Design asthetics.

Making the first steps into bike design and frame geometry was interesting, but it produced a bike that was very conservative in its apearance. If there is one thing you can do when making your own bike, it is to personalise the design. As with any design proces it is all abut personal tase. I am not going to go really radical, I like simple, and I like curves, so I am going to try and work both of those into the shape of the bike frame. I also want to make the most of the plywood. I intend to shape the square edges back into curves, revealing the lamnated layers of the ply. I really like this look, it reminds me of map contors. In order to do this I have to make myself happy that the smaller components will still have enough strenght once shaped, as it could be taking a considerable volume of material away.

With the above in mind I had a go at reworking the first draft bike design. I relised that it would be a good idea to shorten he rear stays as mych as possible, so I curved what would be the seat tube to follow the line of the wheel. Now the rear stays will be the minimum length. They will probably need to be a wishbone shape to fix in well. i had thought about making the seat tube follow that curve but i want to have a propper ajustable seat within the frame so for the moment it is a chunky block there. I tried cutting a shape out there but it always looked odd, so I stuck with it being solid. I also started looking at where the bolts would need to go for the joins between the metal and wooden parts. Although not visible in this image, I have started designing the metal components, they will be embeded in the wood of the frame. Again I want to b sure that they will be strong enough. (notice the crank wheel is on the wrong side, this is just so I know where it will sit)
The most vital thing for me to keep an eye on at this stage is to design something that I am confident I can actually build. It is all to easy to get carried away. So far so good.