Grow your own bike

doozerie

Interesting new technology, described here. Probably best to double-check your desired bike fit first though!

The 'Airbike' is made of nylon but, according to EADS, is strong enough to replace steel or aluminium and requires no conventional maintenance or assembly. It is 'grown' from powder, allowing complete sections to be built as one piece; the wheels, bearings and axle being incorporated within the 'growing' process and built at the same time. Because it can be built to rider specification, it requires no adjustment.

The new manufacturing process is known as Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) and it allows single products to be grown from a fine powder of metal (such as titanium, stainless steel or aluminium), nylon or carbon reinforced plastics from a centre located next to Airbus' site at Filton.

Similar in concept to 3D printing, the bike design is perfected using computer aided design and then constructed by using a laser sintering process which adds successive, thin layers of the chosen structural material until a solid, fully formed bike emerges.

Icyseanfitz

now that is strange....but oddly cool

GlennaMaddy

looks like Boardman has been messing around with microsoft paint and sent the print job to the wrong printer!

seamus

I don't understand why they always make concept bikes arse ugly.

Though I'm always in favour of anything which will make plastic MAG wheels popular again.

smacl

Looks like somebody bought a really big Kinder egg

Undercover Elephant

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks that might have been grown in the Night Garden?

Run_to_da_hills

It is like something that Sinclair would come out with in the 1980's.

The first pothole you hit is guaranteed to break your neck. :eek: