Building Speed: How Oxford Brookes Racing is Pushing the Limits in Formula Student

Black Tea Motorbikes, a Munich-based startup founded in 2020, builds retro-inspired electric Café Racer motorcycles with production in Bavaria. With Xometry's sheet metal fabrication and CNC machining, they produce complex multi-bend frame components requiring tight design tolerances. Parts are ordered in small batches of 20 units, enabling flexible production scheduling and optimized cash flow.

The main benefit of [working with] Xometry is definitely speed. We had a vast network of vendors in China, which came with its own challenges. We had to manage the vendors and spent a lot of time project managing, QCing, and working through communication challenges. When we approached Xometry, we noticed right away that they gave us a lot of flexibility, especially with our mould tool. Xometry was really in that sweet spot for us. It was helpful to communicate with a partner that really knows engineering and design. The quality and speed from them were just different, which is really important for us because we needed to get the product out this year.

Discussions with Servane Freneat (Key Account Manager for France) about the gear knob were crucial in finding the best manufacturing process and achieving a result that was as close as possible to a production part.

The main benefit of [working with] Xometry is definitely speed. We had a vast network of vendors in China, which came with its own challenges. We had to manage the vendors and spent a lot of time project managing, QCing, and working through communication challenges. When we approached Xometry, we noticed right away that they gave us a lot of flexibility, especially with our mould tool. Xometry was really in that sweet spot for us. It was helpful to communicate with a partner that really knows engineering and design. The quality and speed from them were just different, which is really important for us because we needed to get the product out this year.

The transition to electric has been a steep learning curve, but what keeps us moving forward is our ability to adapt and to work closely as a team. Every mistake or setback becomes a lesson that makes us stronger. Even when continuity is difficult, with experienced members graduating and new ones joining, the project itself becomes the bridge, carrying knowledge and experience forward.

We are highly satisfied with Xometry’s comprehensive manufacturing services. They support low-volume one-off production, deliver prompt response and great collaboration throughout the R&D phase, and have helped us save significant time costs.

Our predecessors had already collaborated with Xometry. We needed a solution to machine parts we couldn’t produce ourselves. Xometry proved to be the easiest and most collaborative option. The Instant Quoting Engine is very convenient and allows us to quickly estimate the total cost of our parts. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to precisely configure our requirements. Additionally, the fast delivery times streamline our final assembly process.

Our experience with Xometry has been excellent, we’ve used Xometry for a number of years now and we’ve always found working with them to be straightforward. They’re very proactive with helping find engineering and manufacturing solutions for us, as well providing very accurate lead times. On the rare occasion when there are delays, they have been very forthcoming with information and have provided possible alternatives to meet our demands

We are very happy with the quality of the parts, they respect all the characteristics we asked, from the materials to the tolerances. We have received the parts in time and are very grateful to Xometry, because thanks to you we are closer to completing the assembly of the car.

Warwick Moto, a University of Warwick student team, is developing Aurora, an electric superbike for Isle of Man TT. With Xometry's 5-axis CNC machining, they produced aluminum nodes for an industry-first carbon tube subframe housing an electric inverter. The 1.3kg subframe weighs 1.5kg less than standard parts, achieved through over 100 design iterations and FEA analysis.

Xometry is so great for BMW because I can go and upload my full assembly for my custom tools in one upload and then configure the unique material and process for each part.

Our experience with Xometry has been excellent. The end shields that Xometry manufactured last season arrived on time and fitted perfectly, we even managed to come third in the acceleration race in the Czech Republic with our self-developed motors. We hope that we can continue to improve our performance with the next generation of motors and the new end shields from Xometry.