New electric bicycle struts for Trial and Enduro in PA66 and fiberglass

Climbing the ridges of the mountains, venturing along the hills, in the woods, on the paths, then descending towards the valley, facing the roughness of the natural terrain is a fantastic experience.

Stones, rocks, roots, embankments, holes, branches, clods and everything that nature brings us together in the descent, put the bike that accompanies us in our outdoor fun is a strain.

With the advent of eBikes, even those intended for trial and enduro, having the weight of the built-in battery, the search for weight reduction in the overall structure of the bike has become essential.

Lightning does not mean, however, a reduction in the sturdiness and durability of the vehicle but, on the contrary, it means less weight but with the same mechanical resistance and performance.

With this idea a new strut was born from the collaboration between RadiciGroup and Acerbis, a new product for the sector of two electric wheels, lighter and with high technical performance, used for some Fantic branded Trail and Enduro bike models

It is an innovative and completely new project for the world of e-bikes and comes from the desire of two companies from Bergamo, RadiciGroup and Acerbis, to offer the market solutions high performance and design: it is a strut for electric bikes, made for the first time in nylon instead of aluminum, which allows a better response of the rear triangle to stress of the ground.

The first to want to use this innovative component, the result of painstaking research and development work, was Fantic, an Italian company specializing in in the production of motorcycles and electric bicycles: it has chosen to mount the new strut on some Trail and Enduro bike models which were previewed at EICMA 2022 and which are now already in production and available for purchase.

«Being a structural component that is part of the bike frame – said Claudio Ghilardi, CAE Analyst, Marketing and Technical Service of RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers – we have proposed a special material based on polyamide 66 reinforced with glass fibre, precisely to ensure that the product can withstand the continuous and strong stresses to which it is subjected.

Moreover, with this solution the mechanical properties, such as stiffness and resistance, are less influenced by the absorption of humidity.

Great attention has however also been paid to the aesthetic rendering, so much so that the material guarantees an excellent surface appearance, is stabilized at UV rays and is designed to withstand exposure to atmospheric events over time».

The use of RadiciGroup compounds allows a 10% weight reduction of the component and avoids the painting process, currently used for the metal component, thus also improving its environmental performance.

RadiciGroup technopolymers, in fact, are mass-coloured, i.e. during the extrusion phase of the material, this means that the component is already "ready to use" at the end of the injection molding phase, with an excellent surface yield.

One of the main requests was precisely linked to the high aesthetic level and the possibility of satisfying complex geometries, in line with the elegance and style of Fantic products.

It was therefore possible to achieve this result thanks to the close collaboration between RadiciGroup, Acerbis and Fantic in all phases of the project, from product design to formulation of the material, from the creation of the mold to the injection molding process, up to the use tests of the component mounted on the e-bike.

A completely Italian and fast supply chain that has allowed us to pass the stringent tests carried out in the customer's laboratories 10 times compared to the initial requirement.

"This partnership between Italian companies - underlined Guido Acerbis, CEO of Acerbis - represents for us the opening towards a new way to think about the products which, shared with our partners, will allow us to accelerate some productive reshoring towards Europe.

The project has allowed us to implement metal replacement by re-engineering it and improving its function; by simplifying and shortening production times, we have increased the quantity of products placed on the market in a short time».

Machine translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.

Source: Acerbis