Crafting “the world’s most beautiful bicycle” with additive manufacturing

Global engineering company, Renishaw, has collaborated with J.Laverack Bicycles on the development of a luxury bespoke bike. Described as “the world’s most bespoke, most advanced and most meticulously engineered road bike”, it features titanium components made on Renishaw’s RenAM 500Q metal additive manufacturing (AM) system.

J.Laverack is a UK-based designer and manufacturer of titanium bikes. Founded from a love of cycling, the team is passionate about how its bikes look, feel and perform.

“Our relationship with Aston Martin started when a member of the design team became a customer of ours,” says David Clow, Co-Founder of J.Laverack. “He used the bike to commute and it caught the eye of other Aston Martin team members. Planting the seed for a collaboration between the two companies, we set out to design a high-end, luxury bespoke bike together.”

In a luxury bespoke bike, aesthetics are highly important. The aim was to make a visually ‘bolt-less’ bicycle from a combination of titanium lugs and carbon-fibre tubes. Nearly every element can be tailored to the exact measurements of the rider, from made-to-measure handlebars to unique frame sizes. This concept defies traditional bike design, allowing for components to be adjusted for different rider shapes, sizes and physical attributes.

“We started this project from a blank sheet of paper,” says Oliver Laverack, Co-Founder of J.Laverack. “We wanted to totally rethink bike design to make the most bespoke, beautiful and technologically advanced bike possible. It would be made to measure – to the millimetre – as a series of perfect one-offs.”

He continues: “During the development of the bike, we realised that 3D printing would enable us to make high-performance, geometrically optimised one-off parts. AM requires no tooling and is perfectly suited to low volume, customised applications. However, AM is a relatively new technology and we had limited experience with it. We were looking for a development partner who could support and guide us with designing and manufacturing the AM components throughout the project.”

J.Laverack reached out to Renishaw for support in manufacturing the titanium lugs, brackets, fork drop-outs, head tube, rear drop-outs, seat tube lug and X-wing. Renishaw is a UK-based manufacturer of metal additive manufacturing systems, which are assembled at its Miskin facility in Wales.

“Working with Renishaw on the additive manufacturing was a no-brainer,” emphasises David Clow. “Not only is it a world-renowned British engineering company, we were impressed by their work on the British Cycling Olympic track bikes.

Says Joe McMurtry, Mechanical Engineer at Renishaw: “We assessed the best way to lay out the individual parts on the build plate, determined the best angle to orientate them and designed a support strategy. As every AM part is different, so too is the approach, and we had to adapt accordingly to achieve the highest quality components. When making the top head tube, we decided to build the part on the plate without supports, adding extra stock for machining off later to ensure there was no possibility for error when removing the part from the build plate.”

Renishaw engineers built the parts at an angle, which eliminated overhangs and allowed them to create a geometry that did not require internal supports. Metal additive manufacturing provided the design freedom needed to make complex geometries that would not have been possible using traditional subtractive methods, while enabling the ‘lightweighting’ of components. This included internal lattice structures, an important factor with bike design and manufacture.

Following optimisation of the design and support strategy, Renishaw began to print the components in aerospace-grade 6AI/4V titanium in 30 micron layers. The company undertook heat treatment and post-processing before sending the parts for FEA (finite element analysis. The components are produced on Renishaw’s flagship RenAM 500Q system, which features a gas flow system, dynamic control and software for connected digital workflows.

Using AM, as opposed to more traditional frame-building approaches, made it possible to remove materials from certain areas of the frame where it was not needed, helping to reduce weight from the bike. As a result, the J.Laverack Aston Martin .1R starts from just 7.5 kg.

The .1R is the world’s first ‘bolt-less’ bicycle, with no visible bolts, screws or attachments at the headset, seat clamp, calipers or bottle cage. Brake hoses are concealed within the handlebars which is a complex part that uses the same design and manufacturing technique applied to the front splitter of a Formula 1 car. Each bike takes over 1,000 hours to create, including over 500 hours of CNC machine time. Every detail is meticulously engineered and designed to meet the specific needs of each individual.

Notably, the titanium lugs have an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio due to the internal lattice structures, which enhance stiffness and torsional stability.

“This bespoke titanium and carbon bike is a great example of collaboration between British companies that are committed to innovation,” says Chay Allen, Customer Applications Manager at Renishaw.

Oliver Laverack adds: “I think we’ve made the most beautifully designed and engineered bike in the world. It’s sleek, stiff, fast and we have the ability to make them totally bespoke to the individual. It really is a masterpiece in British engineering, and shows what a true collaboration can achieve.”