Next week and weekend

Next week I should have a packet with some of the items i need to be able to build a mockup of a streamliners basic lines. It would tell a huge amount of information about the whole project, it's measures, my pedaling position and I really get the first feeling of the vehicle. Up to now, everything has been pretty much just an image of the concept, but soon that all will be put into some form. So the next few weeks are really, really interesting.

Until then I'v put my effort into training, this weekend was exceptionally hard. We had a coach from Denmark to put our physical abilities under a test. 16 hours of training, theory, all technical stuff and finally a brutal strenght torture..

Low steering..

Front suspension, well I'v seen them a lot, but not like this. This is a idea that came from center pivot suspension. But instead of using center pivot hub I made one idea of using regular hub and using linear arms to replace the regular fork. This setup would be more sturdy, but because of many joints and bearings, definately will be more heavy, but what ever we wish to accomplish, ther's an idea behind it.

Few words about the design, hub is joined into arms by 4 bearings, and the arms are joined into control arms by aother set of bearings, control arm is joined into frame by bearings. The result is that when the arms are moved back, the other one moves forward, hub turns into desired direction and there we have a steering. I could say this is a low side steering or arm-steering.

Offcourse when upside fork is removed, we loose the upper frame where we can attach the transmission, but instead of putting it into above the wheel, in this idea the transmission is below the wheel, actually on side of the wheel.

Actually Im not sure is this any where good way to build a steering, but one advantage is that it is slim, very low in construction, but probably the heavy side because of the bearings and arms, at least its more heavy than regular upright fork.

Model is very simple, just to test the idea and see what is there to go wrong, and without testing, hard to say anything more about it.

Adjustable cranks

Carbon cranks with adjustment from 150mm up to 180mm. Q factor is 135mm, but easily adjusted by lenght of the spindle. BB is with no threads, and oversized for strenght. Spindle is hollow titanium tube. Spider is integrated. Chainring is with 130mm spacing. Weigh is 1000g including spindle, cranks and chainring, but it's still a solid object so weigh should come down when putting this together in real.

Why?, The reason is obvious, components with decent qualities aren't available, qualities such as lenght, weight, Q-factor, BB's etc. are not packed in one killer-product package, you should have 3-4 cranks, and combine those into one. Thats what is done in here. Adjustable lenght, sturdy BB, simple design, custom narrow, aero.

The cause is the world of standards where bikeworld stands, this is my little tiny snap into it's anxiousness to keep oldish axioms no matter how bad they are in modern standards point of view. Good example is the BB. The thread size and the shell radius is from the age when Adam met Eve. The shell and it's components were good for the use at that time, but today where DH, sick jumps and rude bashing is the use where bikes and it's components are put, shell is ridicilously underbuilt as is the bearings. Even that ISIS is great as a crank attachement, it lacks in BB, bearing balls are smaller than a head of the needle..
ISIS-Overdrive would be a perfect combination of strenght and easyness, sealed concept in a modern size.. but it lacks the support from the market, there are no bikes out there to use the standard, thatway ISIS-OD BB's are not widely available, if not at all. Dynamic bike world, where the wheel is allmost reinvented every year, some things never change.




I ran an FEA analysis to this part, material was 6061 aluminium.

Week off

So, to be short this time, being sick all week, really did't have too much effort to put into the project. But I managed to order my first components, also had some conversation about one another project I should go thru, so lots of stuff going on in here. And also made a really unique front wheel drive/steering system which might appear into these pages after i finish the idea in some level.
Next thing is to build a mockup with the components I'm having and also make some more designs.

-LRPilot