A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?

[Shades]

More for the mechanically inclined:

A link to a bicycle that is 'grown' instead of constructed.

[Deozaan]

Calling that "growing" is a bit misleading. But the technology is still pretty neat.

[AndyM]

I think the manufacturing process is earth shaking.  They're not exaggerating when they call it "game-changing technology" and a "paradigm shift".  The mind boggles.

[Renegade]

Looking at the bike, it instantly make you think of 3D printing, and:

Similar in concept to 3D printing, the bike design is perfected using computer-aided design and then constructed by using a powerful laser-sintering process which adds successive, thin layers of the chosen structural material until a solid, fully-formed bike emerges.

But they don't really explain the difference.

Still, it sounds very cool. I wonder how long it will be before it hits production.

[phitsc]

Calling that "growing" is a bit misleading. But the technology is still pretty neat.

-Deozaan (May 14, 2011, 07:20 PM)

Indeed. I expected you can eat it once you've reached your destination. 

[JennyB]

Looking at the bike, it instantly make you think of 3D printing, and:

Similar in concept to 3D printing, the bike design is perfected using computer-aided design and then constructed by using a powerful laser-sintering process which adds successive, thin layers of the chosen structural material until a solid, fully-formed bike emerges.

But they don't really explain the difference.

Still, it sounds very cool. I wonder how long it will be before it hits production.

-Renegade (May 14, 2011, 10:29 PM)

I think the difference is that the layers do not necessarily have to be flat. This is definitely interesting, though nylon is a poor material for a bike. Those bearings may look cool, but they must make for horrendous rolling resistance.

[Stoic Joker]

This is definitely interesting, though nylon is a poor material for a bike. Those bearings may look cool, but they must make for horrendous rolling resistance.

-JennyB (May 16, 2011, 06:20 AM)

Excellent point. I missed it in the initial read (ok skim). Perhaps that is why they're so large in the hopes that they'll last more than a week.

[AndyM]

So next time they'll impregnate the topmost bearing layers with graphite, or use some other material in that area.

What's significant about all this is the nature of the manufacturing process, which, being in an early stage, is evolving.

Next come Replicators (Startrek, not Stargate).  Then Transporters.