Homemade bicycle: from design to manufacture
Team of students from the Product Design, Level 4 coursetells the story of how they created a unique bicycle and the difficulties that arose. One of the assignments this semester was to make a go-kart, a non-standard type of bicycle with 3-4 wheels and powered by human power. And most importantly, it had to actually go.
Initially we were given a little over a month towork, and we immediately set ourselves a rather difficult task - to make a complete structure out of metal. We stubbornly resisted the advice of our teachers and friends, who said: "Guys, don't suffer, make it simpler, don't bother, there is plastic, plywood..." In the end, we are very happy with the result, although we suffered for three months and spent a decent amount of money on it. In the end, six projects should be presented on the course, and we were the only team who did not work with their own hands. We understood that if we wanted to get a kart made of metal and which would not look like an "art installation", then we should hand over our project to production, and not make it with our own hands. On the other hand, this is the experience of a real industrial designer. Almost all the other teams made the kart mainly out of 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 bring the project to life. According to our project, according to our drawings, a bicycle was assembled. Some helped with production, others helped with painting, we took materials and parts from third people, engineering advice was given by fourth people, etc. In the end, there were about ten people who helped us. At the very beginning, a person who builds wheelchairs helped us with advice. He gave advice on the steering system and on the use of materials. Our main burden was brainstorming, calling companies, finding people...
The most painful thing was buying parts andmaterials. It felt like we were begging people, “Please sell us materials, we can’t keep calling you.” We once spent over 8 hours at a wholesale metal warehouse, filling out paperwork, then filling out more, terrible red tape… We were literally asking people to take our money throughout the entire project. Since the Russian market is not designed for this kind of project, one month out of three months of work was spent on sorting out everything. People are simply not used to doing things they are not used to. In the end, we are very glad that we went against all the advice to make our lives easier. We overcame a lot of problems, but it paid off handsomely. The uniqueness of the bike is, first of all, its appearance. Secondly, it 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 chair, it is a suspended fabric between the bicycle frames that takes the shape of your body, it is elastic and at the same time very durable, we tested it in several ways. We have not yet conducted speed tests on the bicycle, but in theory you can put a motor on it and develop a decent speed. Part of the turning system is taken from an ATV, so it has a fairly small turning radius, which allows you to maneuver and not lose speed. And this shape was chosen due to the fact that the load is removed from the back when you bend over, and your legs get tired much less, which allows you to ride long and fast. First, a chair was made of foam and cardboard in real size and dimensions were taken from it, this allowed us to make minimal errors during construction. We also assembled mock-ups of the steering system in which all the parts moved in real size. Only after that we compared the 3D model with the mock-ups and were able to make an accurate 3D model for the drawings.
The bike doesn't have a name yet, it's the mostthe hard part of the job. We are leaning towards the name of some insect, as the side wings of the device look like insect wings, and it is quite small, green... The velomobile was painted in special conditions at the factory. This is chromo flair paint, 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 powerful Mountain Climbing jeeps, they have a very structured frame. And the ancestor of the form is the cart. The steering system changed the most, on the final copy it changed 4 times. You can't put a regular steering wheel, there is a problem with landing, your knees get caught. As a result, we came to a system of side levers, as is customary in the American market for trikes, people lie down and steer, moving their hands left and right. But there they have levers under their hand, and here they have an extension, like motorcycle ones. At the exhibition, we plan to hold a bike race between all six cards, and then we plan to put the exhibit on display in the exhibition space. Plus, we developed the velomobile as an alternative transport for Moscow, since we also think about ecology. We thought out a system of covers that can be put on in different weather conditions, and given that it is three-wheeled, you can ride it in rain and snow.
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