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

2 Responses to “Or maybe it is?”

1. cs124 Says:
   May 17th, 2007 at 8:57 am

   Hmmm, a super tough, lightweight, non-stick surface. I’m picturing a range of Thylacine branded pots and pans marketed to bushwalkers and trekkers.

   You know where to send the royalty cheques!

2. thylacine Says:
   May 17th, 2007 at 9:05 am

   Funny enough there is a Teflon impregnated version you can get. Maybe I should team up with Jamie Oliver and we can do a Thylacine Pukka Outdoor Tukka range?

   We could call it…..T-POT.

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