I see they lost their vowels like Canyon. It’s a global conspiracy !Introducing the next "Sick Bikes" of the world.
When popping nipples isn't enough!
ZLV Industries (formerly Zelvy) has put down the spoke wrench to pick up a welder in order to bring "Chinese made" to the Australian market.
If you want the thrill of random weld failure every ride and dont really like emails and phone calls answered, this will be the frame for you!
mmmmm.... curvy.And for something even more brazen!
Are making a full suspension frame that you can get on a pre sales list for.
looks like it would weigh about the same as a std shipping container
PJO
in me vL comy
The curves don't do it for me, kinda looks wrong and 2009, like this:And for something even more brazen!
Are making a full suspension frame that you can get on a pre sales list for.
Or maybe it's not extreme enough:
Z
Zaf
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hifiandmtb
Sphincter beanie
Not new but wow, building a frame using this technique is an ugly process!
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
It's an amazing (but disgusting) process isn't it? And that's almost industry leading lay-up techniques with proper pre-preg sheets, minimal sheet layering and minimized resin use. Interesting they skipped showing the removal of the polystyrene bladder form fillers - That would general involve some nasty chemicals I would imagine. Would be fascinating (and possibly scary) to see the difference in techniques and wastage between this approach and the cheap Chinese/Taiwanese frames though, as the approach with them seems to be more along the lines of lather it in resin and slap sheets on and trim by hand as needed.
Fingers crossed Santa Cruz can make some more progress on getting their reusable mould bladders a bit closer to regular production and cut down on even more wastage.
While it's impressive to see just how little material they can get away with using on a top-end frame like this, it still says a lot for how much more environmentally friendly metal frames must be?
I also couldn't help but wonder if doing the symmetrical weave pattern cut along the top tube and head tube could potentially weaken the frame over the long term... Cut too deep and score the underlying layer and you'd introduce a weak spot into the weave surely?
hifiandmtb
Sphincter beanie
I was watching the vid trying to work out how the foam mold things & bags were removed, I assumed they stayed?
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Being so much smaller than the outer walls of the frame I think the polystyrene is only used to give a rough form for the carbon lay-up to be built upon. Once the carbon is laid onto it, resin is applied to the carbon*, the mould assembled, and then the mould is put into the autoclave (oven) and the internal bladder (bag) pressurised to press the carbon hard against the mould while the resin cures.
Then once the product (frame/swingarm/whatever) is removed the polystyrene is chemically disolved, poured out and the bag pulled from the mould (typically an oily plastic that the resin doesn't adhere well to). That was the difference in what Santa Cruz was experimenting with - using reusable forms (silicon forms if memory serves correctly...) filled with removable ceramic beads that could (in theory) be used repeatedly. If you left the polystyrene form and pressurising bladder (bag) in the frame the polystyrene would be loose and probably squeak or rattle around over bumpy terrain.
Compared to cheaper carbon frames Unno have actually used remarkably little (and very well placed) amounts of carbon sheet, so kudos to them for that.
*(also not shown, unless there's some proprietary step at this point. However there seems to be some resin that has been pressed out of the mould and hardened that you can see when they split the mould so I'd assume it's just like usual. There's possibly enough resin in the pre-impregnated sheets, but it seems unlikely. Not 100% sure either way here though!)
hifiandmtb
Sphincter beanie
Yeah maybe they just left out the steps they wanted to keep secret?
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Partly that I suspect, but probably the majority of the editing motivation is to not show all the chemicals and wastage involved (I'm not saying I'm a envirosaint here, I've bought a few carbon frames in the past as you know). Always a point worthy of mention with carbon IMO.
Ultra Lord
Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
Mr Crudley
Glock in your sock
Who' da thunk we would read an XC bike article even if a bonus ye olde Heckler is in there
As time rolls on, it does seem like a quiver killer will appear that can be XC efficient but have d00d like character for the gnar. It is good that MTB's are still evolving and improving overtime. Just sorting out the marketing speak vs. reality is the trick.
ashes_mtb
Has preferences
They've been around since at least 1996...
Was chatting to someone last week about Rob Eva, being the last (possibly only?) to win both XC and DH National titles in the same year. I reckon it'd be great to see a multi format event where you have to do both DH and XC races on the same bike.