Final Concept
During a course called Advanced Project Course, I worked together with five other students on a project called Plywood e-bike. Our mission was to design and manufacture a concept for an electric bike from scratch mainly using the material Plywood. Some of the bike's components were purchased to ensure the realization of a complete final product. The wheels, front fork, pedals, and saddle were bought, while the remaining components were designed and manufactured by me and the project group.
My role during the project was vice project leader, which involved planning, coordination work, and responsibility for concept development. The project entailed a variety of tasks, I was assigned to working with the frame's design and construction, ergonomic measurements, and surface treatment methods. I volunteered and was assigned the task of designing and manufacturing the bike's handlebar on my own due to the pressure of time at the end of the project.
The image shows some of the concept sketches that I created during the project. The sketch circled in red at the bottom left shows the sketch that we, as a project group, together with our supervisor, chose to proceed with. In the middle left, you can see a template that I created to streamline the sketching process; the specified points accounts for established ergonomic measurements.
A simplified CAD model that I created so that we could explore different visual expressions with color choices, materials, and details to later facilitate the process of selecting surface finishes.
The pictures at the top left show different tests that I and a group member conducted to investigate various surface treatments. At the top right, you see a picture showing the frame after a staining treatment; after staining, we applied lacquer. The picture at the bottom left shows how the bike was milled out in a CNC machine, divided into two halves, which were then glued together.
Final Concept
The image to the left shows some of the sketches I created when designing the handlebar. To the right is a brief summary of what knowledge the ergonomic grip research resulted in.
These pictures show a couple of grip models I created to explore different grip designs.
The pictures show three handlebar concepts, one of which became the final concept. The pictures with grey background are rendered CAD images the other two are photos. On the bottom left the picture show how the final concept was manufactured, two mirrored sides were milled and there after glued together.
These pictures show the final manufactured handlebar concept. The surface treatment process included sanding, staining, and applying lacquer.
