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 back in 2016, while the bike I wanted to do not exist. I had taken a sabbatical from work to spend 3 months visiting around Europe in a camper van, selecting off all of the first-rate riding spots. At the time, I become using an early Orange Alpine 29er because it turned into easy and dependable for a season riding. It opened my eyes to huge wheels and progressive geometry; however, the trouble turned into it had a derailleur caught to the returned of it.
Now I even have to mention that I was drawing motorbike frames for approximately as long as I can consider – I even found some drawings on my excessive school books from 15 years ago. I just in no way pretty 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 approximately making my personal 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 a long manner from the sunny, dusty climates that it seems most bikes are designed for. The idea turned into to make 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 the minimum of renovation.
I did not design a motorbike for manufacturing and promoting, but to find out what is genuinely feasible and not using a perceived advertising and marketing strategy and approached it as fixed engineering trouble. Buying a motorbike is straightforward; building one is a lot harder, but it definitely is a great manner to analyze what works, what doesn’t, and why. It is an awesome manner to dissolve thru 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 factors that don’t.
The long-term intention of my consultancy has continually been to paintings inside the cycle enterprise, so all of it just 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 set about constructing a pair of bikes in my workshop from scratch. From preliminary kinematic improvement and CAD conception to driving the bikes changed into four months in spare time fitted 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 did question if it changed into really worth it… what am I doing? I could purchase a motorcycle! But of the path changed into whilst the first bike rolled out of the workshop that made it all well worth it.
