Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Adjustments

I've spent most of today adjusting the 3D model. It's still very much a work in progress, but it is getting sharper.

One of the main challenges is the mid section, where the cargo box narrows in to meet the rear frame. This is where the frame will be subject to the most stress, and since I'm not an engineer it'll be interesting to see if my guesses turn out to be right. In general I'll rather make it a bit too weak and have to strengthen it, than over-engineering it and never know.
I'm not sure about this new solution, but I'll sleep on it.

Another focus point has been the upper rear frame with the saddle, steering and handlebar. I've refined it a bit, but with this construction method it'll be hard to make it very elegant.

Here's how it looks currently. Note that the front hub is an old version. As to the rear hub and the crank box, we haven't bothered to model them as we will simply use the proven designs from the N55 space frame bikes.


Based on the N55 XYZ SPACEFRAME VEHICLES building system - www.n55.dk

Based on the N55 XYZ SPACEFRAME VEHICLES building system - www.n55.dk


Based on the N55 XYZ SPACEFRAME VEHICLES building system - www.n55.dk

Based on the N55 XYZ SPACEFRAME VEHICLES building system - www.n55.dk


4 comments:

  1. Looks very interestin :)

    Since your design is only straight aluminium pipes as far as I can see..

    Is there any obvious reasons why it cant be made of bamboo?

    (Not critizising you here, just been wanting a bamboo bike myself for some time and have been considering your design)

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  2. Hi petterwr

    Thank you for your comment!

    Yes its interesting with bamboo as a choice of material, but what we seek is also the ability to change elements of the bike after completion. Say for instance that you find the cargo space to small, then you can reconfigure your bike by replacing particular elements of your bike. And this is made easy with the construction we chose.
    Making it out of bamboo is a nice idea, but it would be hard to make the joints and the flexibility might be lost here. I think it has to be made out some strong glue and string. Bolts might weaken the strength of the bamboo.

    The only bamboo bicycle that i know of is this one:
    flaviodeslandes
    Bamboo Funky
    Take a look under his 'bamboo' section, there's some information and history about the bamboo material and use.

    A little outside topic, but about the bamboo. I've been using bamboo for another construction, which is a Walklet (Courtesy of Rebar Group, SF) - take a look here if you are interested:
    Walklet of bamboo

    And again, we appreciate your comment!

    Søren

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  3. I've been following your project for a while. Would be nice if you could really pull this off. Would you mind to make your 3D model available for download?

    Robert

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  4. Hi Robert, sorry for the late reply. When we've got something more final, we plan to upload the model. For now I'll email you the current version if you're still interested?

    ReplyDelete