bhkyte

Jur.
Will the shareroller go on the Helix.
That would be cool.

jur

That remains to be seen. V3 was to mount on the fork; the Helix just has a lefty so that would have been hard. However, I understand V4 could go on the seatpost or other places so I think it might work.

BUT my ShareRoller will actually go on SWMBO's bikes.

DaKineDatFolds

Quoting myself, quoting Helix's last update for the pre-order customers...

It's now August 16th. No update regarding the balance payment.

What's the current update with your backing aperture? Anything, jur?

jur

We get 2-weekly updates, I did report on the last one. Look out for my feedback this Saturday. Because of the more-than-a-month delay on getting all the welding gremlins sorted, you would see a similar delay on your end.

DaKineDatFolds

Saturday it is. That'd be cool.

jur

The custom welding torch is done and working. Pics and video have been posted of the steerer weld and it look absolutely amazing. Smooth, uniform, and a bright silver color, zero discoloration, straight out of the welding chamber like that.

Next week the testing frame/s will be welded *fingers crossed*

Now that we are seeing how things are turning out with all the special equipment Helix are using, this bike will very probably be THE bike to own. I wish I could show some pics. My Ti Swift is so-so compared to this thing which looks like it's from the future, no joke. Accessories design such as mudguards and luggage have been designed too. Like the bike, these seem futuristic.

Gibsonsean

As you may be able to tell from Jur's post it was an exciting update. And very shiny.

towndock

That's high praise.

DaKineDatFolds

Thanks, jur Sounds like production may soon begin rolling

DaKineDatFolds

August 2017 Pre-Order Update

10 days after jur's backer post, the pre-order update arrived.

Over a 2 month span, there were issues with the welding torch accessing the frame - real world testing did not match the extensive simulation. Helix finally ended up designing and building their own custom torch.

After standards testing, manufacturing is expected to begin somewhere around mid-October to the beginning of November 2017. Helix may then begin requesting the balance payment (2nd half of the payment + shipping + any applicable taxes) via email.

"Once again we apologize for the long wait. While we were well aware of the challenges ahead and had made careful estimations based on the complexity of the remaining tasks, we unfortunately were not expecting this setback."

...kudos to Helix for transparency.

I'm uncertain as to whether or not these will be implemented when manufacturing begins, but for now, I'll refer to these as IDEAS: 1. Soft Shell Carrying Case. 2. Universal Front Mount. 3. Front Water Bottle Cage Mount.

MrFlamey

I got the mail too. It's very exciting to finally hear something and get a little access to the activity stream - although I'm not sure we get access to the same information as the kickstarter backers.

DaKineDatFolds

We should be able to compare, once the next backer update gets posted.

jur

Last update a week ago wasn't much, just a brief message that welding optimisation was almost completed and that the "results" would be shown by this weekend. Not sure what "results" are meant to be, hopefully it's a fully welded frame. So far no further news this weekend.

DaKineDatFolds

Basically what perhaps the pre-order people have is a video of an orbital weld of a steerer. This is to point out weld quality and consistency via robot, in inert environment.

jur

The orbital weld was shared a few weeks ago so it's something more.

DaKineDatFolds

Thanks again for the backer update. Looks like manufacturing continues to require more time.

MrFlamey

For anyone who ordered a bike and is wondering if they will be able to get accessories delivered with the bike:
Kind of expected this, since they have their hands more than full with just the bike, but it would have been great to be able to get the mud guards already attached to the bike.

jur

Welding robot development is still ongoing. Update showed main frame being welded. Very close to release now...

I expect October for submission of bikes for standards compliance testing, and November shipping to commence. So a month slippage from my October estimate. The robot welder is continuing to take all effort to sort out development niggles. It's the last hurdle before production issues begin to come up.

MrFlamey

Pre-order customers also have that update it seems, so maybe we have update parity. Yay! Anyway, it is pretty exciting stuff to finally see a frame being welded on a jig by a robotic arm in an inert chamber, which is what they have been working up to for quite a while. The update says that the next update might show a finished bike.

If they have 1000 or so bikes to make for the Kickstarter backers, it's still got to be quite a while before I or other pre-order customers get ours. Hopefully we'll have our bikes before next Spring, though. It'll also be interesting to see if they do reopen orders this Winter and what the final cost will be.

jur

This is of interest

bargainguy

Very interesting. From my limited understanding of ti frame production, looks like they're doing everything right, back purging to avoid weld contamination. Never heard of this company, don't know if they're even distributed in the US, but I bet this level of sophistication doesn't come cheap.

jur

Helix are going some steps beyond this level again; a chamber filled with inert gas, argon I think, <100ppm oxygen left over, and using a fully robotic welder with positioner that keeps the welding pool horizontal. A smaller ante-chamber is for getting the welded frames and materials in and out. No tacking either, a jig holds everything in place. The photos show the welds looking beyond perfect.

SunDuck

Old school is good, but here new one chaper and with more possibilites
Titomic from Australia.
I can't write here URL, but you can find site and youtube canal

DaKineDatFolds

Hmmmm, so basically Helix is going old school, with current school robotics.

This is quite interesting - using titanium powders to 3d print, using supersonic jetting. I like it.

Looks like sometime in the near future, we'll be laying off robots.


"It produces a product that is 34% stronger than stock titanium.
It costs approximately 50% less to manufacture.
It has no technical limitations for build size.
Titomic demonstrated their new bicycle on stage and announced that they have started a new brand called Ezilite to manufacture super lightweight and super strong wheelchairs. Titomic has potential to help menu existing manufactures make their products better, cheaper, stronger or lighter, and compete with technological supremacy as opposed to cost of labor or business model."

After viewing the YouTube, I think Titomic CEO Jeff Lang should take full advantage of his own tech to print out some new teeth. Seriously though, kudos to Jeff for putting out more possibilities.

Jipe

When you look at the video posted by Jur, you understand that welding is just a small part of building a high quality titanium frame and as consequence using a welding robot only helps for small part of the building process !

It also explain why a titanium frame is expensive and for the cost, the welding robot is also only a small saving.