and Italy. At the moment it is rather, very hard to get stuff on time. It’s inflicting us real issues, we’ve obtained numerous frames that we can’t build because we’re awaiting the tubing.”
Within the grand scheme of things, provide issues are simply the most recent in a protracted list of issues that stop most small-scale bike manufacturers, the kind of outfits that want to add a titanium option to their existing steel ranges, from taking on titanium body manufacturing in-home. Unlike steel frames the place the tubes may be brazed collectively utilizing readily accessible, and relatively low-cost, gear, titanium welding is a way more complex course of. To ensure that the welds don’t get contaminated the joins must be shielded or purged with argon and to do that properly when constructing a bicycle body needs a particular jig, one which not solely holds the tubes in place but also floods them with the inert gasoline and this isn’t an affordable option.
Summing up the difficulties of what it was like understanding how to build with titanium when Enigma began its frame manufacturing in the UK, Walkers says with a snigger, “We know and understand it very nicely now, but it’s been painful and expensive. It was like chucking fifty pounds notes away within the early days.”
The knowledge that the group at Enigma has gained over time exhibits in small methods with the selection of tools within the workshop. Alongside the aforementioned specialist frame jigs, there are lathes and mills and more surprisingly a big sonic cleansing bath. Attributable to titanium’s sensitivity to contamination through the welding course of the sonic bath, although it provides an additional process, improves productiveness as it completely cleans the titanium tubes before they are welded and titanium forging improves build high quality.
Given this knowledge that titanium is so troublesome to work with, the plain question is why use it as a body materials? After working within the bike industry for almost 20 years and being from an engineering background Beresford says he “saw the opportunities with titanium and actually favored the qualities of the material”.
Beresford continues, “After riding plenty of titanium bikes, I beloved the texture and knew I may design a quality frame which had nice styling cues and targeted on bringing out the very best in the riding expertise.
“I was additionally drawn to the thought of a bike for titanium forging all times. I understand there are inevitable environmental impacts of making any bike so we felt that by using titanium we are able to create an extended-lasting frame that offers the proprietor a terrific foundation to keep the miles spinning for a few years to come back, it will therefore be a more sustainable product throughout its lifespan.”
Walker’s argument for the gray steel is that “titanium really lends itself to gravel bikes. For gravel and all-street bikes, titanium is the best material.”
And it’s that rise in gravel bike curiosity which means the Enigma workshop is as busy as it has ever been, which in flip is creating its personal set of issues. “I can’t get the body builders I want,” says Walker. “I can’t simply place an advert and recruit a frame builder who can work with titanium as a result of they don’t exist. They need to be educated. We’ve by no means really tried to get an experienced welder to do it [build a bicycle frame], however it’s an option we’ve been discussing. Doing what we do compared to the work most welders do is quite a bit completely different and that’s the place the problem is. We recruit fanatics who’ve a feel for the whole course of. You possibly can tell quite rapidly if somebody has what it takes to be a body builder.”
Despite the issues round provide, not only of raw supplies but also the expertise needed to create frames here within the UK, there does look like an upside to using titanium for frame manufacturing. The material and the way it performs stays a relentless as Beresford explains, “With new standards come challenges, however, the majority of these aren’t with the material itself. It is in preserving the finish. Ride quality our prospects anticipate while embracing changes. So, we undertake lots of R&D and produce samples to see and feel how these adjustments can improve our journey quality and our owner’s experience.”
The same point of view is put forward by Walker. “Of course, developments like tapered head tubes, flat mounts and thru-axles have changed our body specification, yet the material specification has remained pretty much the identical as at all times. Here is more information in regards to titanium tubing blog visit our site. ” Fortunately, for Walker, that’s good news as it is permitting him and his group to rationalise operations as much as possible as he goals to ultimately bring all body manufacturing in-house. “We have machines for just about every course of, titanium tubing blog with machines arrange for specific operations to attempt to streamline the production course of as much as possible. It’s a continuing strategy of making an attempt to improve effectivity. It’s tough stuff to work with. The extra correct we might be the faster we will produce frames.