MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation

Looks sick and unique with the big tubing (and is probably strong as hell). 

Anyone know what's going on in the headtube area? Storage? Eeb console? 

The headtube area is machined rather the 3D printed. The black part on the top is just a cover to stop there being a big open hole behind the steerer tube. You could put something in there but when I saw it earlier this year it would just roll down the downtube and fall out the bottom.

Why would there be big hole right behind the upper headset bearing, where high impact loads are transferred?

Anyway I love the looks of that frame. Pitty it's not DW6 layout but still very interesting.

Does anyone know the price difference between an alloy tube to a carbon one ? Is it really that big of a difference to justify an alloy model ?

Headtube lug commonality with ebikes? 😜

I think the biggest difference will be the machined aluminum lugs rather than the 3D printed titanium lugs. Both in terms of material costs and manufacturing times.

Bang on I reckon. 
 

I don’t think it’s the carbon that makes the Atherton frame so expensive but the process of 3D printing the titanium and then needing to remove from the ‘sprue’ and finish by hand. 

Designed well, CNC machined lugs should be ready to assemble out of the cabinet, saving a huge amount of time. Combine that with aluminium tubes and I’d hope the frames will be quite a bit cheaper than the AMs. 
 

As I said above if they make an AL130 with the same geo as an AM130X, made in Wales for a reasonable price I’ll buy one. I love the idea of shorter travel bikes rated to bike park standard but the cost of the AM130 is a bit more than I can afford/justify. 

Carbon tubes are as cheap as chips... Of course it's the printing that's the problem. 

Ultimate head angle adjustment. Can be slacked out to -50*. 

maybe they are planning an integrated steering damper. Seems to be hot right now. 

PUSH left snowy Colorado and is out in Cali to presumably officially release the USD fork.

Is Vital MTB going to get the "scoop"?

Are they going to let @TEAMROBOT and @Jonathon Simonetti do some flex testing?

we got our scoop in february of 2023 LOL.

And you didn't share it in this thread? Shame.

pretty sure we did. this clip

At least it's not my first rodeo of making an idiot of myself on the internet...

That wasn't  a scoop, that was a peek with pretty much zero details.

We need it ALL.

lol. fair enough. we have the podcast we recorded w/ darren in feb ready to rip when he says it's ok. hopefully sooner than later (and obviously what we recorded will be nearly a year old).

Do we?

How bout' this

-Inverted (clearly)

-39mm lowers

-147-176mm travel adjustable in 7mm increments, done internally, can only be done at Push's shop

-CNC'd CSU, that are bonded to the upper tubes using loads of good intentions

-HSC, 47 clicks

-LSC 3 clicks

-HSR, 9.7 clicks

-LSR only adjustable internally, requires several model specific tools, like a 10mm socket (you know yours is mssing) easier to send to Push

-Axle made of unobtainium, with a special 7 sided octagonal design said to increase torsional stiffness by 36.89% over previous model, with proprietary axle sizing, to fit readily available 120mm width hubs

-Its built "for life" (requires make, model, year, colour, wheel size, tire pressure specific tune, that is only approved/tuned by Push.  Currently tunes only available for 2008 Specialized Enduro SL Expert when replacing dual crown, and 2023 Banshee Titan when ridden in mullet configuration, with anodized black frame colour)

-Doesnt require HBO, cause its got NBC* engineering

Let me know if I missed anything.....

Oh yeah...

$3800USD, 4200 Euro (+VAT), dont bother asking for $CAD, (enough to buy two 38's or Zebs, with money left over for a season park pass)

*(Never Bottom Component)

Wouldnt machined aluminium lugs with carbon tubes be a better compromise then?

Depends on what you want to achieve. If it's differentiation between the two lines, then no. Best price performance, probably yes. But machining aluminium lugs might also be a bit of a challenge. Maybe casting (porosity and strength issues) or forging then machining to spec might be a better compromise. 

I'm no expert at carbon fiber and resins used but corrosion appears on carbon to resin interface if there is aluminum on the other side. Leading to loss of bondage. How would you disconnect entire lug when one of its connections need repair?

Good point actually. As to how you would disconnect,t he lug would do it for you

I've heard about comments from an aerospace composites engineer saying he would never sit on a 5+ year old carbon bike or ride in an old carbon tubbed supercar (think Mclaren F1, Ferrari F40, etc.) or a racing car of similar construction (old F1 cars, Group C and other Le Mans prototypes, etc.) because of this aluminium corrosion - engines are usually stressed members, bolted to the tub through aluminium inserts, corroding away through time.

There's a new company in my hometown making CNCed aluminum + custom carbon tube'd bikes. No MTBs yet but they put out a lot of details on anything to do with these topics on their Instagram, worth a follow for the other nerds: https://www.instagram.com/frameworkbikes/

To answer the alu-carbon question, they made a story about it a while back in a Q&A. At least for them, the alu parts are plated and the bonding agent has glass microspheres that go between the tube and the lug so there isn't any carbon touching aluminum. 

They also did a repair on a proto bike with superlight tubing that had broken and basically just cooked the lug until the glue melted and pulled the tubes out. After a bit of sanding inside to get everything clean they just repeated the same process as usual. 

They have also said that 3D printed titanium is super expensive and not as good structurally as CNC'ed parts, but that explanation went a bit over my head with engineering and physics. Maybe it's not as good as CNC but those Atherton bikes have been hucked and still seem ok. The expense isn't surprising as it seems like Atherton Bikes has some big financial backing and is maybe looking to prove themselves before going cash positive (though I have no information to back that up) and maybe the alu prototype is a way to get there. Also maybe aluminum all around just to make it as freeride/bikepark friendly as possible? Even if an equivalently strong carbon tube isn't a big price difference to an aluminum tube, there's still a perception in the bike industry that aluminum is more robust for bigger riding. 

It might get pretty confusing if they started making mountain bikes...

https://www.instagram.com/frameworkbikes/

https://www.instagram.com/frameworksracing/

Still alu, didn't spot a bottle or bottle cage inside as it was at a jump park but definitely had space for it. Was full 29.

The galvanic corrosion of aluminium nipples in carbon rims is also a great example why one has to be very careful with that. For example a layer of glass fibre ontop the carbon fibre is a way to solve this issue 

They’re coming to the Santa Cruz area to talk with some LBS that carry them and are doing some tech talks with the community. 
 

I heard they are bringing the 9-1 and the SV8 along with some other cool things. 
 

check out trail head Cyclery’s instagram for details if you’re local

3D printed parts could be more porous than billet milled parts. That's one of the biggest issues I'd say, but from what I've seen it's not really a big problem, parts get filled out nicely. 

With machining it might be really hard to make some of the parts hollow (reaching inside the part with the tool and catching all the pockets) and making things really thin walled might also be a problem. 3D printed parts on the Athertons bikes are double walled where the tube is inserted, making a pocket to apply the glue, to ensure the glue covers the overlaped portion of the lug and tube completely. 

unno's light-weight ebike with tq motor - https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/unno-unveils-ikki-lightweig…

serious question...why do integrated bar/stem combos exist?