Saw a bike shop in Portland using a 3D printer for derailleur hangers last week

I was at a shop called Velotech on Hawthorne. They had a broken carbon frame with a cracked hanger. Instead of ordering one and waiting a week, the mechanic just scanned the broken piece and printed a new one in 45 minutes. Charged the guy $30. Everyone talks about keeping old parts in stock but this seems way more practical for rare frames. Anyone else seen shops doing this or is it still too niche?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewgonzalez20d ago

Huh, "a week" for ordering a hanger... that's what gets me. Everyone's focused on the printing part but nobody's talking about what this means for all those old storage rooms full of random hangers shops have been hoarding for years. I've seen shops with drawers stuffed with obscure parts from the 90s that nobody ever asks for. This basically makes that whole inventory system obsolete. You could have one printer and a file library instead of a wall of little plastic baggies with rusty screws. That $30 charge covers the material and the know-how, not the part itself. It's going to change how shops think about their back room space, that's for sure.

the_vera19d ago

lol @matthewgonzalez you're totally right and honestly this hits close to home because my dad ran a small repair shop for like 30 years and his back room was basically a museum of random hangers and brackets from the 80s that he refused to throw away. "we might need it someday" he'd say while digging through a box of rusted door handles. the idea of just printing a new one would have blown his mind. but yeah that $30 tag for a hanger makes sense when you think about how much time and space it saves. no more dusty drawers full of mystery parts that nobody can identify. i bet some shops are gonna have to change their whole business model or at least clean out their storage rooms for once.