Mythos, a company founded by Dimitris Katsanis, one of the so-called 'secret squirrels' behind British Cycling's success on the track over the past decade, has launched a 3D-printed stem, named the Elix – and it costs £500.
Mythos is a new component company founded by Katsanis, who has supplied cutting-edge equipment to some of the world's best cyclists through Metron Advanced Equipment.
If the Metron name sounds familiar, the company has worked recently with Verve to create a 3D-printed power meter.
Over the years, Metron and Katsanis have had involvement in more than 100 gold medals across the Olympics and World Championships, not to mention three Grand Tour victories.
Metron has supplied 150 3D-printed handlebar setups to British Cycling alone, including the titanium bar used by Sir Bradley Wiggins when he set the hour record in 2015.
While, technically (under competition rules) you could buy Metron products, they've never been readily commercially available.
However, that's changed with Mythos, and the Elix stem is the first part of what the brand hopes will become a wider range of high-performance products.
3D-printed power
Katsanis has long been associated with British Cycling. He was part of the 'Secret Squirrel Club', led by Chris Boardman, which came to prominence in the build-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, with a brief of giving its riders the edge through high-tech equipment and aerodynamic know-how.
3D-printed parts have played a key role along the way, enabling the development of components that would have been impossible to make using traditional manufacturing methods.
With the launch of Mythos, that means the freedom to push the boundaries on something as simple, on the face of it, as a bike stem.
The material used is Scalmalloy, which is an alloy of scandium, aluminium and magnesium, designed specifically for use with 3D printing. It's patented by APWorks (part of the Airbus group) and used mostly in the aerospace industry.
By combining 3D printing with extensive Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations and CAD software to research load paths, the brand says it has been able to define the areas that require more (and less) material.
As a result, Mythos says it has been able to greatly increase the torsional stiffness of the Elix stem without having an effect on bending stiffness.
The goal, Mythos says, was to create a stem that’ll better counter high-frequency vibrations from poor road surfaces, while having class-leading stiffness when it comes to sprinting.
Mythos says its prototypes have been used around the world on the road and gravel, and tasted success having been fitted to the bike that won the second round of the Italian Fixed Cup, a series of fixed-gear races.
The Elix will be available to buy soon and Mythos claims weights from 150g, depending on the length.
The design is compatible with external and internal cable systems, including FSA’s ACR integrated setup. As you’d imagine on a £500 stem, all of the hardware is titanium.
Mythos Elix specification
- Material: Scalmalloy®
- Length: 100-130mm
- Rise: +/- 8 degrees
- Clamp diameter: 31.8mm
- Hardware: Titanium M5 x 16mm
- Stack height: 45mm
- Weight: From 150g
- Compatibility: Compatible with the FSA ACR integrated cockpit system
- Cabling: Internal cable routing compatible
- Price: £500
