Foto / Video Story

August 2020, the weather is at its best and people are out enjoying riding their bikes. As we are constantly evolving in a fast-paced world, now faced with a pandemic, we thought an enjoyable way to come back was to have some fun, build a gravel bike and launch our new SR SUNTOUR GVX gravel fork.

We decided to take the time to build a “local” gravel bike, so we called Portus Cycles, a steel frame builder from Pforzheim, Germany. As soon as the idea took seed, other partners came on board such as the gear box manufacturer Pinion, Gates for the belts and crankset, Hope for the wheels and stem and Vecnum for a nice, clean dropper post.The whole process took two days, from cutting the tubes to powder coating the frame and getting the bike assembled. This dream build began by drawing the frame on a 3D software design tool using the dimensions you choose, head tube angle, seat tube angle, tyre diameter, BB drop, wheel size and so on… Once the drawing is done, the tube cutting can start.

»welding the joints makes the magic happen, as you realize a bike frame is coming to life«.

Then jigs are used to tightly fit the mitering, which is called notching in the frame builder’s world. As the parts are assembled onto the jig, a first preview appears and shows how the bike looks with the selected angles and the different tubes in place. Once the tubes are correctly aligned, the braze welding process can start. From the bottom bracket to the chain stay, welding the joints makes the magic happen, as you realize a bike frame is coming to life.

The raw frame is now a real thing. It is then taken to the sand blasting unit to get rid of any irregularities and to thoroughly clean it before the final step, the powder coating. Enjoy the building process through our pictures and video and get ready to gravel.