Singletrack

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Laying up the slices of carbon, ready for the moulds. ‘That’s definitely not the one you made, Simon.’ 18
We looked at samples of 2018 bikes – the rear triangle of the Myst now has a three-position dropout and this had been constructed in a 3D model, attached to a regular carbon swingarm. This is often machined or printed from solid plastic to allow regular components to be fitted into place to check fit. There were also colour samples to check on frame tubes. While Pantone colours and paint chips can go a long way to standardising colours, nothing beats seeing a painted frame in real life rather than rendered on a computer screen. Composite Gear’s factory was a much bigger outfit than I’d seen so far. It was both more high-tech and low-tech than I’d imagined. CNC plotters precisely cut carbon sheets, which were then laid up precisely according to a very strict menu of what went where, yet in another room, freshly made, high-end time trial frames sat in a big bucket as they came out of the moulds, before going to be finished and beautifully painted and decaled and sold for thousands. On one machine, prebonding surfaces were precisely machined and cleaned before glueing. On the next machine, a guy seemed to just eyeball the drilling of a shock-mount hole. And while that might be entirely in tolerance, these things are often why designers like to see the whole process for themselves before just assuming that the factory is doing what it was meant to. Generation Game. An example layup demonstration for a Kili Flyer was set up for us in the clean layup room. A worker moved with effortless grace as she built up layers of carbon prepreg sheet around a plastic-coated wooden form. Layer after layer went on according to the predetermined menu as she added large sheets and smaller reinforcing ones, all cut and oriented to maximise the stiffness of the carbon fibres. When it was done, she whipped out the wooden form to leave a hollow, but still floppy carbon tube ready to be joined onto other frame parts before it went into the oven. We then saw the pieces go into another, female wooden form for the head tube to be wrapped on. Then the front end was fitted with bladders and ready for cooking in a heated steel mould. While a company like Hope can painstakingly cut and beautifully lay material directly into the final mould, they’re only making a frame or so a day. At CG the moulds can’t be left idle for a moment and they’re not even cool before the next frame is fitted in and sent to be baked for 90 minutes. Simon was invited to try his hand at laying up a top tube. Even though to our eyes he did a good job of peeling off the backing and smoothing down his tacky carbon sheet on top of the others, our carbon mistress wasn’t happy and pulled it off again, smoothing it back down again with an expert touch that I can only equate to how a master sushi chef crafts a maki roll. Rob Crayons does like. Simon making sure the colours are true. 19
Page 2 and 3: 2
Page 4 and 5: 4
Page 6 and 7: 6
Page 8 and 9: 8
Page 10 and 11: 10
Page 12 and 13: Into China. A bleary, jet-lagged st
Page 14 and 15: Wailing welding solos on the wah-wa
Page 16 and 17: Building Boris. Our afternoon visit
Page 20 and 21: Final holes are drilled, post mould
Page 22 and 23: Our final stop was to see the sampl
Page 24 and 25: JASON MILEs PHOTOGRAPHY ED ROLLASON
Page 26 and 27: TRAIL HUNTER EXPLORES THOSE MUST-DO
Page 28 and 29: That’s LegoLand down there in the
Page 30 and 31: Soon to be railing corners on the w
Page 32 and 33: We climb higher. Al leads the way,
Page 34 and 35: 34
Page 36 and 37: Pick a better day for weather, we d
Page 38 and 39: Balls. The walkers, sensing blood,
Page 40 and 41: RECOMMENDED HERE AT SINGLETRACK TOW
Page 42 and 43: TROY LEE DESIGNS RAID KNEE PADS Pri
Page 44 and 45: TOPEAK RATCHET ROCKET LITE NTX Pric
Page 46 and 47: WORDS CHARLIE THE BIKEMONGER ROOM 1
Page 48 and 49: KILLER HARDTAILS Wil and the crew r
Page 50 and 51: KONA HONZO CR TRAIL DL Price: From:
Page 52 and 53: 52
Page 54 and 55: NUKEPROOF SCOUT 290 RACE Price: Fro
Page 56 and 57: 56
Page 58 and 59: TRILLION CYCLES PRIME Price: From:
Page 60 and 61: 60
Page 62 and 63: VERDICT In a marketing landscape th
Page 64 and 65: ENDURO BAG “To finish first, you
Page 66 and 67: 66
Page 68 and 69:
Bright coloured photo-gimp avengers
Page 70 and 71:
Bright enough for any weather. 70
Page 72 and 73:
Illustration by BEATE KUBITZ 72
Page 74 and 75:
Mmmm Guinness. We didn’t bother c
Page 76 and 77:
CROWN COPYRIGHT The Knowledge Total
Page 78 and 79:
78
Page 80 and 81:
KEITH BONTRAGER “Strong, light, c
Page 82 and 83:
Keith, we were talking about the co
Page 84 and 85:
It’s 15 years since we last inter
Page 86 and 87:
86
Page 88 and 89:
And finally, Keith, you made your n
Page 90 and 91:
90
Page 92 and 93:
Hangover remedy: A single dose of s
Page 95 and 96:
A Hopton, a skip and a jump. Hopton
Page 97 and 98:
Essential fuel for any aspiring que
Page 99 and 100:
HI-TECH RUBBER James Vincent and th
Page 101 and 102:
STEP INSIDE MY LAB Tyred and Tested
Page 103 and 104:
102 The tough casing on the TRSr ty
Page 105 and 106:
BEST SUMMER TYRE MICHELIN WILD ROCK
Page 107 and 108:
106 At 1150g, the Hutchinson Toro i
Page 109 and 110:
BEST ALL ROUNDER MAXXIS HIGH ROLLER
Page 111 and 112:
VERDICT We tested ten set of tyres
Page 113 and 114:
PREMIER DEALERS. Bike shops and bus
Page 115 and 116:
DISCOVER AN EXTRA 32 PAGES OF EXCLU
Page 117 and 118:
116
Page 119 and 120:
Rise and shine! Our two guides pick
Page 121 and 122:
After the descent we continue down
Page 123 and 124:
Island hopping and a change of scen
Page 125 and 126:
Snack-time, Azores style. Formosa f
Page 127 and 128:
The Azores The Azores are a group o
Page 129 and 130:
IAn BAILEY PHOTOGRAPHY IAN AND FRIE
Page 131 and 132:
In the clearing, Matti, our guide,
Page 133 and 134:
132
Page 135 and 136:
134
Page 137 and 138:
Not the bars he had in mind. Hike-a
Page 139 and 140:
A sprinkling of magenta on a cloudy
Page 141 and 142:
What goes up… In proper ’90s st
Page 143 and 144:
142 Those fat tyres just glide over
Page 145 and 146:
There’s far too much order in tha
Page 147 and 148:
ChIPPs LAST WORD Event organisers a
show all

Singletrack

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?