There are 777 individual pieces of carbon in each Surveyor Frameset. Each one laid by hand. Each one serves a purpose.
When we were designing Surveyor, we knew the outside shape was important, as that is what people see, what gives the bike visual personality and character. But on an engineering side, the function had to dictate the form. Every surface, shape, curve and junction has a purpose, not just on the outside, but through to the inside as well.
We use individual pieces of carbon to tune ride quality and build up the structure. Each piece (or ply as we call the layers) is 0.15mm thick. So if you do the math, when you start layering up, the numbers of ply's also add up really quick. Some areas, like the middle of tubes, only require a few layers. But others like the area around the bottom bracket, headtube or seatpost, need to be much thicker, several millimetres.
The shape of each piece is also well thought out. It needs to contour the shape of the frame, without wrinkling or folding. Not to mention, the fibers need to be oriented in a certain direction based on our engineers calculations. A carbon fiber is stiff along its length, but flexible in the opposing direction so the layup needs to reflect this. We generally run fibers at 0° & 90°, with some at 20°, 45° and even 60°.
The formula of what goes where and how is our secret. But what is not a secret is how it makes Surveyor ride. You can feel it right from the first pedal stroke.