How Engineers TEST Mountain Bike Parts in a Real R&D Lab!

- Welcome back to Berm Peak. We are not at Berm Peak right now. We're in Cane Creek. We will do a kind of small tour of the factory. But I'm

real

ly just trying to access their torture chamber, where they

test

bicycle

parts

. They see how they perform and also try to break them to see how they can make them stronger. I have a few pieces with me that I want to try. So, without further ado, let's get in there. (upbeat music) So, under this roof, Cane Creek, designs bicycle products, designs them,

test

s them, but also assembles them before shipping them to the end users.

So there are a lot of tools here that you can't just buy from, say, Harbor Freight. (upbeat music) So you have to build and design tools that are used to do the work here. For example, when installing the can on a shock absorber, you can do it by hand, but it is very, very difficult. Roofus makes it by hand. - You are not a man, if you can't, you can. (upbeat music)-He's a big guy. He doesn't have a problem with that, but he almost broke my fingers. Oh. And that's why they have a can breaker.

The can crusher is made to break the can, it is basically a custom made piece of metal. That's just one of the many tools they use here to put things together. (upbeat music) This here is like a hanging fork gas station. The funny thing is that my fork service station is a trash can and a

bike

rack. - Mine was also before I started working at Cane Creek. - They put a basin over here and then a couple of little jigs they made to keep things in place. For example, here is the crown and a set of bases that fit perfectly here.

When trying to turn a bolt on a suspension fork, I like to put my arm through it to keep it straight. And they have actually designed something. It looks like a nylon to prevent it from spinning. They also have this little template here. So let's say you pick up a fork and put it down. It simply stays in place with a sink just underneath. This way all the fluids can drain. - And this is where removing the seals is very simple. If you have a way to hold your bottoms firmly, then. - This is something inspiring.

There are many similar tricks here. (upbeat music) So, as I was showing before, when they remove the seals from the forks here, they actually just use a wrench. Like almost any other home mechanic would do, but to repress the seals they do it in a very precise way. They use this press, which looks like it was made in the year of the flood. This is very old, but heavy and reliable. And they put the wiper seals here and press them down and they go evenly into both bottoms. Now, considering that each rudder suspension fork comes out of this installation.

If you have one, the stamps were actually pressed with this exact press. This press I'm touching right here. And I guess we're all connected to this press through that. I've seen Jack, like he's waiting in front of this office, like he's waiting in front of that office. He's kind of obsessed with offices. Shouldn't it be like putting up a dog bed or something? - So Jack is a super good salesman. And what he does is he goes from office to office asking for candy and he's usually pretty successful with his hit rate. - That makes sense. (upbeat music) - This is an area where puppies are not allowed, but puppies are the least of what is not allowed in this restricted area.

This is where they test everything. So I brought a fork which I don't

real

ly care for. So we're going to calmly go in, check out some of the machines, and then we'll see if we can smash them. (climate music) - What does this thing do? - That's an electromagnetic Dyno. Therefore, you can run the shocks up to 160 inches per second. - So this is where you get the data. So you know what this does compared to, say, your competitors or compared to a previous iteration or all that. - Good? - Ah, well. That makes it hot.

Curse. Story time, this was a few years ago, but Alexander and I bought two matching Walmart hardtails. And we took them as an actual trail, as descents of several thousand feet, and long story short, the fork of mine melted. On an entry level

bike

, like a $500 or $600 bike. It's like the equivalent of, say, a $90 fork. I have one of those here that I took off a folding bike. I want to run it through the machine at a similar pace to what you would see on that trail and see if it holds up better. (climatic music) - So predictions, I think everything will be fine. - There are 10 inches per second. - Well. - We'll go up to 50.

What do you think? - Yes, 50 - Here we go. Very fast. Pretty standard for a speed. A hundred. (forks banging) - Does it go higher than that? - Alright. Wait. (Forks bang) It smells like smoke. - One thing is for sure: it doesn't look so good. So what does this machine do? - These machines are for durability testing, material breakage, two pneumatic rams. Each of them can produce about a thousand pounds at four cycles per second. So this is the controller. What we've been experimenting with a lot lately is trail simulation. More recently, we suffered a shock at Hemlock in Kanuga. - So this is Hemlock's time. (upbeat music) (machine knocks) So that's exactly like the Hemlock Epoch Trail, as it was the day you guys put it together. - Yes. - Now the question is, how do you enter the trace into the computer? - So we have a data logger. - Well. - You can see it right here on this gravel bike.

We are doing this for our power test bike. - So you just go with the bottle cage bolts, record everything and they go back to work the next day, like here, here's Hemlock Epoch. - There you go. Yes. - So try it here. And then once it's safe to ride a bike, the real

engineers

go out on their bikes and ride them. - Yes. - That's very nice. (upbeat music) I mean, I see ropes, weights. Up there I see exactly how a guillotine is built. The only thing missing is a large blade like an axe. - You turn this up (crank click) and you pull this string and this thing comes down and hits your fork. - Wow, this is super heavy. - Yes. 50 pounds.

Then the rudder will lower to the maximum height. It's about five feet above the fork, down on the axle. About 10 times. - Let me make my prediction. You make yours. Again, this is not a bad fork, but it is a cheap fork. And it is extraordinarily heavy. When you picked it up, you said: I can't believe how heavy this thing is. It's just made with tons of heavy metal. It will be quite strong. So my prediction is that this $90 fork will perform similarly to a $1,100 fork in the drop test. What do you think? - Its going to break. (climate music) (crank click) - Let's call this a stage one test.

That's from, what did you say? Three feet. - About two feet. Yes. - About two feet. Well. (machine scrape) (weight bumps) (machine scrape) (weight bumps) - I think it might have bent a little - You know, we can see the permanent deformation. - It is permanently bent. - Is under. It goes 410. - Okay. So my prediction doesn't go so well. So I say let's go straight to the maximum height. (climatic music) - Bombs away. (machine click) (weight hits) - Ooohhh. - He survived. You wouldn't die. If you were on the bike and that happened, you wouldn't die.

But your fork would be very, very bent. Alright. Yes. Let's run it again. Let's see how close we can get to 10. - Okay. (heavy blows) - Ooh, that's not pretty. That's the beauty of steel. Not only does it fail catastrophically, but it bends a bit. Then you think that the next hit, it might break. Well. (crank click) (climate music) (weight beats) - Whoo. - This broke. (heavy blows) (climatic music) - Yes. Do you think they are curtains for that fork? I think we could fold it and run it. Yes. - I think the central tubes landed in the middle. - I think maybe you're right.

You may be right about that. (metallic noise) Oooh! Oh! That doesn't look good at all. - I would say it is catastrophic. - Yes. I would say that's it. You know, the interesting thing is that, oh no, it failed here too. It failed everywhere, but you know what? The theoretical cyclist who would have been on it would, hopefully, after the first hit, know to stop. - Yes, you would think. - And they would have survived. So from a rider safety point of view, it's not that bad. But from the point of view of not splitting in half, it's not that good.

That's right, I was wrong. I a m a little disappointed. But yes, we have to destroy some things. (upbeat music) - Today I learned a lot about testing and developing bicycle

parts

. And while that's probably not all, it's probably most of it. And thanks to everyone at Cane Creek for showing us around and taking time out of your workday. I hope you learned something today. And if not, I hope you at least found it entertaining. Thank you for traveling with me today. And I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)