Leading bicycle manufacturer gets to market faster with COSMOSWorks

The Challenge
Whether an athlete or armchair aficionado, it 's difficult not to be aware of the explosive growth and expanding popularity of mountain biking in recent years. While demand for a better ride on lighter, stronger bikes increases, bicycle manufacturers, such as world leader GT Bicycles, compete to refine and revolutionize the performance, speed and strength of their bikes.

As the law of supply and demand dictates, each year the bikes evolve - the frames, wheels, gears, etc. But one of the most radical areas of change has been in suspension. It is the most important part of the downhill mountain bike.

Before using Solidworks, Jim Busby, a GT Bicycle designer, worked in computerized 2D drafting programs and drew his 3D objects by hand. Then he would have to wait up to 6 weeks for a prototype before 'alpha testing' the suspension on the bike in the hills along Southern California's coast. Even the slightest iteration would send him back to the drawing board. The whole process used to take months, even years.

The Solution
Compared to the traditional methods of drawing 3D objects by hand, waiting for a prototype and eventually testing the model, Jim calls the fully integrated FEA and dynamic program simulation "huge."

Running SolidWorks on Windows NT, and with the FEA analysis capabilities of COSMOSWorks "We're performing stress analysis simulating the conditions of a world class downhill rider- hitting a boulder at 60 MPH." By using COSMOSWorks, the bike's time to market is seriously decreased. "We can go to market three times faster than before and be more confident about our products."

Summary and Metrics:

• Reduced design time from over a month to 1 day.
• Simulated the conditions of a world class downhill rider hitting a boulder at 60 MPH.