MYTHOS
Unveiling The IXO Stem
Market’s First 3D Printed MTB Stem
What is IXO?
The IXO (pronounced “icksoh”) stem from MYTHOS is the first commercially available 3D printed mountain bike stem in the world, available to pre-order now for delivery before the end of January 2023, direct-to-consumer from www.mythos.bike.
Through various guises, METRON and its founder Dimitris Katsanis have had additive manufactured (3D printed) equipment winning road and track races at the highest level, including the Olympics, and all three of cycling’s Grand Tours for nearly a decade. The MYTHOS brand was launched in 2022 along with the ELIX road stem, with the goal of making this technology more widely available to consumers. Now, the IXO stem is here to make the technology available to a wider range of consumers.
Made in Titanium using state-of-the-art EBM® (Electron Beam Melting) Additive Manufacturing, a material and a manufacturing process typically reserved for the very top level of the aerospace and motorsport industries, the MYTHOS IXO stem is the first in a line of mountain bike products like no other.
What does this mean for riders?
3D printing enables us to create high quality components that are fundamentally impossible through traditional manufacturing methods. This gives our designers complete creative freedom and control.
On the IXO stem we’ve been able to implement a never-seen-before contemporary design, while maintaining the performance expected from a high-end stem in terms of stiffness and weight. It not only performs at its best, it looks its best.
Testing
To arrive at this design we started with a simulation of our testing program. Using a manual topology optimisation method we switched between FEA (Finite Element Analysis) simulations and CAD software to identify load paths and therefore areas that needed more or less material, and then made those changes iteratively. This method is what allowed us to minimise the material used and deliver maximum strength and stiffness, resulting in a stem with this unique look.
Once the final design was approved and passed our FEA stress analysis, the stems went through an extensive testing program based on the ISO 4210 test standard. Every size of the IXO stem has exceeded a 200,000 cycle fatigue testing program at the ISO specified forces. Prototypes were also sent out to a small selection of riders during the summer, who have ridden the stem on some of the finest jumps and trails the UK has to offer.
We’ve also benchmarked the performance of our stem against an equivalent high-end alloy stem, and testing has shown the IXO to be 11% stiffer in bending, and 16% stiffer in torsion.
MYTHOS stems are manufactured in-house at our headquarters in Derbyshire. The entire Additive Manufacturing process is carried out under the strictest quality controls, validated by our aerospace AS/EN9100 certification. This includes:
- Purchasing materials from qualified suppliers only
- Our top-quality machines are used and maintained to manufacturers specifications
- The manufacturing process is controlled and recorded for every build
- During the build, layer images are recorded on every single layer and analysed
- Periodic batch testing is taking place, including both powder checks and tensile testing ofsolid material samples that we include in every buildWe believe that in terms of process control for additive manufacturing, ours is the strictest standard in the cycling industry.
Specification:
Features:
- 3D Printed
- Aerospace grade Titanium (Ti6Al4V)
- No-Gap Faceplate
- Small stack height
- Wide handlebar clamp
- Unique contemporary design
About us
MYTHOS brings 3 decades of cycling specific engineering knowledge from METRON and founder Dimitris Katsanis to the consumer. With a record totalling more than 100 gold medals across the Olympics, World Championships, and all 3 of cycling’s Grand Tours, MYTHOS exists to drive further innovation to the wider cycling community.
MYTHOS is able to take full advantage of 3D printing technology with our industry leading EBM® and DMLS® machines, allowing us to blend truly unique styling with performance, producing components that can’t be replicated using conventional manufacturing methods.
All MYTHOS components are proudly designed and manufactured in Great Britain.
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