Every few months, news breaks of another high-profile rider throwing their leg over a 3D-printed bike. Alex Dowsett, Filippo Ganna, world scratch race champion Will Tidball. The list isn’t exactly endless, but each one makes headlines and increases the sense of mystery. A shroud seems to cover 3D-printing, and as manufacturers disclose scant details, excitement builds around a dark and exciting art coming soon to a garage or shed near you.
In truth, it’s not dark, but it can certainly be exciting, and the possibilities it offers all of us are closer at hand than you might imagine. If your instinctive reaction when you first found out that someone printed a bike was along the lines of “How the–?”, then you’ve come to the right place.
A very brief description of how it works: the printer takes the material you feed it – whether that’s a plastic filament or (if you’re very rich) powdered titanium, or some other material – and melts it onto a baseplate, building it up in very fine detail, layer by layer, until the piece is complete.
