Burton Bikes brings AM titanium lugs to Raptor I enduro bike
Burton Bikes, based in Cambridge, New Zealand, has reported that after a couple of years of development its Raptor I enduro bike, which features additively manufactured components, has now completed its first ride. Kieran Burton shared via LinkedIn, “After a couple of years designing and making this bike, I finally got to ride it for the first time this weekend.”
The frame uses an increasingly established approach in high-end bike development: additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V lugs bonded to carbon fibre tubes, with a linkage-driven 4-bar suspension layout designed using Kinema, suspension design and analysis software Burton has been developing with software engineer Eli Murray. In a previous LinkedIn post about a prototype for the Raptor I, Burton stated that the lugs were produced by RAM3D. RAM3D claims that it has manufactured more than 12,000 bicycle parts in titanium and stainless steel for diverse builders and makers across the bike industry.
Development of the Raptor I progressed from a CAD model to a functional bike, from the frame geometry and suspension kinematics to the individual components.
“The first ride exceeded all expectations. There’s still plenty of testing, riding and development to do, but after spending this long working on it, it’s pretty awesome to finally have it out on the trails — and riding even better than I’d hoped,” Burton shared via LinkedIn.
