The Atherton siblings, Gee, Rachel and Dan alongside with Piers Linney of Dragons’ Den fame have recently launched a bike brand, Atherton and have chosen Renishaw to additively manufacture titanium lugs for their bike frames.
Acknowledged as the World Championship-winning mountain bikers, for the first time, the Atherton family will now race with their own bikes. First part of the production will be carried out at Renishaw’s Additive Manufacturing Solutions Centre located in Staffordshire, UK, followed by a transition towards in-house manufacture by Atherton Bikes.
The manufacturing process
In order to complete the team that will bring life to this project, Dave Weagle, a renowned suspension designer, along with Ed Haythornthwaite and other members of the former Robot Bike Company will join the existing team.
Renishaw had previously worked with the Robot Bike Company by manufacturing the titanium lugs for its R160 bike frame. However, the lugs for Atherton Bikes are the first bike components to be built on the four-laser RenAM 500Q system, which enables increased productivity, without compromising on quality. Carbon fibre tubing is the material that will be used during the manufacturing process.
“Manufacturing the lugs on the RenAM 500Q enables rapid production time,” explained Jono Munday, Additive Manufacturing Applications Manager at Renishaw. “This means that the bike frame development can be turned around quickly and customised to the exact requirements of the rider, whether that is the Atherton Racing team on the World Cup circuit or an individual retail customer. Whereas traditionally a lot of tooling is required, additive manufacturing is an entirely digital process, meaning that the lugs can be modified in CAD and reproduced more efficiently.”
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