Metal Machinists of STW — can I pay you to make me something?

I need one of these please!
Can anyone quote me a cost to have one made?

It seems to be a prototype that never got produced sadly, I can’t find any contact details of the designer.

More info and some tech drawings can be found here:
prototype info page

Genuine enquiry!
Cheers
Jon

jonwalla24@gmail.com

I guess there’s a reason why it never made production. Can’t you just get a new saddle?

I don’t make stuff, but design it (unfortunately not bike related). I’d expect to pay a few hundred pounds for something like that (in a basic grade of Al), but you need to supply drawings and say what it’s made from. It obviously needs to fit together so you need to think about tolerances and stuff like that. You could easily spend money and end up with something that doesn’t work or is to weak to be useful.

Can’t you just get a new saddle?

Nooo, i love my flexy I-beam saddle!

rich mars- hmm yeah would be pretty handy if i had tech specs for it

Flexi I beam? I thought they were a lot stiffer? They certainly look it as they are an I beam not some nice flexy rails.

Just get a nice titanium railed saddle and a dropper post 😉

I suggest you find a friendly bloke with some kit in a shed, who’s happy to play around and try and make something. (Or a professional who has a long lunchtime!)

andy- i think because most of the support is along the centre, the ‘wing tips’ flex loads, you can grip it in your hand and twist it.
If you set the seatpost clamp towards the front of the beam then you get an good bit of suspension really which is handy on a hardtail

richmars- indeed that would be awesome…..anyone? 😀

bump for the evening folk

can anyone price me up a batch? I’d be happy to get a kickstarter/group purchase going

I think the answer probably is no 🙂
You’re not asking someone to machine something. You’re asking for someone to Research the appropriate standards, choose the appropriate materials, design something to the correct tolerances, produce some drawings, manufacture a prototype, re-design and then manufacture it, and be held liable for any injury caused by it’s use.

Buy an I-beam seatpost?

IanMunro has it. FIne if you make it yourself, but IMO it effectively has to be CE marked if you do it for someone else…

I have a metal lathe and this project looks awesome. With some proper drawings or at least some basic dimensions where I can make up the rest, I would happily have a go at making this for you! We speak more about spec if you think you would like it!

my god have i been to sleep and woke up in MERIKA ?

If i had the spare time at the minute i would happily make it for you FOC just so i could re-design and m/c it, a small piece of 2014 anodized would be more than strong enough for the application and i would be very surprised if you ever had a failure that would necessitate you running to the solicitors.

so much mambee pambee rubbish is spouted on here by a lot of peeps that think they know a thing or two.

utter BS.

AND

I drove all the way to the alps with my carbon frame on my roof rack CLAMPED hard at illegal speeds ! nobody died (maybe a baby robin got killed).

AND

I spent 7.5K on my last build.

AND

I have some Troy Lee clothing

AND

I don’t give a monkeys what you lot think

Go with skiboy, he seems a reliable sort.

It looks perfectly simple to make given some dimensions. I don’t have time at the moment. If it was for me I’d make both half’s the same and press a nut in the counter bore on one side cause I’m lazy.

It’s one of those parts that although it might look simple, it would be a bit of a pain to machine. Unless you happen to have either a 5-axis or mill-turn machine, it’s going to need at least 3 setups to machine all features.

The initial side profile could be done in one go, but for the intricate machined out bit at the rails, it’ll need flipped over, as you won’t get a small cutter long enough to do both sides. Then you’d have to flip it over, and hollow out the inside and cut the radiuses for the dowel nuts to sit in.
You also then need to machine the bit for the rail clamp, as I doubt they’re just relying on pulling both sides together with the bolt. I’d think it would need to much flex for aluminium to allow enough tolerance and squish to clamp effectively while still being able to release the rail.

It is doable, but I’d guess people wouldn’t want to pay the cost for an adapter, which is probably why it never made production.

Of course, you could redesign it to make it easier to machine, but you’re still going to need at least two setups in the absence of a 4th axis.

Quick edit – Actually, if you go for a two piece design, a single setup could work, although I’m not sure how that would work strength wise in terms of the two pieces trying to pull apart under the various loads.

I guess small parts like this are not cost effective to make. I know that a lot of the small brackets and pieces are loss leaders for Hope as it costs more to make them than they charge for them, even when they seem expensive at Rrp.

I could make it easily but you could probably buy two new reverbs for what I’d have to charge you. 3 hours odd of design time and 2 hours maybe of cam and probably 2 or 3 hours of setting up and machining, plus hardware plus anodising

Oh and plus material but that’s nitshit

but I’d guess people wouldn’t want to pay the cost for an adapter, which is probably why it never made production.

Mass produced then it would be cheap enough to do on cnc.. but a one off your talking a few hundred quid..is it really worth that to you?

Imo it’s a neat idea and if I had one of those saddles and couldn’t live without it I might make one. But it’s solving a problem that doesn’t really exist. You can buy a normal saddle for nitshit, and they are kinda consumable so you would have needed one sometime anyway. Fixing a reverb lever nicely to shimano brakes, I’m all ears to a nice solution there

Very relevant point from my which makes the design and machining process interesting. mc is right it looks more complicated than it is and is slightly making a problem out of nothing. Mayvbe makig a cnvertiln piece from the standard Thompson seat clamp to this bar type and is a simpler and better to idea!

I’m going to send out a couple emails in the morning 😀

Just to reiterate, just chucking a railed saddle on is not a solution. I want the flex of an I-beam saddle on a reliable Thomson dropper.

I will measure up my existing ibeam clamp to get some ideas of dimensions