From drawing to planning: how a Thok is born

Passion, idea, project and realization.

Nothing is a given when building an e-bike and there are many factors that determine the final result.

What attracts the customer? What are the strong points? How do you convince the most passionate biker? How do you get from the sketch to the creation of a high-performance e-bike?

Nothing is left to chance, not even the smallest detail.

Thok E-Bikes knows this well.

Founded by Stephen Bestini, former champion of the world downhill scene and from Livio Suppo, a manager who signed Ducati's triumph in MotoGP before returning to Honda, the company also has the support of TCN Group, and Piedmontese entrepreneurs Bernocco and Astegiano.

Luke Burzio, a Turin designer who collaborates on the creation of Thok, gave a wonderful interview to BikeforTrade, of which we bring you an extract.

THOK’s motto is “Performance first”. Just a slogan or something more?

The first step taken in Thok is to identify the bike to build: we start from what the vehicle will have to do. The geometries change based on the type of use of the bicycle, depending on whether it is urban, all mountain or enduro.

The claim says this: a bike must satisfy the needs of the biker, beyond the fashion of the moment. Stefano Migliorini, the CEO of Thok, develops the product starting from the needs of the end user: he is first of all a biker, someone who uses the bicycle.

Yet Thok does not neglect design…

Once it has been decided “what the new Thok will do”, what technical characteristics it will have to represent, we begin to design “how it will be”. This work is done by three people: Stefano, who chooses the specifications that the bicycle will have to have to offer maximum performance; Aldo Drudi, who signs the style of the bike; and me, who combines Stefano’s “racing” genes with Aldo’s “aesthetic” ones in an executive project.

Yes, design is very important: In fact Thok uses an excellent stylist. Aldo Drudi is the person who has been making Valentino Rossi's helmets for years.

And when did the designer find the solution?

Then the word passes to the computer and with the rapid prototyping technique a first 3D “sample” of the bicycle is created. Luckily I am a cyclist myself, this helps me to “engineer” Stefano's wishes. I have an excellent understanding with him and I immediately understand what he wants; we have known each other for a long time, we have been cycling companions for years. We share the same passion for cycling and we speak the same language: a great advantage.

There is a lot of Italy in this project. Is it a limitation or an advantage?

Thok is based in the Langhe, a place where working means being operational and concrete. Two of the partners (Bernocco and Astegiano) were born there. Migliorini, Suppo and I are from Turin, the city of the first capital of Italy: we all grew up on vitello tonnato, bagna caoda and gianduiotti, we speak the same language.

The choice of Drudi was also not a coincidence: winner of a Compasso d'Oro, a world-famous figure, firmly rooted in Italy despite being an international figure. In Thok, Italianness is a fundamental aspect of the company's philosophy. This common root makes it very easy to work together. But despite the strong bond with the territory, they are all people who have traveled the world and have seen their ideas assert themselves in the four corners of the planet: internationally renowned athletes, managers celebrated in Japan, entrepreneurs of Made in Italy...

Furthermore, in there (and I include myself) everyone is “sick” of bicycles, a fever that spreads from the mechanic to the CEO, to the person in charge of social media.

You have also worked with other bike brands. What is the difference between Thok and the big industrial groups? 

Thok is a craft boutique, it has advantages over larger companies and manages to exploit them to the fullest. First of all, the ability to act quickly thanks to the streamlined nature of its organization. Furthermore, belonging to the TCN group, a solid and powerful Italian industrial hub, makes it possible to prototype and test components immediately. Thok combines the advantage of being a young and streamlined company with the technical and practical capacity of a multinational, thanks to its older sister TCN.

And then, do you want to imagine a CEO who not only designs the bicycle, but also gets on the saddle to test it personally and can tell you what is needed so that, for example, it is more responsive when exiting a curve, or has the right traction when climbing? Or working with names like Aldo Drudi and Livio Suppo, the most awarded Italian Moto GP team principal in the world? …“A lot of stuff”, as the young people say!

