Custom bikes in batch sizes of one

ideas2cycles was founded in 2010 by Kim-Niklas Antin and fellow students from Aalto University in Finland. The group maintains a broad network of industrial partners and continues to work in close cooperation with Aalto University and its students.

"We want to develop the craziest bikes and immediately implement our creations with the help of state-of-the-art production methods," claims Antin, a self-confessed bike enthusiast. His aim is to create new concepts that have an impact not only on the cycling scene, but also in areas of design, engineering, marketing and clean manufacturing technologies.

The company achieves this by adopting new approaches and trying them out in practice as early as possible. Antin’s business model is not one of endless committees discussing possibilities: “We want to turn our ideas into reality and build our own cool bikes." And, fortunately for Antin, the wherewithal to achieve these ambitions is at his disposal. Firstly, he is a graduate engineer, so he knows what he is about; secondly, modern digital production methods allow him to put his creative ideas very quickly into practice.

Ideas2cycles bases the concept of its bike frame construction on a simple but ingenious method, whereby the various tubes are combined to create custom frames using specially designed sleeves. Magnesium alloy is the preferred material for these precision cast parts as it provides an all-important weight saving.

"We have tried a variety of methods for building bike frames according to customer specifications in single batch sizes. But 3D printing technology turned out to be the simplest and most cost-efficient method," says Antin, who uses the services of the German 3D printing specialist, Voxeljet, which is able to create sand moulds and plastic models on demand from CAD data. This automatic, pattern-less manufacture of casting moulds and 3D models is of particular benefit to manufacturers of very small batch runs like ideas2cycles.

Antin e-mails the CAD data for the sleeves to Voxeljet’s service centre, where, a 3D printer is quickly mobilised to prepare the plastic models for subsequent precision casting in a fully automated, tool-less process. The plastic moulds are guaranteed with regard to their precision and ‘true-to-detail’ characteristics.

Kim-Niklas Antin already has a vision of the bike production of tomorrow: "The customer will select his favourite frame from a set of basic types, which is then customised to his requirements in CAD and subsequently printed using the 3D printing method – job done!"