Concept Bikes & Bike Innovation - for better or worse

Berrow - awesome. I have used 3D printing for prototyping and modelling but not for anything structural. Are your pedals structural? What printer and material are you using? I have heard interesting things about the next generation of nylon filament printers...

I agree with fade's views on design, and for what it's worth, I'm an industrial designer. It's worth remembering that a lot of 'design' projects on kickstarter are from graduates (and presumably those graduates who haven't been snapped up by larger companies) rather than established and experienced companies - the quality of projects is more variable than traditional commercial stuff.

IndraRipper, if you send me an imprint of your arse, I'll convert it into a 3d-printable data for you.

I still remember my lecturer, Nicki Theokritoff Called me a wanker on the first week, also drilled "Form follows function" into my head.

Yes, I have heard of him actually - doesn't he teach furniture design? Something I was looking into a while back. I wish my undergrad degree had had any sort of academic or theoretical component... it was literally just sketching, photoshop, CAD and clay for three years.

I'm liking those, price point is fantastic too, how much did you pay for Axles and grub screws if you don't mind me asking.

The axels are from some shitty pedals I had in the shed, I used a 'Bergtec Penthouse' bearing kit to get the spacing right. (this was given to me by my friendly LBS)

Grub screws were £1.10 which is minimum charge at 'All Fix' the local fixings company.

Also...
Would you be up for 3D printing a saddle?

I did consider a saddle, however I would need to fix the rails in some how. Dont know what the best way to do this would be... I haven't dismantled enough saddles to know different techniques.

Also my 3D modelling skills are not the best, saddles need nice curves but if LAE modeled something nice I could give printing it a go.

Berrow - awesome. I have used 3D printing for prototyping and modelling but not for anything structural. Are your pedals structural? What printer and material are you using? I have heard interesting things about the next generation of nylon filament printers...

I agree with fade's views on design, and for what it's worth, I'm an industrial designer. It's worth remembering that a lot of 'design' projects on kickstarter are from graduates (and presumably those graduates who haven't been snapped up by larger companies) rather than established and experienced companies - the quality of projects is more variable than traditional commercial stuff.

IndraRipper, if you send me an imprint of your arse, I'll convert it into a 3d-printable data for you.

I am using a basic RepRap machine - 'The Rap Man' is its name. The pedals are printed in PLA which is what we've had the best results from.

However using the far more expensive object printer we can get amazing results. I haven't printed a pedal using this as it would lost around £100 a piece!

I think a saddle would be really cool and pretty doable, The rails on my Selle are simply plugged into holes and and fixed in place I assume with a simple 2 part resin. Epoxy maybe.

PLA is pretty weak, though, isn't it?

I would be very happy to model things for you - I use Autodesk Alias which is perfect for nice, flowing surfaces like saddles (it is used for modelling car exteriors), then create .stl mesh files from that - is that any use to you?

I know near nothing about 3d printing but I doubt it'd be worth putting in all the time to make something custom first try, reckon you could make a copy of my current stripped saddle just in 3d design software, what would you charge for your time?
Indra

@ fade:

(2) No vehicle shall be fitted with a lamp which is capable of showing any light to the rear, other than a red light, except–
long list
(i)a pedal cycle and any sidecar attached to it;
long list

I'm not 100% I've read this right- but I think that is saying any color facing backwards is OK on a bicycle.

No, any colour reflection from wheel reflectors is OK

(q)reflected light of any colour from retro reflective material or a retro reflector designed primarily to reflect light to one or both sides of the vehicle and attached to or incorporated in any wheel or tyre of–
(i)a pedal cycle and any sidecar attached to it;

ahhh...

I know near nothing about 3d printing but I doubt it'd be worth putting in all the time to make something custom first try, reckon you could make a copy of my current stripped saddle just in 3d design software, what would you charge for your time?
Indra

It would have to be custom anyway, since the design of your current saddle is based around a)ABS (probably) and b)injection moulding (almost certainly) - and this saddle would be 3D-printed PLA so its mechanical properties would be different. I won't charge anything for a fellow LFGSSer, so long as you don't mind me doing it in the evenings.

What I would say is this - I expect a 3D printed PLA saddle to be weaker than a conventional one for a given weight. Perhaps Berrow can confirm how strong his pedals are before anything goes ahead.

This guy demonstrates that PLA seems to be pretty strong. Subjective test, of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaQA_EccZkk

Anyway. This sounds like a fun project and I'm very interested in getting my own 3D printer in the future, so I'm happy to help - please PM me.

Delamination between layers is a bigger issue than material strength under compression. Layer orientation will have a massive effect on the success of a printed part (from a FDM printer).

for 3d printing of pedals, you might be interested in the following link, on bmx pedals with no bearings inside, just plastic clamped around metal, might make the process a little easier (though I'm sure Odyssey have patent protected their idea)

http://www.odysseybmx.com/dailyword/2012/07/jcpc-pedals/

It would have to be custom anyway, since the design of your current saddle is based around a)ABS (probably) and b)injection moulding (almost certainly) - and this saddle would be 3D-printed PLA so its mechanical properties would be different. I won't charge anything for a fellow LFGSSer, so long as you don't mind me doing it in the evenings.

I wonder if you could offer a range of custom moulded/designed saddles by using the base of another saddle. This would avoid the problem of having to engineer in the rail clamps. Basically, pick something cheap and solid like a Charge Spoon, strip the padding off so you're just left with the rails and plastic shell and drill a couple of holes for mounting. Then 3D print the saddle outer in whatever colour, shape and texture you like, making sure that its inner surface is the same shape as the Spoon shell. Also include a couple of mounting studs. Pop the outer onto the Spoon shell, securing it with the studs through the holes you drilled plus a couple of screws and off you go.

http://vanhulsteijn.com/

http://www.tuvie.com/wp-content/uploads/collapsible-bike1.jpghttp://www.thinkhero.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/anne-hathaway-catwoman-in-new-jersey-07.jpg

What's innovative about the van Hulsteijn frames?
I've never ridden one but they're quite heavy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22885602

Flying bike anyone....

What's innovative about the van Hulsteijn frames?
I've never ridden one but they're quite heavy.

So are these Oak Dutch bikes heavy

Limited turning arc. Balance bike design for adults. Quite fun to ride though

Doesn't look like Ryan's usual work.

Doesn't look like Ryan's usual work.

badum-tish

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2013/6/19/1371635342363/The-Paravelo-XploreAir-X1-009.jpg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2013/jun/19/flying-bike-rise-above-daily-grind

Another attempt at a bike light - a bit overcomplicated, but it could be OK:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/19/velodroom-does-what-every-bike-light-should-responds-to-your-ride-and-turns-on-and-off-automatically/

Most useless allen key set?

http://brimages.bikeboardmedia.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Ringtool-Compact-Multi-Tool-600x351.jpg

mandatory bottle-opener.

http://www.milanofixed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gaap.jpg