3D Printing Saves Bike Light

German designer and bicyclist Thorsten Wilms writes on his recent personal collision between biking and 3D printing. He had purchased a headlamp for his new bike, but found that the existing contraptions attached to the handlebars didn't leave sufficient space to attach the new lamp. 

 

After trying a couple of variations, he gave up trying to solve the problem using standard commercial practices and instead attempted to solve the situation himself with 3D printing. By modeling the required part, he was able to produce a design for the attachment piece that would likely work. 

 

Not having his own 3D printer, he turned to Shapeways, who offer their "Strong and Flexible" material that somehow seemed appropriate for this application. The part was printed, delivered and successfully installed on the bike. 

 

Another small piece of life saved by 3D printing! 

 

Via Thorwil 

3D Printed Bike

Serious cyclists need their bike to precisely match their body for optimum performance, but how can you do so when bikes are pre-made to someone else's specifications? The answer is to 3D print a bike to your exact specs. That's what was done recently by German bike maker Vorwaertz, who use 3D design to prepare a 3D model of the key parts to the correct specs and then 3D print them in metal. 

 

The VRZ 1 racing bike is made by 3D printing custom-designed joints that hold together frame tubes of carbon fiber or stainless steel. The joints could be made of titanium for an even lighter result. 

 

While their site is in German, the voiceless video shows the entire process from design to bike assembly. 

 

We think this is a perfect application of 3D printing, where each customer requires a very specific custom design. It's not clear how much this process would cost, but if it's too expensive then sales would be limited. It would also require a very effective way of gathering measurements in order to compute the correct bike geometry.

 

Via Vorwaertz, Vimeo and Ponoko

Specialized 3D Bikes

Those ultra-cool bikes from manufacturer Specialized made from carbon fibre just don't appear. They're designed very carefully - using 3D printing technology.

 

The process begins when Specialized engineers design a bike using a 3D modelling tool. Their objective is to produce something that not only is technically brilliant, but also looks good. The entire bike is modelled digitally before anything else happens. 

 

Then when the design is thought to be as good as possible, it's printed on a Dimension 1200 3D printer. At that point, they have in their hands a plastic model - the bike's frame, in life size actual dimensions. Strangely, the designers then go at the model with hand tools and material to add or subtract, refining to the final shape. This ensures both function and beauty are obtained. 

 

Be sure to watch the video that shows the rest of the manufacturing process, transforming the finished 3D model into a sleek carbon fibre frame. 

 

Via CozyBeeHive