The Morse cage is a solution to common issue found in modern bikes. The unique mounting hole pattern in the base plate of the cage allows the user four different mounting location options. Modern full-suspension mountain bikes use rear shocks that have trended bulkier over recent years. The added physical size of the shock frequently impedes on space previously reserved for a water bottle. With the addition of increasingly popular on-frame storage solutions, it became necessary to find ways to fine-tune the location of the bottle holder.
Originally, these cages were made outside of our facility by a third-party. However, we found that the scalability was limiting, and production costs were becoming prohibitive. Priding ourselves on made-in-USA products, we wanted to keep the production domestic. We decided to invest in the tooling and equipment necessary to make our cages entirely in house from stainless tube stock.
My primary contribution to this project was the design of the six fixtures used in bending the tube stock. Many subtle challenges are present, and there is always skill involved in these hand-bending processes, no matter how well the fixtures are designed. Three of the bend stages lie in an oblique plane, and must be perfect left-right mirrors of each other. Small errors are easily discernible in the final product. The work itself is also quite physical, with many repetitive tasks over a broad range of motion. Our goal was to create a workstation that is as ergonomic for the user as possible, provides ample fine-tuning adjustment of the bends, and is robust enough to produce thousands of cages a week.
