Teschner Promises Carbon Revolution in the Fine Print

Balhannah, South Australia

Veteran frame builder Peter Teschner is aiming to revolutionise custom frame construction, with ambitions to unveil industry-ready 3D printed carbon lug sets next year.

The former Byron Bay manufacturer, now operating out of the Adelaide Hills, has always taken a unique approach to bike construction, including earning a legion of fans for his titanium frames in the 1990s.

“I would hope that by Eurobike 2023, I’ll have a 500-gram frame and a product that will change the industry.”

After a 12-year break from bike manufacturing, his return to frame building last year has been accompanied by many months of research into 3D printing of carbon lugs.

“I’m convinced that’s the future of bike construction. In the next six to 12 months, I aim to have a frame made from printed lugs that is competitive in weight and performance at a custom handmade level,” he said.

“I would hope that by Eurobike 2023, I’ll have a 500-gram frame and a product that will change the industry.”

While companies such as US manufacturer Arevo are already printing frames in one piece, Peter’s approach is to develop carbon lugs he can use in combination with filament-wound carbon tubing.

“The biggest hurdle with carbon 3D printing is post-production clean-up and the quality of finish with the new generation of printers is outstanding.”

He aims to use them for his own frames, as well as supplying them to other custom frame builders.

His greatest challenge at the moment is determining the best angle to print the bottom bracket shell and headtube to achieve the best strength to weight ratio.

Peter recently cleared another major hurdle when he shifted his research to the latest generation in desktop 3D printers, boosting his optimism that 3D printed carbon lugs are not only viable but are imminent.

“My ultimate goal over the next three to four years is to set up a full manufacturing facility in Australia, particularly in Adelaide, using as much 3D printing and as much Australian content as possible.”

“The biggest hurdle with carbon 3D printing is post-production clean-up and the quality of finish with the new generation of printers is outstanding,” he said.

“There will still be some post-production finishing required but it could be done with sandpaper, rather than the lengthy mechanical process of putting the lugs in a ceramic tumbler.

“I believe the software, the application and the input products for 3D printing for carbon will improve exponentially over the next couple of years, and it will ultimately be cheaper than 3D printing in titanium.

“My ultimate goal over the next three to four years is to set up a full manufacturing facility in Australia, particularly in Adelaide, using as much 3D printing and as much Australian content as possible.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a facility in Adelaide with half a dozen machines printing lugs and the tubes can be filament wound in Australia.

“It’s the future of manufacturing and it’s how I want to do it.

“The Australian Government is pushing for Industry 4.0, which is all about automation.

“Now I’ve revealed what I’m doing, it might flush out others who are doing the same thing, but at this stage I think I’m 18 months ahead of anyone else.”

Peter estimates he’s invested up to 400 hours putting a prototype frame together, testing it, pulling it apart, reworking it and reassembling it.

He says while there’s a mountain of research and development involved, with a lot of progress still required, he was very fortunate to have received funding through the University of South Australia to assist the process.

Four Decades of Experince

Peter has been designing frames since 1984 and built his first titanium frame in 1991, in his shed in Byron.

“When I started, almost everyone was doing steel bikes, so I went with titanium,” he said.

“Two years later, Easton became the first to bring out aluminium tube sets. I switched to aluminium, but again took a different approach.

“That’s been my whole way of doing things. I tend to look outside the industry to see what other people are doing, and then take the next step. I prefer to create, rather than compete.”

By 1995, he was supplying Teschner frames to the Australian Institute of Sport and later supplied time trial frames for the US track cycling program.

Peter also handcrafted the Fuji team issue frames for the US-based Mercury Pro Men’s Team.

He sold the company to an overseas buyer in 2011, only to buy it back again three years later. However, it sat idle for several years, until Peter attended the inaugural Handmade Bike Show in Melbourne in 2018.

“The show absolutely blew me away,” he said.

“In the same way I thought I was leading the field back in my heyday, I was amazed by the workmanship and quality of product created by companies such as Bastion Cycles.”

That same year, Peter took on a role with 3D printing company Titomic. His general manager position with Titomic’s bike division largely involved developing ‘cold spray’ technology to manufacture titanium frames.

However, his time with the Melbourne company opened his eyes to the potential of 3D printing.

He acted on that inspiration after Peter and his wife moved to Balhannah, in the Adelaide Hills, in 2021 to be closer to their daughter.

After two years of development, the reincarnation of Teschner Bikes released its first customer frame in early 2022.

“After being out of the industry for 10 years, I wasn’t about to try to compete with guys like Bastion,” he said.

“I can produce a similar end product but I needed go about it differently.”

So Peter took a few alternative approaches to creating premium custom frames, including the exclusive use of Xantulayer in Australia and building frames with 25gsm carbon sheets.

“While most people are using 70gsm and 120gsm sheets, I’m able to have three or four layers of carbon to their one, orientating the weaves all in different direction to achieve greater strength for the same weight,” he explained.

And once again, it’s all happening in Peter’s backyard.

“I went from an eight metre by 20m shed to a 4m to 2.5m shed and I love it.

“I’ve got the lathe, drill, bench, jig and alignment table all within three or four steps of one another.”

Four days a week, Peter is working with Adelaide composites company Etamax which, among other things, is building filament winding machines for export.

“My four days a week with them are really about learning as much as I can – about composites and filament winding machines that are making it much easier to produce carbon tubing.”

Peter turns 70 in February and is on his way to his goal to see what the world is like in 2050. In the meantime, he is also determined to help mould that future with his innovations.

“I’d hate my headstone to say ‘Peter Teschner: He was a great bloke but he just followed everyone else’.

“Will I keep making bikes for another 10 years until I’m 80? Yep, as long as my wife lets me and my health is good.”