Bike Check: Ministry Cycles CNC Protoype

This bike at the EXT stand at Sea Otter caught my eye, so I stopped its designer Chris Curry for a bit more insight into what it’s all about.

What are you making here?

So I have started a company called Ministry Cycles. I began with my patented suspension system and from there I evolved into creating different frames around my suspension system. I was fortunate in that Jamis Bikes licensed my suspension system, and so I reinvested that into doing crazy bicycles. And so I’m working on multiple projects for different front triangles including this one, which is hollow 7075 CNC machined aluminium, very thin wall, but entirely hollow. I developed the first version with help from an engineer at Serta Design in the UK. And then that design is the current bike that I’ve been riding. But it was tested and I’m not comfortable with that one going to production. We ran into problems during testing and some fine students at the University of British Columbia loved the look of it and the concept so much that they got on board to help me as part of a capstone project for the school. They redesigned an indestructible version of the frame. And so that has just been completed and I just received the files for that new version of the CNC machine frame. And then in addition to the CNC machine frame, I’m working on a US-made aluminium front triangle and a titanium front triangle, and I’m working on some more affordable aluminium complete bikes that would not be entirely CNC machined. They would be welded aluminium frames to offer the suspension system at a little more affordable price point.

How are you joining the CNC parts?

So the entire frame is mirrored in two halves and it’s joined with a lap joint that interlocks that runs the full perimeter of the entire frame. And in addition to that, the actual bonding agent is some industrial adhesive, similar to what you see with the Athertons and Acto 5 and Pole, other people who are working with bonding. And it goes back quite a ways in the bike industry, actually people were bonding stuff for a long time and most planes use similar technology. The advantages are the precision is ludicrously high. Like when you bond one of these together, the precision is all in the machining, so you don’t have to deal with things coming out of alignment in heat treats. What you see is what you get, and you don’t have to do any treatment after the adhesive procedure. So the precision is really high. The strength is absurd on the adhesive. This is not super glue. It is a Henco Loctite product and I’ve experimented with a couple different types. In fact, during testing we’ve actually sheared the aluminium, tore through the aluminium wall and the fracture stopped at the adhesive. Most people think the adhesive is a problem, but certainly if you’ve seen Gee Atherton ride or you’ve been on an airplane, you’ve seen what adhesive can do.

This bike is still a prototype. What is it about it that you are designing for your suspension? What features are you going for?

The suspension system, I call the suspension system 3VO and it actually has been around since 2005. It’s something I’ve worked on for a long time. And the 3 in 3VO stands for three variable optimised and that breaks down to leverage ratio, anti-squat and anti-rise and how they balance with one another. So what’s distinct about it in addition to the layout is a little bit unique. It generates really gradual curves so it has a 30% progression to the leverage ratio but it is a nearly straight line. There are no swings, no curves, and that translates into a lot of predictability when you’re riding the bike. So it behaves as you would want it to behave at all stages of the travel, whether you’re hitting a bermed corner hard, whether you’re landing, it’s very predictable. And that progression lets me have a suspension system that’s quite soft initially and then ramps up to handle the mid-range. And then the big hits. But then the anti-squat values are all quite high starting in the mid 120% range even on the biggest cog, like a 52 rear cog. So when you have a bike that can pedal that well, it lets you run a little softer suspension to begin with, and again the interplay there. And then finally the anti-rise is right around 100% all the time, so it doesn’t go through any radical deviations. If there is a common theme that to be picked up on it’s no sudden movements, you know everything is very measured and very gradual and that’s what the kinematics of the suspension system deliver.

So with this prototype are you happy with the geometry of the bike?

Yeah as a platform I’m very happy with where we are with the ride. I’m very happy with where we are with the ride feel now and everything. This is a 150mm travel rear suspension system with a 160mm travel fork on the front. But the platform is highly adaptable. And so one of the big things I’m testing with the prototypes is it has modular dropouts. And so that bike as it sits has 445 millimetre dropouts. You can also get 435 millimetre dropouts and you can also get 445 millimetre mullet dropouts if you want to run a 27.5 rear wheel. And in all the design elements that I’m going for, modular construction and adaptability is a priority. So the prototype is letting me test what we can get away with, that range of adjustability.

It’s a 78 degree seat tube and the head tube angle on this one is 65 still on this prototype – that will slacken a little bit depending on the travel that I’m doing with the front end of the bike.

The more affordable aluminium one when you make that, will it have the same, will you replicate the geometry?

The geometry will change slightly, that one will have a 64 degree head tube angle, but the travel ranges will be the same and it will share the 78 degree seat tube angle and it will even share the modular adjustable dropout. So the idea is to keep as much of the… fancy features as we can and bring it down to a price point. My goal is to create a sub-$2,000 aluminium frame, including rear shock, and then let people customise it to a fairly high degree. So that gives you a solid foundation to start from, and if you want to spec fantastic shocks like EXT, I have those relationships so we can have a really outstanding bike at a still fairly reasonable price.

And so what sort of size is this prototype?

That one, the current size for the CNC, I’m considering it a medium large, it’s very stretched out, it’s a 490 millimetre reach on there, so it’s quite long. But because the seat tube angle is so steep, that has to be taken into consideration. So I’ve had people who are even 5’8″, who rode around and really liked the way it feels, but it’s really designed for somebody in that six feet, six one, six two kind of range.

And I’m spying some grips on there that have ‘prototype’ written on them. What are those?

That is a product in development from an engineer friend of mine, Ryan at Zenride. And I can get you some more info on what he’s up to. He is looking at being available for some contract work for designing things and he came up with a new way of doing floating grips. So the grips actually absorb vibration.

Oh, so they’re a bit like a Rev Grip?

They are. They’re different enough where it’s an entirely different patent that he’s worked on. But the concept is the same, yes. They absorb vibration in the grip itself, in a pretty compact design, though.

And then last thing, I am making the suspension system kits available to small frame builders. So mostly what I’m selling right now are suspension system kits where if you’re a small frame builder and you make beautiful hardtails and gravel frames but you haven’t quite gotten your head around the full suspension design yet, you can buy my complete suspension system with a single use license and you’ll be seeing some really nice steel and titanium frames out there that have the 3VO suspension system. That’s cool.

Yeah, nice. Spread the love.

Yeah, yeah. And it’s been great feedback to build a cool little community of builders that are all asking questions about it and, you know, if we can get together and make a better product, that’s what it’s all about.

Thank you very much. I look forward to seeing them out there!