Today your life is divided between Italy and Germany, 650 km away from Alba. How do you manage to work together?

Actually, Stefano and I often work in Liguria, where I have a house. Finale and Pietra Ligure, with their Enduro World Series tracks and the open horizon of the sea, are ideal both for imagining new things and for testing a prototype. It often happened with Stefano that we would meet at my house, work on the computer, go out on the bike to test an idea, come back and continue working on paper and then, maybe, get back on the saddle in case of doubts.

You come from aeronautics and are passionate about cars. Very highly engineered sectors. Are bicycles easier?

On the contrary! There are differences in approach that make some aspects more difficult. For example, those who come from the world of cars have never considered the problem of sizes: in cars, sizes do not exist. But the bicycle must be designed in multiple sizes, you have to design parts of the frame that must adapt to people of different heights.

Now that the battery and the motor are integrated into the frame, this has become more difficult, because some parts of the bike can no longer be shortened. You cannot compress a battery, therefore the down tube that houses it must necessarily have a certain length.

The problem arises when you have to work on small sizes. The small, since we use 630 Wh batteries, has almost disappeared. It is difficult to do.

Then obviously an XL will be more stable and an S more agile, but the bike must remain the same. The promise of performance must be guaranteed in all sizes.

In the case of Thok, both the Mig and the TK01 (the eEnduro just presented on the market) contain this approach: a downtube block and motor support that fit all sizes and that allow, from S to XL, integration of battery and motor ensuring the claim “Performance First”.

In the TK01, this occurs at the junction between the “viper head”, head tube and downtube attachment: the challenge was to ensure that the inclination of the downtube did not change across the different sizes and that the geometry of the bike remained unchanged.

How long does it take to design a new e-mtb? 

In Thok we take two years. We have always been against the idea of the “model year”: the choice fell on a limited number of models but winning for the choice of solutions and destined to last over time.

The projects required many drawings, several prototypes, and some changes of direction during the design phase. But the hours spent working at the same table ensured that the bikes would last a long time.

How do you build prototypes?

As mentioned, Thok E-Bikes is part of a larger industrial group and has the ability to independently produce, in case of emergency, prototypes of components at its subsidiaries. Thok is a small company, but it works like a multinational, and is open and willing to experiment.

What do you mean when you say Thok works like a multinational?

Its simple organization allows it to be fast and easily adaptable to changes, big brands are much more elephantine in changes. At the same time, having the support of a solid reality like TCN Group, allows it to compensate for supplier delays, so as to work on new projects without too many slowdowns.

Finding technical solutions to the problems that arise every time you design a new e-mtb is not a trivial thing, even more so for a young company of Thok's size. We are not talking about large giants where there are development centers, design offices and a lot of staff involved in the design. At Thok, the development work involves a few people, but with great experience and passion. And capable of revolutionary ideas.

Let's think about Mig, for example, the idea of placing the battery under the down tube that lowers the center of gravity, an element that still characterizes Thoks. Four years ago, all eBikes had the battery resting on top of the down tube; Thok was the first to semi-integrate it into the frame and cover it with a cover. I remember that to test and study the first Mig model, since the Shimano E8000 engine was slow in arriving, I designed an adapter, with the same dimensions, that allowed Stefano to pedal the bicycle anyway. It was made in just a few hours in the TCN workshops.

Or, another example of an innovative idea, the new “viper head” top tube and the 1.8” tapered head set of the TK01: the latter is a real revolution in the e-bike headset.

It is a fact that Thok is a bold and brilliant company that is not afraid to take new paths. In recent years it has been able to courageously launch innovative and alternative technical solutions, something that more famous companies have not always been able to do.

The next step?

Despite the market demand having increased a lot, Covid has complicated the life of the bike industry. It will be difficult for everyone, in the near future, to design new ideas and make plans. But as bikers, at Thok we know that to maintain balance you have to pedal and never stand still.