What goes around comes around, especially when it is a bicycle. While carbon fiber may be the current material for the major frame makers, some small builders are returning to good old metal – but in new and innovative ways. One such builder is Ronin Metal Masters of San Francisco – a small three man partnership that is is building frames from laser-cut or punch-cut sheet metal.
This method reportedly allows for the sheets to be folded by hand, and even curved into pre-stressed self-reinforcing tubes. The pieces are glued or riveted together, and the company has designed bikes made from high-end steel, aluminum or titanium. Considering all the bikes made from wood, bamboo and even nylon, it is interesting to see someone going back to metal.
And where this material may have a leg up on even carbon fiber is in that it could make for truly customizable, with the sheet metal “printed” at shops around the country and “build” locally. The company is currently working on getting things rolling as a Kickstarter project.