Read time: 9 mins.
Key highlights:
- Betting on AM: Why British Cycling has doubled down on its use of AM.
- Under pressure: Making parts to withstand hundreds of kilogrammes of force.
- Additive advantage: How AM has helped deliver the 'best track bike in the world.'
This article was first published via the Additive Insight newsletter on July 25th, 2024.
In a Renishaw facility in Gloucester, UK, a sudden feeling of panic.
It is August 2nd, 2021. Week two of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Renishaw Lead Application Engineer Ben Collins is at his desk when a passing colleague remarks, ‘Did you see the handlebars snap on that bike in the team pursuit?’ with no further elaboration or detail.
Collins, part of the team that developed the handlebars for Team GB’s track bike, is filled with fear. Fear that will pass with a quick scroll on social media, but until then, the seconds feel like hours.
A huge sigh of relief. Though the handlebars of cyclist Alex Porter did snap off as he rounded a bend, he was wearing Australian colours.
Team GB wouldn’t earn a place on the podium in that discipline, but the riders did finish safely, and Team GB did go on to pick up seven medals across the various other track bike events. A number they’re hoping to potentially double at this year’s Games in Paris, with the help, once again, of Renishaw’s metal additive manufacturing technology.
A testbed in Tokyo
Renishaw was the third engineering company recruited in a collaborative effort that began ahead of the Games in 2021 – delayed by a year, of course, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. British Cycling had first called on the support of Lotus – a company that had previously developed a gold medal-winning track bike back in the 1990s – with Hope Technology being brought into the fold shortly after.
The resulting HB.T track bikes were built on the foundations of Lotus’ HB.160 models, with components like the fork and seatstays repositioned to achieve greater aerodynamics and the handlebars, fork and stem additively manufactured to reduce weight.
The handlebars and stem – the component that connects handlebars with frame – were both additively manufactured in titanium to ensure greater strength, while the fork was printed in aluminium.
With carbon fibre also utilised for the frame and forks, the bike weighed just 7.5 kilogrammes, and was rode by the likes of Jason and Laura Kenny, with the former becoming the most successful British Olympian of all time and the latter becoming the most successful British female Olympian ever.
Priorities for Paris
"All the time we’re thinking about ergonomics and how the riders are going to be able to position themselves."
By the end of the Tokyo Olympics, there was at once a satisfaction with how the bike had performed, and an acknowledgement that there was plenty of scope for improvement.
Recounting the journey from one Games to another on the day the track bike was launched at the UK National Cycling Centre in Manchester, British Cycling Lead Project Engineer Oliver Caddy noted how: “We knew there were some things we didn’t get to, or we didn’t do quite as well as we’d have liked. We were pretty confident that there was a mark two in there and the mark two could be even better.”
