Bicycle Frame
As I mentioned in the Manufacturing and Design section, I'm very passonate about bikes. This class, taught by Ryan Connolly with the help of Scott Kohn, goes over a lot of important material about bicycle design and welding. We started with a blank slate, or rather a Solidworks(CAD) model with a lot of equations. After carefully measuring our body geometry using a FIT bike, we decided on the desired performance characteristics of the bike, and made detailed to-scale drawings of our frame. We then meticulously cut butted steel tubes using this drawing and a set of cutting jigs. The most difficult part, however, is getting good enough at welding to weld the tubes together. I had a bit of welding experience beforehand, but thin-walled tubes and complicated joints really pushed my limits.
As I mentioned in the Manufacturing and Design section, I'm very passonate about bikes. This class, taught by Ryan Connolly with the help of Scott Kohn, goes over a lot of important material about bicycle design and welding. We started with a blank slate, or rather a Solidworks(CAD) model with a lot of equations. After carefully measuring our body geometry using a FIT bike, we decided on the desired performance characteristics of the bike, and made detailed to-scale drawings of our frame. We then meticulously cut butted steel tubes using this drawing and a set of cutting jigs. The most difficult part, however, is getting good enough at welding to weld the tubes together. I had a bit of welding experience beforehand, but thin-walled tubes and complicated joints really pushed my limits.
I love the bike that resulted from this class. I wanted to build a really light bike, so I chose a double butted Cro-Moly tubeset and lightweight components, which resulted in a final weight of 23 pounds. It is a 1x9 29'er mountain bike, and it seems to excel on any terrain. Well, almost every terrain. I learned through painful experience that 29'ers are not good for dirt jumping when I broke my collarbone after performing half of a backflip.
