Randolph Palmer What do you do if your dream motorcycle does not exist now? Design and construct it yourself! This is the story of the first AMOS Design bike frame. Built no longer sold. The mission started in 2016, when the bike I wanted did not exist. I took a sabbatical from work to spend three months visiting Europe in a camper van, selecting all the first-rate riding spots. I used an early Orange Alpine 29er because it became easy and dependable for season riding. It opened my eyes to huge wheels and progressive geometry; however, the trouble turned into it had a derailleur caught to the return of it.
I have to mention that I have been drawing motorbike frames for approximately as long as I can remember – I even found some drawings in my excessive school books from 15 years ago. I just in no way pretty much got around to doing anything about it. Fast ahead to 2016, and I am strolling a small product layout and engineering consultancy based in Wales specializing in excessive-give-up doors equipment. My day-to-day product design paintings are mountain climbing, mountaineering, load monitoring, and tactical equipment; all exciting excessive-give up UK synthetic stuff and basically, the equal design ethos as cycling equipment – plenty of excessive electricity, low weight, hot metallic forging, and CNC machined components.
I had been chatting trash about, making my body, and complaining about the lack of progression inside the motorcycle enterprise for years; however, now I had the sources, schooling, and abilities to make it show up truly. Put your cash in, which your mouth is. I can’t stand dreamers who by no means act on their goals. I stay in Wales; it’s far moist, muddy, and gritty for what appears like all the year. It is long from the sunny, dusty climates that most bikes are designed for. The idea turned into making a bike that ticked all the ‘Welsh’ specification boxes: gearbox, 29er, 150mm tour, easy 6061 T6 aluminum production, innovative suspension gadget, and the standard long, low, and slack. A no bull**** solid workhorse that I should journey all year round and chuck again inside the garage after a muddy experience with minimum renovation.
I did not design a motorbike for manufacturing and promotion. Still, I approached it as fixed engineering trouble to determine what is genuinely feasible and not use a perceived advertising and marketing strategy. Buying a motorbike is straightforward; building one is a lot harder, but it is a great way to analyze what works, what doesn’t, and why. It is an awesome way to dissolve the marketing rubbish and apprehend the engineering basics of bikes. I am not pronouncing motorcycle corporations lie to us. However, some elements make a distinction, and some factors don’t.
The long-term intention of my consultancy has continually been to paint inside the cycle enterprise, so all of it seemed to be an awesome fit. I also desired a project I could proportion with no highbrow property sensitivity, as the day-to-day work is usually absolutely secret until the product gets released, which can be 2-three years away. This is natural innovation wherein you design an answer for exactly what you need, not for what the advertising crew wants. But can you build an aluminum full-suspension motorbike body in a small workshop without a huge R&D budget or any background in bike design?
I roped in my exceptional mate, Edd, and we constructed a pair of bikes from scratch in my workshop. From preliminary kinematic improvement and CAD conception to driving the bikes, it was changed into four months in the spare time that fit around the ordinary business. Many lengthy days, early mornings, and coffee photographs. I look again on time with fond recollections, but some late nights, I questioned if it changed into worth it… what am I doing? I could purchase a motorcycle! But the path changed when the first bike rolled out of the workshop, making it all worth it.
