Spats

The Team • Johnny Musladin: Designer and Prototyping; Sales and Dreamer • Adriano Di Pietro: Engineer and Designer; Engineering Guru and Innovator • Ben Nash: Fitter and Machinist and Prototyping; The Nash Man • Nicholas Eccles: Graphic designer; Creative Wiz

The Company Mission “To design and build the best bikes for Australian conditions. Designed by Australians for Australian riders.” Spats is a local Australian Company based in Canberra, ACT. Spats was established in 2004 by John Musladin with a dream of building an all Australian Bike, John built a team of passionate, enthusiasts pulling together a multi-discipline approach. The Spats team is made up of Engineers, machinists, welders, designers, graphic designers. Spats partners with local Australian companies and businesses such as Bike Culture and TEW Wheels to support the Australian Bicycling community.

The Design Process All Spats' designing & prototyping is all carried out locally in Australia. Design work begins in a computer aided design (CAD) environment using the Solidworks Software Suite. These digital designs are tested in simulations from real time data collected during races by our pro riders. These simulations not only meaure the stress and fatigue experienced by the frame during use, but also highlights critical design areas to our engineers for strengthening. Our engineers also use this data to ensure the rigidity of frames. Every Spats frame goes through ours of CAD design, simulations and then real world verification by our pro riders to ensure the feel, rigidity and durability of our frames in the harshest Australian conditions. Mt. Stromlo forest park is our backyard (as well as the UCI World Cup Course) and this is our testing playground. Local Canberra cycling shop - "Bike Culture" and their owners are actively involved in the test and build of every Spats bike covering the needs of riders, racers, mechanics and enthusiasts. Final product manufacturing is carried out in Taiwan and China, frames are hand made and hand welded. Each frame technician having over 5yrs experience in titanium welding – simply no better way. In the past 5 years SPATS Team have travelled OS to participate in international bike Trade shows. This keeps us up to date with world wide trends, technologies and innovations in the industry.

Spats' Titanium Technology - How we refine our Frames Every Spats frame is tested by pro riders and bike mechanics during the development phase, this is continued in every iteration until the optimal geometry and functionally and feel is reached. Spats uses Hydro-formed titanium tubes (link to Wikipedia) to increase the strength and stiffness of the frame, while providing radically unique designs previously unseen in Titanium frames. Spats bikes' unique rear end integrates the rear seat and chain stays into the rear dropouts to create optimal stiffness, minimal weight and smooth lines. Spats is committed to bringing the latest component technology to market. Spats is one of the first manufacturers to incorporate radial break mounts into our frame design (enabling breaks to be mounted to bike in a stronger and more rigid way). The BB30 standard has been adopted into both MTB and road Frames and we will continue this commitment in all future Every Spats frame is precision manufactured, with high quality control as the manufacture process is slow and complex. For example our rear drop-outs are laser cut and every tube is NC notched. Spats' attention to detail continues right down to our cable mounts. Our frames are designed with optimal cable mount positions to lengthen cable life and minimise tangle and extra weight