X23 SWANIGAMI
X23 SWANIGAMI THE GAME CHANGER
TRASFORMATIVE INNOVATION TO THE OLYMPICS.
X23: THE GAME CHANGER.
WORLD PREVIEW:
SPS ITALIA 2023
FIERE di PARMA – May 23th/25th
HP ITALY 3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing. Pavilion 8 stand F008
“We didn’t design a new bike, we designed the cyclist, each cyclist on his bike”.
Romolo Stanco
X2_ is a constantly evolving concept of cutting-edge track bicycle born from disruptive ideas and the search for extreme performance, designed around the needs of the athlete, developed with innovative technologies and engineering processes and created for each cyclist using 3D printing and additive manufacturing for both the frame and the components in developing prototypes and in the final building.
X23 SWANIGAMI is the first true prototype of the X2_ project, the result of the collaboration between BIANCA Advanced Innovations, TOOT Racing, COMPMECH and 3DPROTOLAB laboratories of the University of Pavia, with the aim of taking track cycling to the next level.
The bike, following the guidelines outlined by the THEFALCON project – already a winner in world-class competitions – was conceived with a typical motorsport approach, combining research, design, innovative materials, aerodynamics and additive manufacturing technologies to offer unparalleled performance on track.
We didn’t design a new bike, we designed the rider, each rider on his bike.
Romolo Stanco, founder of T°RED bikes and director of BIANCA Advanced Innovations, has for years been considered one of the leading designers of bikes and components with a high-performance content. Two-time winner of the “Best Track Bike Award” at NAHBS in the USA, he boasts experience in motorsport, applied research, laboratories and design in various fields. Considered by the press as “the Adrian Newey of bicycles” he is the Chief Technical Officer of TOOT Racing, and Team leader of the “Road to Olympics” project with the direction of the 3D modeling lab of the Argentine professional athlete and tester of the Factory Development Team Facundo Lezica, the direction of the engineering and 3D sector of prof. Gianluca Alaimo, the engineering supervision of prof. Ferdinando Auricchio and the management of the T°RED BIKES CEO Erica Marson. Technical synergies and skills with companies such as HP ITALY, AP Works, Litem have allowed a unique “disruptive” development in the performance cycling sector.
The search for the optimal balance between the athlete’s comfort zone and aerodynamics is the absolute priority around which Romolo Stanco began working on X23 SWANIGAMI involving internationally renowned companies, so much so that the project was chosen as an emblematic example by ITIR – Institute for Transformative Innovation research.
Thanks to the adaptive design and the “digital twins” bicycle/cyclist simulation systems with 3D scans and modeling compared to simulations in the wind tunnel (virtual and physical), it is possible to control the complex and dynamic system of the athlete’s body since the beginning of the design phase by conceiving the custom as a new standard.
In less than 24 hours it is possible to create a 1:1 scale prototype using HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technologies allowing each athlete to see, “feel” and optimize every aspect of the “marginal gain”. Sensations of real objects, tested on simulators or in wind tunnel have allowed the tester athletes to provide the TOOT RACING engineers and design team with their sensations to improve performance and the feeling with the bike.
Using advanced 3D modeling, simulation and scanning techniques, the design team was able to optimize the athlete’s position in order to develop a disruptive frame geometry for maximum efficiency and speed.
The result is a frame that is not only incredibly elegant and efficient, but also offers excellent handling, stiffness, comfort and responsiveness.
The possibility of building the frame prototypes and all the components and parts in 3D at the 3D PROTOLAB of the University of Pavia made it possible to simulate and test positions, aerodynamic efficiency in the wind tunnel, different geometries in order to combine 3D printed parts with machined or forged metal parts and composite material parts.
To ensure that each X23 is perfectly suited to the individual rider, the bike is manufactured using an advanced additive manufacturing technique. The ultimate X23 SWANIGAMI frameset will be constructed using an aerospace grade aluminum alloy (Scalmalloy® printed by APWorks) for its high strength to weight ratio, making it perfect to use in high performance cycling disciplines. Other parts will be printed in titanium or in steel like the incredible super-narrow handlebar Asheeta 3D.
3D printing allows for precise control over the final geometry and material properties of the bike, resulting in a bike optimized for each rider’s specific needs.
TOOT RACING has been working on the optimization of three-dimensional models obtained through 3D scanning since 2016. The possibility of creating 3D models of each individual cyclist on the simulator allows you to design the geometry of the bike by balancing the relationship between:
- the athlete’s dynamic and mechanical performance in terms of power
- the reduction of the CdA and the aerodynamic efficiency for each specialty
- the sensations and feeling of the athletes looking for the comfort zone in which to best express their characteristics.
The shapes of the X23 frame in the front triangle are designed around the search for an aerodynamic effect called “washout“, a feature which deliberately reduces the distribution of the lift, therefore of the load, of the aerodynamic weight.
In many cases the focus is on optimizing the frontal area to reduce the frontal surface, while working on a dynamic 3D model allows the athlete’s body to be “used” as a wing by directing the flow of air passing under his chest where best to relieve the air pressure.
“Lift” effect in cycling as in the new “foiling” boats of the America’s cup?
The work of Romolo Stanco and the engineers of the University of Pavia also goes in this direction: “the true bodywork of the binomial bicycle/cyclist is the athlete: he is the engine and the “fairing” at the same time and therefore it must be designed as a technical part: it must perform at its best from a mechanical point of view and interact better with the components to optimize aerodynamics.”
The strong sloping of the top tube has very strong motivations (patented) and finds references in the “hyperbikes” of Graeme Obree with his “old faithful” and the Hotta but also in Mike Burrows’ Lotus 108 for Chris Boardman and tin Pinarello Espada, in which the top tube was completely eliminated from the frame.
The X23 SWANIGAMI frame complies with the new UCI rules and will be registered with the UCI to participate with the Argentina national team in the World Championship in Glasgow, United Kingdom, next August and to obtain registration for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Some parts and components already used in the 2023 Nations Cup have already obtained Olympic approval.
X2_ concept track bike and the various “releases” of which X23 SWANIGAMI represents the first stage have the ambition to be an accessible and sustainable project, both for the use of materials and for techniques with a high level of environmental sustainability and recycling.
Romolo Stanco’s team has also worked to contain costs in the design and development process in addition to production with the aim of being able to create high-performance bicycles that can also allow athletes and smaller federations to aspire to prestigious results.