It nearly feels anachronistic that 3D-printed titanium lugs bonded to carbon tubes can be a spotlight of the world’s largest handmade bicycle present. However clearly, the trail of body constructing is evolving. From tiny one-person workshops as much as larger-scale manufacturing producers, bike makers are profiting from the pliability of additive manufacturing. And particularly for small, handmade builders, 3D printing permits them to customise bikes to particular person patrons whereas delivering efficiency and styling that rivals essentially the most superior bikes available on the market.
At Bespoked simply over per week in the past, we noticed a number of handmade bikes combining carbon tubes and 3D-printed titanium – together with the winner of the Finest Gravel Bike award. Take an in depth have a look at two prototype gravel bikes, shifting in direction of common choices from Curve & Kocmo. Then, a fast look at comparable methods on the highway from Bordure and Hilite.
Curve 007 Kev prototype carbon & titanium gravel bike
2025 Bespoked Finest Gravel Bike.
Curve’s 007 Kev (learn that title as double-O seven Kevin) is their newest hybrid development prototype gravel race bike body to combine titanium and carbon. However not like their earlier AirKev, then CarboKev, which solely swapped in carbon tubes for the downtube, seattube & chainstays… this one goes all in.
Each tube is carbon, with 3D-printed titanium junctions in between.
After all, the rationale to mix 3D-printed titanium with carbon is the limitless alternatives. Curve can design the styling they need. They usually can nonetheless provide {custom} geometry to particular person riders by tweaking the junctions. Plus, they tailor the trip to every purchaser with particular person carbon tube layups.
It is a bike that begins with a stiff decrease half for environment friendly pedaling and dealing with, then a comfort-oriented high finish to filter out gravel buzz. It builds on geometry from their flagship GXR4 gravel bike, however tuned additional for sooner, extra aggressive gravel racing. And but it nonetheless matches 700x53mm / 29×2.1″ tires, even greater within the entrance.
It may even assist the body builder from a logistics perspective down the road. Now they manufacture every part in Melbourne, Australia. However Curve considers that at one level, they may open up a second body meeting store in Europe, the place they may simply ship within the tubes & lugs and create an EU-made bike with decrease import prices and a decreased carbon footprint for European clients.
However not like many carbon+ti bikes, all the 007 Kevin’s junctions characteristic complicated double-lap bond joints for additional stiffness and long-life sturdiness. Curve confirm their prototypes with high-level EFBE lab testing, performing the total suite of fatigue and influence assessments with a single body to make sure that their tube prep and bonding work are as powerful as attainable.
Double-O Seven Kevin Tech Particulars
For instance, the chainstays of each the (already EFBE-tested) CarboKev and this newest 007Kev use a spilt 2-piece development with a double-lap ti coupler within the center. It’s robust sufficient to cross the assessments, however it’s solely there for the R&D stage. Curve will open up a curved chainstay mildew as soon as they transfer into manufacturing on these bikes in 2026. However it verifies the standard of the carbon+ti body work.
The Curve 007 Kev prototype incorporates a straight headtube, totally built-in inner cable routing, T47 threaded BB, SRAM UDH, 12mm thru-axles, flat mount 160mm brakes, and a {custom} ti seatpost topper with Enve 2-bolt clamp.
Curve will put their first actual carbon plus titanium CarboKev into the manufacturing line-up in mid-2026. After which, they anticipate so as to add this next-gen 3D-printed ti plus carbon 00Kev gravel race to the road throughout the subsequent 12-18 months.
CurveCycling.com
Kocmo Grvl Beast prototype hybrid development titanium & carbon gravel bike
One other 3D-printed titanium plus carbon gravel race bike prototype is Kocmo’s Grvl Beast.
Kocmo can also be lengthy recognized for his or her customizable ti bike vary, and can add a carbon hybrid bike to lighten issues up for gravel racing. They’ve already been working with 3D-printed titanium for years to create smoother full ti bikes and ti parts. So it’s additionally not an enormous leap to swap in some carbon tubes to shake issues up.
