Polymer Bushes

Hello. I'll get straight to it with this... I'm trying to work out if there's a market for bespoke polymer bushes for old mtbs? I'm an engineer using pretty fancy plastics like molybdenum PEEK for industrial bearings and was wondering what other applications I could turn these for. Any thoughts if this would be a useful service for folks with sloppy pivots? Any input greatly appreciated. Cheers!!

Nothing your going to get rich from!
People often look for Elastomers for suspension such as for the Pace RC35 forks though.
What do you use PEEK for? I used to use it for injection Molding rollers for cash point machines many many years ago.

Cheers for the rapid reply!

Ha, yeah not going to be paying the bills with this brainwave, that's for sure. The shop I work with is involved in the oil industry amongst other things so we're in about all the materials that can handle deep sea conditions. If it lasts down there it's usually a good test!

You're right about the elastomers though, I had a pig of a time trying to get new ones for my old pace forks. Though a pair of corks would have been an upgrade on what was left of mine. More like rubber crumbs.

I know you get a lot of off the shelf bushes and plain polymer bearings aimed at the mtb market but I've found that they tend to keep the spec of the material a bit hush hush, particularly the bigger suppliers. Else they give it their own trade name. I kinda think if folks knew a bit about the qualities spec of the material they might be willing to give them a run. Particularly made to spec etc etc. I know I would like to know what miracle plastic my cash was going towards. But that's maybe just me!

Did your place injection mould their own parts?

Cheers, Duncan.

I don't know if there is a market for custom bushings.

I do think that there would be a market for a small business that stocks/orders polymer and DU bushings for bike suspension, along the same likes a suspensionforkparts.net, especially if you had a database of what bushings were needed for various bikes.

For instance, I have often seen a pair of Klein Mantra main pivot bushings listed for $50 on ebay. I was able to get some as a sample from IGUS, as small orders of 2 bushings to a new account isn't really of interest to to them. The bushings listed for $6-8 each IIRC, so long way from $25 each...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=353202&hilit=+mantra

Yes, we had Injection Molding machines for the PEEK rollers, we used PEEK also for artificial hip joints, it over molded titanium inserts.
Also we used Radel A300 for valves on life jackets, another very expensive plastic!

This ^^ I think there would be a profitable niche market to make bushings and pivot parts for older gen bikes eg the FAT Chance SAB MK II. Plenty of people who have owned one or still do would like a ready source for these parts but cant find any. There must be plenty of other older models that need replicas too. Your prices would reflect limited prod runs etc but assuming you have access to high end manufacturing equipment, 3D printer, it should be possible to make it cost effective.