Disc brake covers have develop into an everyday sight on the skilled downhill MTB scene, and a UK-based firm – G10 PRJCT – has introduced the tech to the general public at elite competitors high quality and affordable costs, utilizing 3D printing.
Gio Piras transferred years of motorbike information engineering experience throughout nationwide supermoto and superbike championships, World Superbikes and MotoGP to the world of downhill mountain biking in 2025, when he noticed the chance to use his wealth of expertise to a sport that was taking marginal, data-led inputs increasingly more severely.
Linking up with main professional workforce Santa Cruz Syndicate, the G10 PRJCT disc covers have been examined and ridden to World Cup and World Championship titles by Jackson Goldstone.
Piras defined to voxelmatters.com his design, validation and manufacturing course of, in addition to the rules that drive G10 PRJCT’s present product line of specialised rotor guards.
“Manufacturing is at the moment carried out utilizing quite a few Bambu Lab H2-series printers. By way of supplies, we work with engineering-grade, fiber-reinforced polymers which can be chosen to carry out nicely past the meant mountain bike working situations,” Piras informed voxelmatters.com.
“From a design standpoint, the important thing properties we prioritise are influence resistance, stiffness, thermal stability, and weight. The guards want to supply significant safety whereas remaining light-weight, and in racing situations their major perform is to maintain braking efficiency constant by shielding the system from water, mud, and particles. The supplies we use permit a superb steadiness between these competing necessities with out compromising sturdiness.”
The design course of relies on parametric and surface-driven CAD workflows. “This permits the event of natural geometries that intently observe trendy suspension parts,” defined Piras.
“Correct fitment is essential, so the method begins from detailed 3D scan information of the fork and brake interfaces somewhat than counting on nominal dimensions. Earlier in improvement, iteration counts have been larger, however because the workflow has matured we are sometimes down to 1 or two design iterations earlier than remaining validation.
“Regardless, each new product is bodily checked for fitment and reviewed for potential enhancements earlier than launch.”
Preliminary variations have been examined throughout UCI Downhill World Cup racing final yr, with moist and muddy situations offering ideally suited validation situations. Rider suggestions was constructive on braking consistency, and extra testing was completed via the unforgiving British winter.
“Past driving and race testing, we now have carried out in-house harmful testing to validate influence resistance nicely past typical MTB use circumstances,” Piras informed us. “A product is taken into account prepared on the market solely as soon as the efficiency profit is obvious, fitment is exact, and the manufacturing course of is totally dialled.
“Visible end can be essential – time is spent refining print parameters so the ultimate half seems to be intentional and built-in on the bike somewhat than showing as a prototype.”
Manufacturing of the covers is at the moment dealt with in small batches. This permits Piras to take care of a decent management over high quality and availability, and the preferred configurations are saved in inventory to keep away from lead occasions for patrons, who’ve ranged from devoted personal riders to racers and groups, with orders delivery worldwide.
The philosophy round G10 PRJCT focuses on elite degree racing suggestions that instantly impacts on a regular basis riders via the product. “The corporate is positioned at the start as a performance-driven engineering consultancy, with merchandise performing as a tangible extension of that philosophy.”