Pilot Seiren, the world’s first fully 3D printed titanium bike, is hitting the roads! After hours and hours of designing, analysing and modifying, it was high time to take the Seiren to the test on some uncut asphalt. And boy did we have fun. In this blog, you can read about the first experiences of riding the Pilot Seiren.

Let’s rewind the clock for a bit and get you up to speed about the Seiren and how this whole project came to be. The very first idea for a fully 3D printed titanium frame was inspired by the major issues of our modern time, such as sustainable entrepreneurship, a changing mobility sector, renewable raw materials and local production.

These major questions coincided with the vision we had about 3D printing of metals. In 2021 we showed our first rideable version of a racing frame containing a 3D printed bottom bracket at the last Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, as seen in the pictures below. Having experienced the benefits of titanium additive manufacturing on first hand, the belief that the usage of 3D printed titanium could be the ideal solution to change and improve a bicycle industry that was dominated by carbon fibre, a material that is far from sustainable, started growing.

Fast forward two years: It’s 2023, we just came out of the global pandemic, Eurobike has been relocated to Frankfurt and Pilot has just presented the first bike frame that is completely 3D printed titanium. Read more about the introduction of the Pilot Seiren at Eurobike 2023 in a previous blog post Pilot Seiren makes waves at Eurobike

Now you have! After countless hours spent on tweaking the frame and performing finite element method (FEM) analyses, the excitement of mounting a fully 3D printed bike for the first time still gave us a tingle. After riding up and down some flat, well paved Dutch roads, we took on some more challenging ascending roads, which unescapably led to some curvy descending roads.

Something we immediately noticed was the high stiffness around the bottom bracket. A feeling that was later confirmed by the results of the mechanical tests. Additionally, there was a slight flex detectable in the seat area of the bike. This division between stiffness and flex is actually entirely desirable, because we aimed for a perfect balance between performance and comfort. So if these first test rides on the Seiren – along with the ISO and safety tests we executed – taught us a one thing, it is that we are on the right track to creating the best bike in the world.