With the Bespoked customized bike present returning to Dresden beginning tomorrow, let’s have a look inside Actofive Cycles, who machines stunning mountain bikes within the German metropolis. We’ve been intently following Actofive for a number of years – from the event of their variable journey path to enduro bikes, to their chainrings and modular cranksets. But we additionally had the distinctive probability to get a better look behind the scenes on certainly one of our final visits to Dresden.
Check out these machined aluminum gems with us, and a few uncommon up-close appears on the inside their machined masterpieces…
Actofive Factory Tour: CNC-machining mountain bikes in Dresden, DE
Fully CNC-machined, Actofive produces a number of the most refined mountain bikes you’ll discover wherever within the biking business. But they’re really fairly a small specialist producer, sitting inside an previous industrial constructing on the sting of Dresden, Germany.
Beneath, these old-school riveted metal trusses and tucked in with a number of different sorts of small producers is a extra up to date field hiding the trendy capabilities of Metzner Engineering and the house of Actofive Cycles.
Once contained in the inside sanctum, various Actofive fashions and growth prototypes hold on the wall of the unassuming workshop.
Metzner Engineering: The man behind the machine
Really, there are 2 secrets and techniques that make Actofive.
One is the person behind the model, Simon Metzner. And the opposite, the exact Portatec CNC milling machine. Working collectively, these two create each Actofive mountain bike and element.
The CNC-machine and a number of other of its distinctive options are produced by the corporate of Simon’s father, primarily for the aerospace business. But as an alternative of taking up the enterprise, Simon at all times had different concepts of methods to use these machines. And with mountain biking being his ardour, Simon Metzner went out on his personal to begin up Metzner Engineering, a contract CNC-manufacturing firm created to permit him to additionally additional his MTB element and bike growth.
So by mixing his experience in manufacturing course of optimization, the CNC capabilities of his small workshop, and deep mountain bike design data, Simon has developed Actofive right into a sought-after small German mountain bike producer creating true CNC-machined MTB gems.
From prototype to manufacturing
We have been first actually launched to Actofive’s high-pivot alloy P-Train about 3 years in the past. But Simon has been engaged on that first adaptable-travel enduro bike for not less than a number of years longer, since 2018. That’s when he frolicked his personal shingle as Metzner Engineering, after leaving the household CNC machine manufacturing enterprise.
In its first iteration, the bike began with a welded metal entrance & rear triangle joined along with CNC-machined alloy hyperlinks. And it has continued to evolve in lots of iterations alongside the way in which. That authentic metal bike now sits in Simon’s workplace with a machined rear finish fairly just like right this moment’s manufacturing P-Train.
And whereas CNC-machining aluminum has at all times been sort of in Simon’s blood, he isn’t fully beholden to at least one materials, and even the subtractive machining course of. He’s toyed with different supplies – like titanium – and likewise with the potential of contemporary 3D-printing capabilities.
But machining aluminum has outlined the event of Actofive’s bikes and parts these final 6 years, particularly the usage of intricate and well-thought-out milling designs. And it varieties the idea for Actofive’s distinctive clamshell, or sandwich development.
And Simon continues to point out that he has extra concepts on methods to refine each his designs and their manufacturing. So there’s loads evolution left to do in CNC-machined aluminum.
Inside Actofive’s manufacturing facility tour: MTB elements in-process
Looking across the Actofive workshop throughout our manufacturing facility tour confirmed a fairly good pattern of their full providing, in numerous levels of completion.
Here are a few I-Train path bike entrance triangles. The two halves have every been machined from each side – the surface that we will see, plus the intricate inside webbed truss construction that Actofive doesn’t let anybody else see.
We had a peek, and it’s much more spectacular that the tremendous instrument marks you see on the surface. The design of the inside construction permits Actofive the power to fine-tune power and stiffness at numerous areas throughout the mountain bike body, whereas preserving it light-weight.
But Actofive is cautious of giving freely the secrets and techniques of how they obtain their steadiness of lightweight-to-strength. And particularly resistant to offer away the design of their interlocking system that’s used to bond the 2 halves of a body collectively to create the whole bike.
We additionally had an opportunity to observe some Actofive crankarms be machined of their first step throughout our manufacturing facility tour.
From alloy slabs to machined gems
The coronary heart of every thing that Actofive produces begins out as easy slab of aluminum billet.
And actually, most of Actofive’s parts come all the way down to machining one aspect to get the ultimate outdoors form. Then, flipping it over (and securing it to a detrimental fixture on the milling machine) to hole out the second aspect.
The easiest elements like their extra inexpensive Signature X crankset, the P-train rear finish, and the I-Train seatstays depart it at that, the place you possibly can see each side which were machined. But extra advanced hole elements just like the mountain bike entrance triangles & Signature cranks, get 2-sided machining for every body half which are then bonded collectively to create the extra advanced hole construction.
But in fact, shifting large heavy chunks of aluminum round is sort of troublesome earlier than all that additional materials is machined away (and picked up for recycling). So Actofive has this good little crane of their machining room, which permits Simon the power to simply maneuver every thing on his personal.
And then, as soon as held down on the milling machine’s worktable with a robust vacuum strain, the intricate designs could be carved out of the uncooked billets of aluminum. Most typically in densely packed, nested layouts to optimize probably the most quantity of parts out of a single piece of uncooked aluminum materials.
CAD upstairs + CAM downstairs
Everything that Actofive produces in made in-house within the manufacturing facility that we toured.
Simon has a design workplace upstairs straight over his machining room.
There every thing is designed and refined in SolidWorks, creating the computer-aided design (CAD) information to drive the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) processes one flooring under.
