LEAD OUT: NEW GEAR
Bastion Road Disc
Three Australian automotive engineers walked into a bar, and the Bastion
Road Disc was the result
I
t’s not often that we see something entirely, uniquely new. When the Bastion Road
Disc – the fruits of labour of three automotive engineers from Melbourne – arrived
we were treated to a rare helping of nonconformity. Extravagantly woven carbon
tubes are fixed together by 3D-printed titanium lugs in a design reminiscent of
titanium-carbon fusions championed by several bespoke builders, yet altogether
different. ‘There is actually nothing like a Bastion,’ says Ben Schultz, founder of Bastion
Cycles.
Every part of the Bastion frame is designed in-house and manufactured in Australia,
mostly at Bastion’s own facility. The tubes are made locally using a filament-winding
process where strands of dry fibre are passed through a resin bath and wrapped over a
preform structure to create the carbon tube – a process rarely seen in the bike industry.
This filament winding is intended to increase the neatness of the carbon, reducing
voids, wrinkles or kinks. The process also gives the tubes their almost decorative weave
pattern.
‘Aesthetically the distinctive weave has become part of our design DNA,’ Schultz says.
‘This wasn’t our original intention. We initially planned to paint the tubing as we knew
achieving a premium “naked” finish is extremely time-consuming and we wanted to
offer more paint customisation. Giving the tubing a high-quality naked finish actually
takes days, but we’re yet to have a customer who wants to completely paint the tubes.’
While the tubes abound with technical wizardry, the titanium lugs are Bastion’s key
innovation. ‘We’re using the latest 3D-printing to form titanium in previously impossible
shapes to create Bastion’s breakthrough frame design,’ Schultz says. He argues that the
lower stiffness of titanium improves the ride quality, dampening vibrations from the
road while maintaining the stiffness for power transfer. The isotropic nature of
titanium, he adds, also does a great deal for the frame’s strength and longevity.
The lugs are made of 6/4 titanium, the stiffer of the titanium grades used in cycling, but
are created from titanium powder rather than worked into shape from a prefabricated
sheet or tubeforms as with other frames. This enables Bastion to more closely
influence the composition and structure of the titanium.
‘We have maximised torsional stiffness through asymmetric structures of the titanium,
transforming both ride and performance,’ Schultz says. Although not visible, the inside
of the titanium lugs are an intricate composition of titanium lattice, a bit like
honeycomb, to reduce weight. ‘A composite monocoque frame may have up to 4-5mm
wall thickness of composite plies in some joints, whereas we are able to use as little as
0.5mm of titanium reinforced by our internal lattice.’
The various innovations on the frame are a lot to take in, and it’s no wonder that the
team behind the brand boasts ample engineering experience. ‘The three founders,
James Woolcock, Dean McGeary and I, met while working for Toyota R&D in Melbourne.
Between us we have over 30 years of automotive engineering experience,’ Schultz says.
Thankfully, Bastion hasn’t made the mistake of over-relying on material and automotive
expertise at the expense of classical bike-building knowhow. A bikefit with Velo Atelier,
based in Warwickshire, comes within the price, and Bastion will model the geometry to
a customer’s desired intentions against a variety of mass-market frames, focusing
closely on the stack and reach ratio. Lay-up is limited to three options: regular, stiff or
extra stiff.
If aesthetics are anything to go by, the Bastion Road Disc is a standout success, but look
out for a full review in an upcoming issue for our verdict.