Revel's "Project RaTical" is My Favorite Kind of Experiment
Revel Bikes is showing off "Project RaTical," a stunning full-suspension prototype that blends 3D-printed titanium junctions with traditional ti tubes.
This caught my eye today in a big way. Revel Bikes, who are just down the road from me here in Colorado, dropped a sneak peek of an R&D experiment they’re calling “Project RaTical.”
And it is, indeed, pretty radical.
It’s a 130mm full-suspension titanium bike. Now, titanium full-suspensions have been tried before, often with mixed results. But this isn't just a set of traditionally welded tubes. This is where the tech and data side of my brain really lights up.
Revel is using what they call an "additive-hybrid" construction. They are 3D-printing the most complex parts of the frame—the junctions, dropouts, and linkages—out of super-strong 6Al-4V (Grade 5) titanium. Then, they weld those intricate, printed "lugs" to traditional 3Al-2.5V (Grade 9) titanium tubing.
I was mulling this over, and it just makes so much sense. As Revel’s founder Adam Miller pointed out, designers have always had to make concessions when building full-suspension bikes from titanium, purely because of the limitations of welding round tubes. You can't get the same complex shapes, pivot placements, and stiffness profiles that you can with a carbon mold.
But by 3D-printing those critical junctions, they can basically apply a carbon-engineering philosophy to a metal frame. You get the design freedom and optimized kinematics of a modern carbon bike, but with the ride quality, durability, and raw aesthetic of titanium. As a cyclist who loves the idea of a "forever bike," this is fascinating.
The "data guy" in me also loves that they're being transparent about this being a pure experiment. They're quick to state this is not a product announcement; it's a "peek into our R&D lab." They're testing two things at once: this new manufacturing method and a new vertical shock layout for their CBF suspension platform, which is a departure from their usual horizontal, clevis-driven shock.
They even went all-out and made the main link from 3D-printed and anodized titanium, calling it "wildly unnecessary but totally awesome." As a tech tinkerer, I deeply respect that.
This is exactly the kind of innovation I love to see. It’s a “what if” project that combines new manufacturing tech with old-school material craft. And, as they rightly say, "titanium full suspension bikes are just plain cool."
Can't argue with that.
