 Enigma’s new take on an old theme |
 Effusion moniker seen with carbon seat stays |
What’s this? It’s an Enigma, for sure, with the Sussex-based company’s trademark clean graphics and easily recognisable house branding sparingly applied to beautifully welded titanium tubes.
What’s more, it says ‘Effusion’ on the top tube. There’s an Effusion model on the Enigma website, so why the confusion? Take another look, and this frame has its carbon-fibre rear stays in the wrong place – or at least, not where the Effusion is supposed to have them. Enigma Shape Technology and more…. |
 Carbon stays should enhance stiffness |
The reason is simple enough: this is a prototype frame that, should it prove successful, will get its own name and decals. But, perfectionists that they are, Enigma wanted this one-off to look as good as any other to emerge from the Hurstmonceux headquarters, and the real Effusion is the closest model in conception to this new one.
That’s because it has carbon fibre seat stays melded with a titanium main triangle and chainstays. For the new prototype, designer Mark Reilly has swapped stay orientation to put the carbon where it should, if the idea works, do more good. That’s because the sheer difficulty of manipulating titanium makes it tricky to draw chainstays with the taper that offers the best mix of properties; make them fat at the bottom bracket for stiffness, and there is too much material at the dropouts. Most Ti frames go the other way and employ slender chainstays that flex a little more than might be desired. Given the immense stiffness of the ‘monobox’ carbon-fibre chainstay design, why not substitute it for titanium in this highly-loaded area and use titanium for the seat stays, which need not be too stiff if they are to offer some shock absorption? That’s the theory, and RCUK is going to try it for size. We’ll keep you posted. www.enigmabikes.com
