The Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D for Filippo Ganna's hour record attempt

Filippo Ganna will attempt to break the hour record on Saturday, October 8th at the Granges velodrome in Switzerland. For this occasion, Pinarello has developed a new bike using 3D technology.

Source: CP

Every cyclist always wants to ride the best bike available, especially when it comes to aerodynamic performance and power transmission. But for this unique hour record project, the demands are even higher than usual. The Bolide F HR 3D needed a completely perfect fit, designed around the rider, conforming to Filippo Ganna's unique anatomy to maximize both comfort and overall aerodynamic performance. Comfort is often underestimated, but when it comes to an hour record attempt it is absolutely crucial as it allows the athlete to go faster for longer. The importance of stiffness is also often underestimated for track bikes, but any flex under tension causes the wheels to rub, causing the athlete to lose crucial inches every time they push on the pedals.

With this in mind, this project had to combine strength and rigidity with aerodynamic gains, with a production method that allowed dimensioning to the nearest millimeter and the full use of everything that Pinarello engineers have learned from many months of intense research. This allows Pinarello to present today a world first: a 3D printed frame, designed for a world champion and for his hour record attempt. It will be available for Filippo Ganna and for the world market (obviously, for a very few privileged people).

3D printing

3D printing has allowed Pinarello to introduce new shapes and features that were impossible to reproduce with existing carbon fiber techniques. With this new method, Pinarello has created a unique aerodynamic shape and achieved a very high level of rigidity. In addition, it has allowed to add an internal reinforcement, to create a completely new head tube shape and above all, it has also drastically reduced the development time because we engineers were no longer held back by the traditional time constraints of producing molds for a carbon fiber frame.

According to Federico Sbrissa, Pinarello's Marketing Director, " This is such a unique project. We believe this is the beginning of a new era of manufacturing. The next step will be to make it more affordable by finding ways to scan riders with more affordable equipment and automatically design each unique bike. From a world champion to every World Tour rider, and eventually every cyclist"

Metal 3D printing was first introduced in cycling by Pinarello in 2015, on Bradley Wiggins’ handlebars for the hour record. To find the right expertise, knowledge and equipment, Pinarello worked with Metron AE in the UK. The HR bike's frame and fork have been designed to take advantage of a new alloy called Scalmalloy, a Scandium-Aluminium-MagHigh strength nesium that it is an aerospace material specially designed for 3D printing. The choice of material and machine is crucial here.

Metron used a large format EOS M400 machine to 3D print the Scalmalloy parts. In fact, the frame was only five pieces, with the front triangle made from three pieces and the seatstays made from two additional pieces. These parts were manufactured individually and after careful cleaning and support removal, the parts were glued together using an aerospace grade epoxy. Additionally, Titanium was used on the fork crown and handlebar extensions which are the areas that receive the most stress.

A sum of marginal gains

The rider's legs are constantly moving in complex but reproducible ways. The air flowing around the seat tube and seat post is never straight. This alternating airflow makes it very difficult for the air to attach to the seat tube. The consequence is that the airflow is constantly separating from the seat tube, creating a large low-pressure area around it, which in turn creates large amounts of drag. This is partly why The combined drag of the seat tube and seat post accounts for nearly 40% of the total drag of the frame and fork.

Using research from the University of Adelaide, Pinarello and its aerodynamics R&D partner NablaFlow ran numerous simulations, finding some designs that were efficient, and others that were less so. After many tests CFD and wind tunnel testing with racers, the new AirStream technology was born to reduce drag. 

The new frame has been designed to reduce the frontal area as much as possible, also taking advantage of the removal of the UCI 3:1 rule.. There have been substantial gains by making the wheel hubs as well as the bottom bracket (BB) narrower than normal. The BB has been reduced to 54mm (instead of 70mm), the wheel hubs from 120mm to 89mm at the rear and from 100mm to 69mm at the front.

This new regulation also allows for the use of longer and thinner airfoil sections. It is well known that airfoil sections that have a ratio of 6:1 or even 8:1 perform significantly better than the old 3:1 ratio.

After several rounds of CFD optimization, a handlebar geometry was created that further reducedtage the rider's drag than the drag penalty imposed by its unconventional shape. Overall, drag is reduced. Again, 3D printing was necessary to manufacture this extraordinary shape. In the case of the handlebar, the proven titanium (Ti6Al4V) was used on an ARCAM EBM machine. To ensure that the extraordinary shape of the extensions did not present any structural problems, Metron decided to tester according to a regime of test improved to be safely mounted during an hour record attempt by an athlete as powerful as Filippo Ganna.

After the simulations, only the tests in real situations can prove whether the design work was successful. The Bolide F HR 3D was already proving to be the fastest bike when it supported Dan Bigham in his personal best of 55,548km on 19th August 2022. Bigham, who is INEOS Grenadiers' performance engineer, testhas an unbranded prototype of the new Bolide F HR that he helped develop. He was also working on developing other key components that will be used on the bike, such as the crankset.

The new Bolide F HR 3D is available to order from an official Pinarello dealer from this October 3rd, and due to the 3D printing production technique, it will be built only on request.

And Fausto Pinarello concludes: “ We are always pushing the level of product design to new extremes to enable our champions to achieve their goals. Constant innovation and research are the foundations of success if you want to build the fastest time trial bike for the track. From Miguel Indurain’s hour record to the recent gold medals in the team pursuit in Tokyo, Pinarello has always set the standard in this segment. »

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