Frame Testing and EN standards
As you may be aware - there’s a new European EN test regulation that’s just coming into play - it’s certainly something to look out for! In our case, EN 14766 is the important one. Simply put, it’s a set of stringent tests that a manufacturer should put their bike or frame through in order to show compliance with current regulations. Most batch production would have a sample put through the test, in order than the entire batch can be labelled “EN compliant”.
As a one-off custom builder, there’s no way we can build each frame twice, testing one and selling the other - so we’re testing samples with a particular tubeset that we then use to spec a framebuild. The flexibility of custom, with the knowledge that set of tubes has passed EN testing. We might be the small guys, but we believe in the same testing and standards as any of the big brands.
Our gussetless frame after testing
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We first put a frame through the EN test using a normal double butted Reynolds 853 front triangle with gussets on the top and downtube and the headtube, like many steel frames on the market now. To make sure the test covers us for every eventuality we used a "worse case scenario" gemoetry with a very steep head angle to put the most force through the downtube and a 140mm travel fork running no sag. As we expected this passed with no problems, except for the ugly gussets. We worked with Reynolds to achieve this same pass result but without the gussets. The top and downtubes we use now have an extra butt at the headtube end, meaning they have 4 different wall thicknesses along their length with a what amounts to an internal gusset at the headtube end. We put
another frame through the same test with same geometry and the same fork (which we broke and had to use another one!) but using the DZB tubing and no gussets. Again this passed so we are now able to offer our first EN compliant tubeset suits fork travel up to 140mm (realistically suited for 100-140mm) with no headtube gussets, for those classic steel lines - nice!
As we see queries/requests, we’ll be adding to these tubesets - testing sample frames for shorter travel, lighter frames, or a chunkier, long travel monster. We see the 100- 140mm market as key for us, so that’s what we’re rolling out with - please just ask if there’s ANYTHING else that’d be of interest to you.
We’ll be keeping all of our test frames, so if you ever want to discuss this more - or see our samples, then just pop in.
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