16 May 2007

Alrighty. Eight months in the making, probably as many or more design drafts later, I’m pretty chuffed to introduce to the world the Thylacine Ether.

The impetus behind this new model was on a number of fronts. The first one was our sponsoring of our first bona fide weight weenie boy-racer, and the second was the desire to evolve the steel frame to the highest level since the introduction of the Ritchey P-20 some 17 odd years ago.

What we’ve ended up with is what we believe to be the lightest no-compromise steel XC hardtail you can buy, at a rather eye-popping 1545g, or dead on 3.3lbs in the old language.

The methodology behind this design is a pretty straight forward reductionist one - evaluate and rationalise every single part of the frame in accordance with a specific design brief - the brief being, don’t compromise the ride or feel or integrity of the frame.

So that’s what we did, and this is what we came up with -

We didn’t cut any corners with this frame. It still sports a 1 1/8th” headtube, the downtube is a massive 38mm, and none of the other tubes are any smaller than you’d find on a say our Arete SL. There’s absolutely no trickery either, no carbon, no plastic bits, and no hidden features that make it so light. It even has a pewter headbadge.

As mentioned in an earlier post, another one of the firsts for this frame is the high performance ceramic based finish. I guess you could say it’s kind of like the steel equivalent to anodising, except about 100 times as tough. Not only is it insanely hard, it’s also light - adding less than 40g to the finished weight of the frame, which is crazy. I did however discover a downside to the finish as I was decaling these frames - decals don’t want to stick! The finish has some bizarre self-lubricating propreties meaning it’s hard to get stuff to stick to it, but finally I managed to find a way. Of course the upside of this is that with the approach of Winter, I have a feeling mud doesn’t stand a chance trying to stick to this stuff!

Does the lightness ever end!

So yes, there we have it. It’s been a long time coming and a lot of hard work, but as you can see from the pictures it’s been well worth it.

Are you a weenie with a penchant for all things steel? Meet the Thylacine Ether.

Posted by warwick @ 6:24 am

14 May 2007

Alright, the new Tephra CTi has offically lept off the drawingboard and is about to become as real as the Intarweb!

Okay maybe not, coz I still have the tech drawings to do, but the customer has signed off on the final draft, the carbon is on it’s way to the carbon people, and the Ti has also been ordered and will soon be on it’s way to the Ti people. It’s weird - I kinda feel like I’m stuck in the middle between Paul MaCartney and Stevie Wonder, attempting to negotiate a good treaty between Ebony, and in this case, a kinda warmish grey.

In case you haven’t been following, here’s the abridged story. I always liked the concept of the Lemond ‘Spine Design’ bikes, except they never really looked like a carbon bike and a Ti bike fused together in passionate embrace, and of course they weren’t custom so as far as I’m concerned they were the usual pap of ‘five sizes fits nobody’. Read: Good opportunity to make a custom version of the same basic concept.

That was about six months ago, but logistics and a recalcitrant fabricator basically made that impossible.

Fastforward to circa now, and all the planets are aligned, we have a great customer who has fallen in love with the idea, so it’s full steam ahead with the project.

It’s no surprise here at Thylacine that we don’t do many roadbikes. Roadies are a fickle bunch, heavily obsessed with brand and the image amongst their peers that comes with the territory. Many of those brands are about 95 years older than us too, so you could say we’re at the ‘edgy, underdog, youthful’ end of the spectrum rather than the ‘crusty, we’ve won 40 Giro d’Italias, what have you done?’ end. No biggie - you gotta start somewhere, right?

So this is a good chance for us to put on our little roadie caps (You know, the one with the little peaks that do nothing) and really go to town.

The process started with meeting the client at John Beasley Cycles to meet John and get fitted. This was a pretty straight forward process with John putting a lot of weight on his breadth of experience rather than any rocket science, which is fine with me. Or, it could be he’s keeping the rocket part a secret, which is also fine with me. Anyway, I won’t bore everyone with the details of three bike nuts sitting around talking about bike, core stability and long femurs coz you’ve read it a million times. Bottom line - I’d recommend John for your next bike fit. He charges a reasonable amount, carries a wealth of experience, and is attentive and down-to-earth. All in all, very much a viable alternative to the eastern suburbs option.

From there I sat in front of the computer for an hour, scratched my nads for a few days, sat in front of it again, did some calculations, and came up with the geometry I think will work well for the client. So, without further ado, here’s the design of the first ever Thylacine Tephra CTi!

Posted by warwick @ 10:27 am

01 May 2007

One of the cool things about Ascot Vale is that it’s the first stop of the day for most freight companies. It’s even cooler when stuff like this shows up

These are some of the parts and carbon components for the brand new Tephra CTi. They’re a little different probably from what you’re used to identifying as ‘carbon’, as the tubes and the stays for this brand new addition to the Thylacine family are ‘unidirectional’ carbon fiber, or what it otherwise known as ‘what your carbon parts look like before they have the decorative weave put on top.’ As Paris would say, “That’s hot”. It kinda glows copper in the sun, whereas in the shade it just looks black.

Next step is a trip to the fitters to get the customer fitted up, and then we can begin the design process to get the geometry and handling dialled. This is going to be one sweet ride.

Posted by warwick @ 12:12 am