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OSET Bikes were looking for expertise to help them further develop the design of their children’s bikes, and they also hoped to expand into the adult electric trial bike market, developing a new electric design that offered a more sustainable alternative to the petrol bike, with increased performance benefits. Whilst the company has had great success to date, their limited design optimisation and engineering expertise was a barrier to breaking into the adult market. 

The company approached the university to explore how design optimisation and engineering expertise could help them break into the adult market.

They were introduced to the concept of partnering with a range of university experts on a three-way collaborative partnership project, called a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). In doing so, the team could bring rigour to the development of their next wave of products in order to accelerate their business to the next level of engineering, design and manufacturing, which would otherwise not be possible. The KTP came at a crucial time for the business to extend into the adult bike market.

In accessing expertise in simulation modelling, engineering design and instrumentation, and electronic control the team were able to develop a range of experimental testbeds and electric bikes instruments, which gave them a complete engineering understanding of what was happening inside the bike and at the human-machine interface. 

The team set up test rigs and utilised equipment and facilities at the university’s Advanced Engineering Centre, an internationally-recognised centre of research and enterprise excellence, to enable accurate simulation of different bike designs and materials, and the newly developed design process helped capture data to quantify and optimise bike performance. As the project progressed, student projects were established, to carry out smaller pieces of work, complementary to the KTP, which broadened the project outcomes.

The KTP project aimed to embed a scientifically informed design process to streamline and optimise electric trials bike design and implement the formalised design process to bring an innovative adult trials bike to market. This involved the development of game changing electronic interfaces for the bikes, allowing riders to control the bike in novel and innovative ways to get the best out of their performance. 

The company aimed to scale up to five times their pre-KTP size. Whilst the company dominates the market for child and youth electric trials bikes, they wanted to replicate their success with the development of a full sized (adult) electric trial bike, validated against design specification and established with suitable test apparatus.  

The KTP project enabled them to develop and embed a scientifically informed design process to streamline and optimise electric trial bike design, also bring the testing and design protocols in-house, and enabling the streamlining of the development process.

The outcome for OSET has been a game-changing electronic interface that allows riders to control the bike in novel and innovative ways to get the most out of their performance.

In July 2020, KTP Associate Dan was shortlisted for a Future Innovator Award at the 2020 KTP Best of the Best Awards, with a judging panel recognising ‘the enormous potential the entire community of Associates represents for the future of the UK economy’. Dan was recently also nominated for The Hammermen Student Prize, which celebrates the achievements of different engineering students each year at the Engineering Professors Council’s Annual Congress.