Colnago Steelnovo

[benb]

Originally Posted by fourflys

would be interesting to know what about the steel fork didn't measure up.. initial thoughts is trying to hit a target weight?

agree, should be interesting to see where 3D-printed lugs go.. Colnago certainly isn't a pioneer in this for sure, there are several others doing this.. it would seem to open up custom geos/unique tube shapes a lot more (from a lugged perspective), right?

Yes definitely.

I think the other thing with the price here is if they only made 70 bikes and this is their first project with the 3D Printing there is a huge amount of engineering time amortized in each one of these frames.

Totally different from just about any other kind of metal bike where there seems to be a very well established playbook on what all the parameters have to be and you can make a great frame without any engineers.

The fact they made all the prototypes of the steel forks and then had to abandon.. that alone must have been very expensive.

I think it's really interesting to look at the reactions to the invisible lugs. I wonder if age determines how these look aesthetically to you. If you were around for the glory days of lugged bikes maybe visible lugs appeal to you differently than if you came up in the era where lugs were already gone.

[Fat Cat]

If I had that many $ to piss away I'd probably be shopping Craigslist for a Ducati

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by Philster

Looks great. I agree that the seat stay cluster looks like a Prova and that’s a good thing. However, to me, a bike is first and foremost a tool for a job.

Yeah, seems like this seat cluster is in fashion (or folks are getting the same 3D-printed cluster).

- Neuhaus uses something similar on their Eypon: https://www.neuhausmetalworks.com/eypon

- Rodeo also has a variant on the Flaanimal 6 Ti: https://www.rodeo-labs.com/flaanimal-6-titanium/

I think why it may not be appealing to some folks is the color scheme / paintjob is a solid color on a large smooth surface. Get a graphic designer to break things up visually.

[osbk67]

This is the bicycle one purchases when they can’t afford a J. Laverack Aston Martin .1R

[benb]

If they can print the lugs that accurately you would think it would actually simplify parts of the production process?

That whole thing with printing the lugs is stupid expensive now but say Giant puts it into production at massive scale I bet they find a way to make it cheaper than some of other forms of making a steel frame.

Obviously that requires finding some way to make the wider market want steel frames again though.

[sheepdog84]

beautiful bike, but slightly boring looking when viewed from a distance.

certainly, a bi-product of this "everything old is new again" age we live in.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by earlfoss

It looks like an Aethos

Steel bikes don't need to pretend to be carbon to be cool. Show me lugs, show me fillets, show me welds.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by texbike

I'm willing to bet that they end up offering this as a frameset within a year. After putting this much R&D into the platform, it would make sense.

Meh, my guess is that they were trying to figure out how/where it makes sense to use additive manufacturing, and decided to try to make a product with a ton of it to offset their R&D on the process.

The company I work for (a big Fortune 500 auto parts manufacturer) does a lot of high mix/low volume products for commercial vehicles, and we've been pouring in a lot of R&D time and money into additive for the last few years. Additive manufacturing is *still* stupid expensive, with the main advantage being that there's no tooling costs so you can make a lot of different things easily with no additional cost.

However, cycle time is still crazy long and the raw material cost is also very high compared to bar stock or casting ingots. Ductility (and its associated fracture toughness) is also not up to snuff compared to a forging or a wrought material.

I'm sure that Giant could bring down costs somewhat as @benb is predicting, but personnel is not a huge cost in additive and that (and volume) is Giant's main advantage over domestic carbon makers. I think that Giant would rather invest in the tooling for forgings/investment castings, and make the advantage up in volume rather than mess with additive.

[Keaton]

Love this thing, Fantastic GCN showed the production process.

[rallizes]

Looks great.

I prefer it to the old timey stuff.

[jadmt]

Originally Posted by osbk67

This is the bicycle one purchases when they can afford a J. Laverack Aston Martin .1R

fixed it

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by rallizes

Looks great.

I prefer it to the old timey stuff.

Same. It isn’t retro and nostalgic. It’s just trying to do what steel can be really good at.

As to what others mentioned about a larger production run of a similar bike, I also wonder if that’s in their plans. Maybe with some color options.

Regarding the GCN video, I really liked that. They showed the ‘museum’ and what they said was Eddy Merckx’s hour record bike. The tires are just shreds of fabric now. I seem to recall there being one on display somewhere in Belgium as well. I wonder how many “Eddy Merckx Hour Record Bike”s exist!?!?

I thought the Ferrari was a pretty cool thing as well. It fit the theme of the video.

Tangential to this, one of the GCN presenters, and I don’t remember his name, has a new channel to showcase what I believe was an inheritance - a beautiful and large English manor home. It’s kind of crazy that he was a YouTube presenter one day on a bike channel all the while being very well off. And anyone who has seen this video knows he’s got a lot to manage. That home and farm is a project and a half.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by saab2000

Tangential to this, one of the GCN presenters, and I don’t remember his name, has a new channel to showcase what I believe was an inheritance - a beautiful and large English manor home. It’s kind of crazy that he was a YouTube presenter one day on a bike channel all the while being very well off. And anyone who has seen this video knows he’s got a lot to manage. That home and farm is a project and a half.

That's Hank.. James Williams Lowsley or something like that.. I guess the manor has been in his family for several generations.. I think the channel is called Living on the Manor or something like that.. I watched the first episode, seems pretty cool, also seems like it's certainly not all rainbows and ponies having a manor like that.. seems a bit like Clarkson's Farm..

[ldamelio]

Pretty bike and the 3D printing (GCN video) is interesting technology.

At 18K I see it as a collector piece. If you want modern Italian steel, Officine Mattio and others make beautiful bikes at half the price with similar spec.

I'm good with my RS - lifetime bike for me but admittedly a different niche.

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by fourflys

would be interesting to know what about the steel fork didn't measure up.. initial thoughts is trying to hit a target weight?

agree, should be interesting to see where 3D-printed lugs go.. Colnago certainly isn't a pioneer in this for sure, there are several others doing this.. it would seem to open up custom geos/unique tube shapes a lot more (from a lugged perspective), right?

Maybe a disc brake steel fork is hard?

Also, it was also interesting that the bike is not made in house but down the road. Columbus tubes, 3D lugs from a third party, and fabrication by another group. And it is called a Colnago?

Give me an in house Tommasini or Daccordi any day.