HUHN WORKS

It started with a diploma project.

2011. Everyone told me you can’t 3D-print a bicycle. So I printed the joints instead: stainless steel lugs, grown layer by layer, bonded to carbon tubes. The VRZ became the first documented functional bicycle frame joined with 3D-printed metal lugs, 1,100 grams, built years before printed lugs became an industry movement.

The VRZ 2 followed: a complete track bike with laser-melted Ti6Al4V titanium lugs. Printed, bonded, ridden hard. The thesis behind these bikes won the Kulturpreis Bayern.

In 2015 a mail arrived from Australia. The founders of Bastion Cycles wrote that the VRZ had shown them the path was real. That mail means more to me than most trophies.

I never kept any of it to myself. When builders asked about printing metal, I answered. Drew data for them, shared my suppliers, talked them through materials. A lot of today’s printed-lug bikes started as one of those conversations.

Standert Pathfinder.

Standert came with a clear design language and a frame that had to survive real production, not just a moodboard. My job: respect their aesthetics, engineer the substance underneath. Proportions, tube shaping, details, developed from first sketch to production-ready data with tooling and manufacturing in the room from day one.

“Finally a designer who understands that a beautiful render means nothing if it can’t be tooled. Working together with Ralf was seamless. He combines strong design thinking with a clear understanding of manufacturing realities, something that’s rare. The product he developed wasn’t just visually convincing, it respected our design ideas and aesthetic language while being engineered with production and tooling in mind from the start.”

Maxe Faschina, Head of Product, Standert

Reynolds.

With Reynolds Technology I developed a 3D-printed, sinter-based steel yoke: the tyre and chainring clearance modern geometry demands, in a shape you could not machine or forge economically. From CAD to sintered metal to a part a framebuilder can work with like any other.

“Working with Ralf felt like adding a design director to the team without the overhead. He didn’t just design our product, he redesigned how we think about products.”

Tom Cleverly, Technical Manager, Reynolds

Cold Metal Fusion.

The Moorhuhn takes the idea into series thinking: titanium lugs made with Cold Metal Fusion, developed together with Headmade Materials and Element22. The sinter supports are printed in the same job, with a ceramic coating on the contact faces so lug and support separate cleanly after sintering. Steel tubes, printed titanium joints, built to be ridden and not exhibited.

Jersey Giant.

A 36-inch bike for a rider who is 2.06 m tall and had never had a bike that fit him. Structural parts printed on desktop machines: together with BASF Forward AM I pushed Ultrafuse 17-4 PH metal filament into real bicycle components. Printed, debinded, sintered. Proper stainless steel out of a printer that sits on a desk. At Bespoked 2022 it won the New Builder Award.

“Ralf Holleis is far more than an outstanding designer. He is a visionary who consistently pushes the boundaries of what is possible in additive manufacturing. Our collaboration on the Jersey Giant 36 demonstrated exactly what happens when deep passion for a product meets technical excellence. Ralf played a pivotal role in taking metal filament printing to an entirely new level.

What truly sets Ralf apart is the fact that he is a cyclist through and through. He understands the soul of a bike frame just as deeply as he understands the chemical and physical processes behind the printing process. Anyone working with Ralf isn’t just hiring a designer; they are gaining a strategic partner with both heart and expertise.”

Tim Ahnsorge, Product Development Manager Bike, BASF 3D Printing Solutions (Forward AM)

Awards are not the point. But they help.

Purmundus Challenge 1st Prize 2020. New Builder Award, Bespoked 2022. Best MTB, Bespoked Dresden 2024. Kulturpreis Bayern. Red Dot. German Design Award. iF Design Award.

In print.

Fifteen years of frames kept showing up on paper. BIKE, Velo Vert, fahrstil, TOUR and friends. A selection of the spreads.

Sketch it. Build it. Ride it. Change it.

Exactly the way I built my own bikes. I draw, I weld a rough prototype, I ride it until something annoys me, then I change it. Only after that does it become proper data.

Concept. Frankenstein prototype. Parametric CAD. Detail engineering. Then a release package a factory can actually build from: drawings, BOMs, supplier specs, quality criteria.

Manufacturing sits in the room from day one. A design nobody can build is just a picture.

The things people usually ask.

Specialists, not generalists.