Homemade bicycle: from design to manufacture
Team of the students of the course Product Design, Level 4tells about how they created a unique bicycle and what difficulties they encountered. One of the tasks in this semester was to make a cycling card, a non-standard type of bicycle that has 3-4 wheels and is driven by human power. And most importantly - he had to actually go. 
Initially, they gave us a little more than a month to work,and we immediately set ourselves a rather difficult task - to make a complete construction of metal. We were stubbornly against the advice of our teachers and friends who said: "Guys, do not suffer, do it easier, do not bother, there is plastic, plywood ..." In the end, we are very pleased with the result, although we suffered three months and spent a decent amount of money on it. At the end of the course, six projects should be submitted, and we became the only team who did not work with their own hands. We understood that if we want to get maps made of metal and that would not look like an "art installation", then we should take our project for production, rather than do it with our own hands. On the other hand, this is the experience of a real industrial designer. Almost all the other teams made maps predominantly from plywood, although some teams also initially had ideas to work with metal, but gradually people refused in favor of money or in favor of simplification. We found people who helped us translate the project into reality. According to our project, according to our drawings a bicycle was assembled. Some helped in the production, others helped with the painting, materials and parts we took from third people, engineering advice was given by the fourth and so on. As a result, ten people accumulated who helped us. At the very beginning the person who builds wheelchairs helped us with advice. He gave advice on the steering system and on the use of materials. Our main cargo was - brain, call in the company, find people ... 
The most painful thing was to buy the parts andmaterials. There was a feeling that we were begging people "Please sell us the materials, we can not ring you anymore". We protorchali somehow in the wholesale warehouse of metal for more than 8 hours, it was necessary to fill first some papers, then others, terrible red tape ... We really asked people throughout the project to take our money. Since the Russian market is not designed for such projects, out of three months of work, one month has gone to settle all the cases. People are just not used to doing things that are not used. In the end, we are very happy that we went against all the tips to make our life easier. We overcame a lot of problems, but it paid off with interest. The uniqueness of a bicycle, first of all, is its appearance. Secondly, this is the fact that it was created by Russian designers. An important function of our velomobile is convenience. The mobile chair is not an ordinary leather armchair, it is a hanging cloth between the bicycle frames that takes the shape of your body, it is elastic and yet very durable, we checked in several ways. Tests on the speed of the bike, we have not yet conducted, but in theory it can be put the motor and develop a decent speed. Part of the turning system is taken from the ATV, so the turn is quite a small radius, which allows you to maneuver and not lose speed. And this form was chosen due to the fact that the load is removed from the back, when you bend over, and the legs are much less tired, which allows you to drive long and fast. First, a chair made of foam plastic and cardboard was made in real size and dimensions were taken from it, this allowed us to make minimal mistakes in the construction. We also assembled the models of the steering system in which all the details moved to the real value. Only after that we compared the 3D model with the layouts and could make an accurate 3D model for the drawings. 
The bicycle has no name yet, it's the most difficultpart of work. We tend to the name of some insect, since the side wings of the device are similar to the wings of an insect, well, it's quite small, green ... The Velomobile was painted in special conditions at the factory. This painting chromo flair, a new generation of chameleon, liquid crystals that are embedded in the paint and due to this it changes color from green to blue depending on the lighting. We were inspired by the powerful Mountain climbing jeeps, they have a very structured frame. And the ancestor of the form is a trolley. The steering system changed most of all, on the final copy it changed 4 times. Ordinary steering wheel can not be set, the problem with landing starts, knees are hurt. As a result, came to the system of lateral levers, as is customary in the American market for trikes, people lie and rule, moving their hands left and right. But they have levers at their fingertips, and we have them continued as motorcycle. At the exhibition we plan to arrange a race between all six cards, and then we plan to put the exhibit on the exhibition space. Plus, we developed a velomobile as an alternative transport for Moscow, because we also think about ecology. We have thought over a system of covers that can be worn in different weather conditions, and given that it is a three-wheeled car, it can be driven in rain and snow. 
a source
