Products and companies in the bicycle industry have languished with the inevitable dynamic of commoditization. The problem has been compounded by outsourcing and design sharing at production houses. Over time, products lose differentiation and innovation stagnates. Brand identity is at least compromised and individual appeal is marginalised.

Part of the problem is that everyone uses the same tools, both for design and for production. Same tools inspire same actions and the realm of possibilities is restricted to capabilities and limitations of those tools.

At SIC, coming up with unique solutions is what we’re all about. We looked long and hard at what makes so many parts so generic and developed a design process which yields differentiation and novelty. We want to create components with character, which are refined and function well. In short, parts which are special and worthy of their places on your favorite bikes.

We know how to better develop form and now have the technology to bring the sculptor’s hand into the manufactured part. 3-D scanning and sophisticated solid modeling software are used generate the CAD files which will ultimately be used to manufacture the design. Strength-to-weight ratio, fatigue life and other attributes are analyzed with the software and improvements are made where needed. By the time a design is actually prototyped, we can usually predict with amazing accuracy the results of our destructive testing program.

Surely by now you’ve heard lots of talk about computer-aided design and how fast and wonderful it is. Do everything right there on the screen, press a button before lunch and pull your finished part out of the CNC machine before the end of day! Test your design. Analyze for manufacturability. See it in different colors… and still get it done fast.

We agree and in fact, do more than our fair share of CAD exercises. But around here that comes later in the process- after the product artists have “done their thing.” Each SIC part is a work of art, which has been drawn and shaped by human hands -before appearing on a CAD screen. Our designers are trained in the nuances of visual situations and are able to suggest forms that are correct in nature (and not derived from the tool palette in the latest engineering software.) This is why SIC parts tend to stand out among the competition and have a resolve that is uncommon.

Who are your riders? What are your company’s goals? What kind of riding would you like to inspire with the mere look of this machine? These are just some of the questions needing answers and some of the connections drawn between part and context during development exercises at SIC. Spanning the needs of industry and rider, SIC designers find the best solutions for constantly evolving design concepts.

Modular Product Family Development is a cornerstone of our design philosophy and maximizes efficiency of base production methods. Common parts and fixtures are specified to increase the speed and feasibility of new product introduction, while maintaining quality control. When properly instituted, modular development increases the agility of an enterprise for a competitive edge in a mature or turbulent marketplace.

Solid Modeling
Prototyping
Finite Element Analysis
Manufacturing