Actually, whereas the Grvl Beast is a combined supplies prototype bike, a few its parts are already out there.
Like this ultralight 3D-printed titanium lattice out-front GPS pc mount. It mounts to the faceplate of Kocmo’s new smooth 3D-printed titanium stem – independently of the handlebar clamp. Kocmo already had a variety of choices in welded round-tube ti stems. However now this boxy 3D-printed model offers them the flexibility to simply provide much more sizes, extra angles, and a extra aero form that may be cleanly built-in with totally inner cable routing options.
Carbon Ti Beast Prototype Particulars
The prototype Kocmo Grvl Beast body itself is exclusive in the way it mixes the angular tube shaping and even dropped seatstay design we’ve come to know from aero carbon race bikes. However right here it’s in a comparatively plug-and-play design that permits Kocmo to extra simply tweak sizing and geometry due to the truth that the additive-manufactured titanium lugs might be personalised to every purchaser.
Kocmo additionally does a pleasant job of profiting from the infinitely customizable lugs by incorporating their title and logos in particulars all through the 3D-printed ti.
The prototype ti & carbon Grvl Beast hits all the trendy gravel bike highlights, like inner routing, flat mounts, 12mm axles, UDH, T47 BB, an aero seatpost with hidden clamp, and massive 50mm tire clearance.
Plus, it provides a securely designed inner body storage glovebox door into the downtube. That’s not one thing you see fairly often from small bike makers. However it seems like Kocmo has a pleasant resolution contained in the boxy carbon downtube of the hybrid-construction gravel race bike.
For now, Kocmo’s Grvl Beast stays only a prototype. However the model showcased the bike at Bespoked to get a really feel for client curiosity. They appear fairly excited concerning the venture, and are taking their titanium experience to the following degree to create a extra trendy gravel race bike.
Fingers crossed that they get good suggestions about this Beast, so we’ll get to see it added to their common line-up quickly.
“With our 3D-printed parts, we open up totally new potentialities: sooner or later, we will tailor each element of the geometry to the rider – making a bicycle that feels actually custom-made. And one of the best half: this uniqueness requires hardly any additional effort.”
– André Pfeil, Kocmo CEO
Kocmo.de
Hilite prototype 3D-printed ti & carbon highway bike
After greater than a decade constructing adventure-ready titanium bikes in Basel, Switzerland, Hilite added 3D-printed body junctions to their ti repertoire to free themselves up for extra trendy designs. Now, one other 5 years later, they’ve taken their 3D-printing expertise and swapped in European-made filament-wound, resin-transfer-molded carbon tubes to take their {custom} bike constructing to a different degree.
This prototype 3D-printed ti & carbon highway bike is the primary instance of the brand new development methodology, which they see as opening the doorways to crafting extra high-performance race bikes. And but nonetheless, it can retain the total user-customization potential like all of their different bikes from highway touring ti tandems to loaded off-road gravel expedition bikes.
Hilite-bikes.com
Bordure Intuition R 3D-printed ti & carbon highway bike
Bordure’s Intuition household of {custom} bikes additionally options 3D-printed ti junctions bonded to made-to-the-customer filament-wound carbon tubes. However this French handmade bike is one you may really purchase. Three variations can be found – R highway, AR all-road, and G gravel, with 35mm, 38mm & 50mm tire clearance, respectively. All three characteristic {custom} geometry, totally built-in inner cable routing with their included Enve In Route forks. They get an IS52 1.5″ headset, T47 threaded backside bracket, 27.2mm seatpost, 12mm thru-axles, flat mount disc brakes, and are UDH prepared for any drivetrain… however solely whether it is wi-fi digital shifting. The carbon+ti Bordure Intuition begins at 5990€ for a frameset with uncooked carbon & titanium finishes and {custom} colour logos.
BordureCycles.com
