Paulus Quiros  

We were really excited when Dom Irvine approached us saying he was looking for a frame for the Tour Divide. He said he had broken his last 5 frames made from a variety of materials including carbon, titanium, aluminium and steel. Also this frame needed to be light enough to be competitive, strong enough not to break under the huge torque he can produce, whilst also having compliance for a descent ride quality. It seemed a once in a lifetime opportunity to show what could be achieved with modern steel frames. We had made mountain bikes  previously but an off-road endurance bike was breaking new ground for us.

We have always said that there is no reason why steel frames shouldn't be as sophisticated as carbon whilst at the same time retaining all the advantages of steel.  FEA data made it clear we would need special tubing for this bike, We calculated the tubes we needed; wall thickness, tapers and cross-sectional profiles but could this be produced? We have worked with Reynolds for many years; working with them on some of their innovative  new tubing and we owe a huge thanks to Reynolds for working so hard to make unique tubing to meet our demanding specification. 

We looked in depth at how this bike needed to handle and behave; it was clear that the geometry needed to vary from current designs and what we had done before. Dom is not only a talented endurance cyclist; his analytical approach provided us with the best and most frank feedback I have ever received. He is a fantastic test rider for the development of a new bike. This allowed us to refine the handling; sometimes ideas that we had originally considered but discarded, would be revisited and reinstated. Whilst engineering principles led the initial design process the input from Dom was paramount for refining this bike.