Carbon Fiber Bike

The summer of 2025 I started a big personal project undertaking. The goal was to design and mold a carbon fiber bike frame.  Since this project is such a big undertaking for one person, it is still a work in progress.  I have showcased some of the thing I have accomplished below.

SolidWorks Design

Below is the SolidWorks design I created that should be the perfect bike fit for me. It also prioritizes aerodynamic cross sections in the down tubes and strength around the joints. The lower left photo is of a multi part forged mold for the T junction of the handlebars (seen in purple in the top left photo).

Forged Carbon Fiber Parts

The following pictures showcase some of the parts I created with the forged carbon fiber technique. Including a dropout mount and the handlebars. 

Front Fork

Below I will show one of the failed attempts at laying up a front fork and then my process of building a 3 part mold for prepreg use.  The failed attempt worked for the first layer but the complicated geometry and weight of the fabric caused the layup to completely fall off the inner mold. 

Large Temprature Controlled Oven

The process for curing both the molds I made and the prepreg carbon fiber requires prolonged curing at an elevated temperature, the parts are also too large to fit inside a kitchen oven. The solution was to build a  oven of my own using insulating foam board and an Arduino.