ActoFive’s key manufacturing outputs…
Actofive’s specialty is creating 3 issues. CAD/CAM information, metallic filings, and out of that… precision machined alloy parts.
The Portatec CNC mill is the brawn. But the brains of the Siemens controller manages all of the machining processes, tooling, and the place these instrument minimize. While Simon can remotely function every thing from his pc upstairs, for manufacturing, every thing is dealt with straight on the machine. There’s a lot uncooked information governing the machining course of, this ensures that any potential minor breakdown in communication couldn’t negatively have an effect on the ultimate work.
Besides information, Actofive’s manufacturing facility is roofed with these small aluminum filings we noticed in our tour.
Sure, the majority of fabric will get effectively collected for recycling, however loads of chips fly round. That’s why machining occurs in its personal fully enclosed room. But each time Simon strikes round to manage the method, filings stick with his garments & footwear. And since they’re not magnetic, it’s a chore to completely maintain beneath management.
So he has separate garments and footwear for engaged on bikes & parts within the store. And simply resigns himself to common cleansing and swapping to separate clothes earlier than leaving the workshop.
Lastly, specialised machined alloy parts. Actofive is the bike model that drives Simon Metzner’s ardour. And from that we get full-suspension Actofive mountain bike frames, cranksets & chainrings.
But he does loads of contract manufacturing too. There’s actually a little bit of crossover within the bike business – issues like bashguards, high caps, and even some extra superior components like rocker hyperlinks & seatstays for different bike firms. But there’s loads of different industrial machining, too. Simon defined that he spends the overwhelming majority of his growth and manufacturing time on the Actofive mountain bike aspect of issues, however nonetheless greater than three-quarters of his revenue comes from contract machining.
Actofive Factory Tour: MTB cranks, chainrings & frames
Signature X cranksets have been a giant shift in making Actofive parts extra inexpensive, from slightly below 400€.. or half the price of the unique hole Signature cranks.
Actofive direct mount chainrings add 120-150€ on high of that.
The rocker hyperlink on the I-Train is one other nice instance of Actofive’s artistic 2D manufacturing. Like most of their MTB parts, it’s made by merely matching two halves (from each side) which are then joined along with a easy keyed interface and a single bolt for easy power.
MTB frames begin from 6000€ for the less complicated I-Train body set. A P-Train will set you again not less than 7000€.
Interestingly, one technique to come up with an Actofive mountain bike body for a bit cheaper is perhaps to put your fingers on a present demo. With Bespoked on the horizon, Actofive is providing offers of their on-line store on earlier variations of the I-Train that have been already proven. And they’re even providing the customized mk2 I-Train bike upfront, that shall be on show within the Dresden Airport present over the weekend.
Anodized eye sweet colours
Of course, one of many cool advantages of an all-machined-alloy mountain bike (or parts) is the power for some flashy anodized finishes. Actofive has a companion handle their eye-catching colours, however they will even do some enjoyable stuff with two-done finishes one aspect to the opposite.
I particularly just like the half blue + half silver race bike of Czech enduro World Cup racer y Vojta Bláha/DVO who confirmed off his bike to us for the DVO Prime launch earlier this summer season.
Inside the precise clamshell Actofive mountain bikes…
OK, so right here’s an actual uncommon sneak peek inside an Actofive…
This crimson/orange I-Train entrance triangle is manufactured in 2 halves with a clamshell design. By machining all sides individually, Actofive can creates the precise easy outer form that they need for the bike, however can fluctuate thicknesses all through numerous sections of the body, very like you discover with butted tubing.
But in actuality, the within of the I-Train is far more advanced that that, that includes a collection of reinforcing webs that change the tube wall thickness far more than might be achieved by any tube-to-tube fashion development.
And then the true secret comes with the mechanically overlapping finger joint from one aspect of the body to the subsequent. This tremendously will increase the floor contact space between the 2 halves, leading to a robust bond when the body is assembled with adhesive. And it additionally reinforces the joint on the high and backside edges of the body, defending it in opposition to impression with rocks or different obstacles.
One factor I actually love about Actofive’s bikes is how one can see the machining marks that present how the CNC tooling cuts forwards and backwards into the aluminum billet. But in fact, since they machine the within of the body simply as a lot as the surface, our Actofive manufacturing facility tour additionally gave us an up-close glimpse at how these instrument paths are even seen inside the body.
Like on the within of this I-Train’s headtube.
What comes subsequent for Actofive?
That was just about it for our Actofive manufacturing facility tour. We received to observe some Signature X cranksets be machined – 60 crank arms at a time in that batch. And Simon revealed us a little bit of what was coming quickly this yr. Think UDH compatibility throughout all frames, in fact, together with the power to retrofit all the frames that they had beforehand produced. And these newly machined, open-back seatstays that changed the I-Train’s authentic welded tubing stays.
Plus, there’s much more that we are going to see over the approaching searching for with extra next-gen P-Train & I-Train updates.
Stay tuned for that!
Actofive after darkish
And with that, we’ll depart you with Actofive ‘After Dark’.
Much of Actofive’s CNC-machining processes take 8 hours or extra to finish. So Simon tries to schedule it in order that he can arrange a machining process on the finish of his workday, to run in a single day. And he’ll typically even decreasing instrument speeds a bit to make sure much less probability of any hassle when the machines are left to work on their very own.
Actofive has a webcam within the machining room so Simon can dial-in to maintain tabs on progress – whether or not he’s upstairs working at his desk on one other venture, or again dwelling for the evening.
And whereas the lights exit within the human aspect of the Actofive workshop, the sunshine typically stays on all evening because the CNC robotic chugs away, machining mountain bikes by the lonely evening.