Case Study: Race Face achieves 25–50% stiffer bicycle crank at the same weight with Altair's solidThinking Inspire

Design and Manufacturing Process of Optimized Bicycle Crank

Race Face, a Vancouver-based designer and manufacturer of performance cycling components, needed a next-generation crank arm that increased stiffness and met strength targets without adding weight or raising tooling costs for its 2D forging process. To meet these constraints, Race Face adopted Altair’s solidThinking Inspire concept-generation software to better understand material placement and design with built-in manufacturing constraints.

Using Altair’s solidThinking Inspire, Race Face imported a rough design space, applied loading and split-draw constraints, generated and refined novel concepts, and translated those into CAD and forging tooling. The result was a forged crank arm that is 25–50% stiffer at the same weight with increased yield strength; the Inspire-led process also reduced design iterations and accelerated development for a production-ready part.

Race Face

Chris Heynen

Senior Design Engineer