Titanium RC30 inspired forks

RAFbikes

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Morning! My favourite fork is the RC30 and I've been considering having a titanium copy made for a while. It's going to cost quite a bit to have one made so I thought if I get a batch made it'd bring the cost down.

If I do this will I be in breach of copyright? Or will the fact that they don't make them any more, there was always similar forks out there, it won't be made of the same material and it won't be Identical negate any legal issues?

We've seen copies of various iconic retro parts over years so I'm hoping it won't be an issue as if and when I manage to get this done the beauty of them is (other than the fact they're beautiful) that the drop outs and crown are a standard and if rather than welding the brake mounts on I had some nice CNC'd brake mounts made which clamp on, mounts for rim or disk and various leg lengths made they could be fitted to any bike!

Right so now I'm waffling, what do you think?
 
Cool, I'll look into it a bit further then.

What I'll be looking for then is a CNC company to make the dropouts, crown and brake mounts and somewhere to buy the Titanium tubing.

I've got access to CAD and I'm experienced in 2D drawing and if necessary I'll learn the 3D aspect, if you know of a company who you could recommend to do the CNC work then let me know, also if anyone knows about the stress tests etc which would be needed to make sure they're safe for us to batter about then let me know.

Thanks in advance :D
 
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Surely you can get nice dropouts of the shelf from the same place you end up getting the tube?
Getting them welded is going to be expensive, unless you have the skills :D
Also, how/with what would you bond the legs to the crown?
China might be a good place to look into getting a load made?
I'm sure they would be sort after if you had them knocked up in the right A/C lengths.
I feel a business plan coming on :D
 
I don't have the welding skills I'm more of a ideas and design man! but I'm normally pretty good at brokering a good deal to, I figured they'd be pretty sought after if done properly and I'd try to keep the price down by making them in larger batches.

as for bonding the fork to the crown that's the beauty of the old RC30's and syncross forks they weren't bonded to the crown they were bolted in, so the legs could be interchangeable or perhaps they could even be adjustable to an extent.
 
I think you'll have trouble selling them to other people - there'd be an implicit warranty as to fitness for purpose.

How will you a) test that they are up to the job and b)indemnify yourself against them failing and someone being injured or worse?

There's more to it than just copying the dimensions - they'll have done analysis on the materials and fed that into the spec. You won't have copies of that analysis so what you'll have is a replica that looks like them but may not perform like them.

I think also the cost is going to be enormous for a limited production run.
 
You might consider the possibility of a group buy. There are some titan welders out there who make custom stuff. If the design is there (aproved by the welder)and they 'just' have to make 10 or 20 or so, you might save some money. The welder/seller will be responsible for warranty/durability that way, not you.
 
nice idea but will be costly. i tried a couple of cnc companies for getting a chainstay yoke made and it would be £250 then add welding the aluminium stays to it. if you want them to do the cad work then it will be more usually.
 

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