Vehicular Design

[AviationMetalSmith]

The most recent Photographs of the Type 10, above.

Todays Photographs of the Type Eleven, below:


IMG_1702 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr


IMG_1701 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr


IMG_1700 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr


IMG_1698 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

And This, below, is a Vehicle I spotted during my ride today. I told the owner "That's a Chinese Knock-Off of my Invention!":

IMG_1695 by AviationMetalSmith, on Flickr

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I started with Aluminium Structural Supports and a Fiberglass Fairing. Now, this many years later, the Support is Fiberglass, and the outer skin is Coroplast.

 

[YahudaMoon]

Loving these bikes

 

[Rob3rt]

W....T.....F...........

 

[goody]

These would sell in the UK. The Type 11 would have been the ideal bike to tackle LEJOG on, lots of storage and protection from the wind.

 

[Dusty Bin]

These remind me of the kind of contraptions that get launched off the pier at Bognor every year...

 

[Cuchilo]

All that cardboard and not a flicker in sight

 

[Cyclopathic]

Bravo.

 

[AviationMetalSmith]

Still working on the project...
UPDATE
LED lights have replaced all halogens and incandescents ,
Coroplast™ is now the main ingredient
Construction time is shorter
Bottle Cages have been replaced by "nacelles" , which are intended to protect hands from wind-chill, and also streamline the bottle cages. After installation it was found that the Cages are no longer needed. "Cage-Free Bottled Water ©2018"
Momentary Contact (fancy name for "button") lights up the Brake Light AND a Piezo Alarm . There is another Kill Switch to silence the alarm.
Air Horn os now *inside* the Fairing to reduce parasitic drag.
Velo-Top type of Roof was tried , and it works, but I'm not going to use it.

 

[Drago]

 

[Fab Foodie]

Rip van cycle awakes.....

 

[Milkfloat]

Do you have a European distributer yet? I see serious potential, especially if you can customise some storage for beard wax.

 

[Vantage]

 

[AviationMetalSmith]

What I forgot to mention, and I assume you've read this thread from the first page, is the newest "Model 317" and "Model 318" are based on the earlier "Type 3" .

I have excluded those type 4 , type 5, and type 6 designs , they were a complete disaster , the Kevlar was a waste of money...

The Type 9, type ten , and type eleven designs (where the cargo platform/ fairing are attached to the head tube) were also ignored.

Model 317 has a nice Tail Box, but it's front fairing will be upgraded to the Model 318 design.

I have switched from using the designator "Type" to "Model" on account I've been building fairings , approximately one every two years , for about thirty years, or about 15 different bikes. For these Prototype designs to ever pay-off, I have to put something into "Production" at some point. The market is weak. Kids today are spoilt , they get chauffeured in SUV's everywhere. But I digress...

The earlier prototypes were intended as "student projects" for engineering school.
As a shrewd businessman , and somewhat of a miser , I really don't want to blow a lot of money on any one bike. I am fully aware that some people spend more money on their "Hobby" than I spend financing my "Business" ... I haven't even started a business yet , as I said , it started as a student project. I might transistion to a "hobby" at some point, or maybe when I get old enough, I'l put flags on my 4 kilowatt "Mobility Scooter".

It's a lot of fun. I'm trying to be educational.

If anyone thinks they can build a nicer set of Panniers, with LED Lights built in, go ahead and post some photos. A lot of people (not really) have built Fairings for Recumbent Bikes. In my reckoning, it makes more "Business Sense" to build fairings for upright bikes, on account there are more upright bikes out there than recumbent bikes.

But a couple of witty statements that have shut-up the detractors :
"I am promoting an invention , Not selling a bicycle"
"Polypropylene is fifty times cheaper than fiberglass"
"Fiberglass needs to be painted, but with Polypropylene, the color is molded in"


Type 3 , and Model 318 , which is based on Type 3. Honestly , I had run out of money before I could make the Rear panniers.
But Coroplast™ is a Board, which does Not need a Mold to be formed in. Also, money drifted in over the 30 years between these two photos.

 

[plantfit]

back to the drawing board

 

[PhilDawson8270]

I'm a design engineer by trade (press tooling for producing Aluminium profiles), and pretty much all the work I do starts from first principles, which is look at what is trying to be achieved/required, and then look and see if it can be done with the physical limitations of the machines which my customers operate...the design intent.

I'm looking at the amount of effort you appear to have put into all these different bikes, and feel that your time might have been a lot more productive if you had perhaps mocked up a riding position as a timber jig to get the physical parameters around the rider(s) right (ergonomics for the seating position/bottom bracket/steering etc), chopped an existing bike frame up, sourced and cut new tubing to suit overlaying it over the timber jig and then paid a local welder (who doesn't need to go through a learning curve) to stitch it all together.

You would have had a much better chance of keeping the weight down, in the right place, and end up with something which is a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Mechanical Design Engineer here also. You may be correct in your observations about the effort, and poor approach.

But try not to be too harsh, not everybody are engineers. As adults we're often scared of failure, and looking stupid. It's nice to see somebody playing, and building random, poorly thought out stuff. For a bit of fun.

Everybody should do more of it.