Using 3D scanning and adaptive design enables the team behind the X23 Swanigami to treat the bicycle and the cyclist as “digital twins”, in the words of Toot Racing.

The team says this process enables it to control the “dynamic system of the athlete’s body” from the first steps of the design phase.

Toot Racing says it has been designing bikes using this technology since 2016. It says 3D models of a cyclist enable it to tailor the geometry of the bike to balance the relationship between three factors that can impact performance.

The three factors are the athlete’s power, the coefficient of aerodynamic drag and the comfort of the rider.

Romolo Stanco, co-founder of T°Red Bikes and director of Bianca Advanced Innovations, boldly states what this amounts to: “We didn’t design a new bike, we designed the cyclist”.

The shape of the X23 Swanigami’s front triangle is said to be designed to achieve an aerodynamic effect called washout, which reduces the distribution of lift and load of aerodynamic weight.

While Toot Racing hasn’t provided a great deal of detail on why it has employed this effect, in the aeroplane industry, washout is incorporated into wing design to increase stability.

Toot Racing says using the athlete’s body as a wing provides lift and relieves air pressure.

Stanco says athletes are the engine of a bike, but they also act as a fairing and should therefore be considered a technical part of the bike.

Stanco says the athlete’s body “must perform at its best from a mechanical point of view and interact better with the components [of the bike] to optimise aerodynamics.”

While the X23 Swanigami is said to be UCI legal, its sloping top tube is said to take inspiration from two bikes that cycling’s governing body banned: Graeme Obree’s Old Faithful and the Lotus 108 designed by Mike Burrows for Chris Boardman.

The bike also has forks and rear seatstays that flare out a lot like the Hope /Lotus HB.T.

Sub-24 hour prototypes

Toot Racing

The track bike will be constructed from 3D-printed Scalmalloy, an aluminium alloy that has a high strength-to-weight ratio, according to Toot Racing.

Toot Racing says 3D printing allows “precise control over the final geometry and material properties of the bike”.

Other parts of the bike will be 3D-printed in titanium or steel, including the bike’s narrow Asheeta 3D handlebar, which debuted in April 2023 at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada.

Toot Racing

Toot Racing also uses 3D printing to help develop prototypes of the bike. It says HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing can create a 1:1 scale prototype of an X23 Swanigami in less than 24 hours.

This allows for wind tunnel testing and enables athletes to provide feedback to the Toot Racing engineers and design team to further improve the performance and feel of the bike.

Toot Racing highlights the environmental benefit of 3D printing, too, saying this form of manufacture will mean the X23 Swanigami will be more sustainable to manufacture.

This is likely due to environmental benefits generally cited with 3D printing, notably minimising waste through not requiring moulds and adding rather than subtracting material in manufacture.

Not just a track bike

Toot Racing

The X23 Swanigami is targeted specifically at track racing, but Stanco says more bikes are in development.

Toot Racing says there will be a full range of X2 bikes, including road bikes and gravel bikes.

---