Just when you thought boutique bicycle components couldn’t get any pricier, Danish company CeramicSpeed has gone and utterly shattered the glass ceiling with a pair of outrageously expensive titanium derailleur pulleys developed in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute. The price tag is a whopping US$1,000 – but hey, at least you get two.
CeramicSpeed builds the pulleys using a 3D printer, which allows for a hollow structure that otherwise wouldn’t be possible with any conventional manufacturing techniques. In addition to supposedly being lighter than CeramicSpeed’s standard aluminum or titanium pulleys – saving a whopping 2g or so – the company also claimed a three-fold increase in durability. Naturally, the wheels spin on CeramicSpeed coated ceramic bearings.
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The novel hollow structure is produced via 3D printing
That said, CeramicSpeed fully acknowledges that its new 3D-printed hollow titanium pulleys aren’t exactly going to be a volume item. In fact, the company is only making ten pairs for now, with each pulley individually serialized and the set presented in a rather needlessly fancy case.
CeramicSpeed says that it has learned quite a bit from the exercise, however, and the company plans to apply those lessons to future projects. In the meantime, ten well-heeled customers are going to end up with some very, very exclusive (and shiny) derailleur pulleys. Don’t expect a review of them here any time soon.
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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