Have you ever wondered how mountain bike frames are made?
How It's Made has the answers
How It's Made has the answers
How It’s Made is an engineering documentary that does exactly what it says on the tin, shows how things are made. It’s been running since 2001 and has featured everything from absinthe to violin strings.
Back in 2014 it visited the Devinci factory to see how mountain bike frames are made and the video has now been put on YouTube. It may be less than five minutes long but it shows the process of the bike changing from aluminium tubes to fully fledged enduro machine pretty comprehensively.
To begin with the “aloominum” tubes are cut to size and then welded in a jig. The frames are then heat treated so that any defamations created in the welding process can be corrected easily. When the frame is correct to factory specifications it will be heated again until it is hardened.
>>> Want to know how carbon frames are made? Click here.
Next comes the painting. The frames are painted with auto-grade paint which dries in an oven for 20 minutes. The transfers are applied and then the whole bike varnished to create a crisp finish. The frame is now ready to be assembled and then shipped to the customer or bike shop.
Ok, so we know it’s not the most technically challenging video in the world, and some of the language (“quick gear changes are key to successfully manoeuvring trail obstacles”) may be a bit patronising for us regular riders, but we still think it’s a pretty neat insight never the less.