5 replies to this topic

[MetroiD]

V-LV-24E

My recent bike frenzy continues with my this one; the primary aim here was to construct a minifig-scale bike with a really FAT rear tire, which is one of the most prominent features of nowadays' powerful cruisers. I do believe this has not been done in minifig-scale before, so this one in particular is a bike I'm pretty happy with - even though it is not a replica of any real-life motorcycle and hence does not feature that many recognizable details.


"Man, can you imagine how much rubber this one will burn..."




The engine is obviously an inline four and not a V-twin. I might build one of those later on, but for now I was a going for a "cleaner" look. Due to the angle and look of its headlight, the front of the bike slightly resembles the Suzuki Intruder M1800R (a.k.a. Boulevard M109R). This, however, was not on purpose and is rather just a nice side-effect.



An effect I was going for was the transformation from a big tank in the front to a thin rear mudguard, which then nicely lets the viewer's attention focus on the fat rear wheel.



For those of you who might ask whether using this hinge brick doesn't make the bike unstable - no, it's actually absolutely OK. The correct angle is ensured by the use of the exhaust pipes and the 2x1 plate with bumper. Father Torque here demonstrates just how sturdy & comfy the construction is.



There it is, my big rear wheel design. It is a really solid build and the tire does not wiggle at all. I'm quite happy with how it turned out.



P.S.: I've posted more smaller-res pictures instead of uploading just a few high-res images. If you'd want to see some more photos, go see the Cruiser's MOCpages presentation. I will add higher-res photos to Brickshelf later on.

[SeaKing61]

Very nice job. Do you two (Asya and Bobby) build these together or is this a solitary effort? How does it compare in terms of size to regular lego bikes? I imagine it's bigger than the classic bikes, but a tad smaller than the newer ones. It's very detailed for its size, well done.

Laurie

[MetroiD]

Thanks Laurie :]
Regarding the motorcycle - actually it's not too detailed comparing it to my two other bikes. What is special about it though is the big-sized rear tire, making that one fit on this bike and actually constructing a mechanism to hold it in place in a sensible way is really what this one was about. It is definitely bigger than the classical city bikes and it's just about the same size as modern minifig bikes - albeit a tad bit lower, but then again - it's a cruiser.

As to our motorbikes in general - well, to be perfectly honest, I'm the one in charge of our vehicle fleet in general. That includes both cars, buses (I might post some of those here later on, but I'd rather avoid "flooding" the place with our MOCs) and bikes. As far as the latter go - Asya is not really much of a motorcycle fan in general, she prefers designing buildings, so I'm the one who does the work when it comes to all things with wheels. She does however give me some great ideas regarding what car model I could add to our motor pool.

Edited by Asya & Bobby Otters, 26 February 2009 - 09:47 PM.

[MetroiD]

I'd be very grateful if I could get some more responses regarding the rear wheel design... do you think that the bike looks too big this way? Is it perhaps a bit unsightly? Or should I keep it and build on it?

Don't get me wrong, I like the bike just fine as it is - in fact, I think it's the most realistic looking one out of all three bikes I've built so far. However, I wanted to hear your thoughts & ideas, so that I could eventually improve the design for my future motorcycle MOCs...

[Matn]

You know, it's sometimes hard to get comments here on Eurobricks, so be patient.   I like it very much, it has a great feeling over it. It looks like a real bike, as far as you can make a brick build bike with LEGO. This is something I really couldn't have come up with, it has nice piece usage and a great design. In the future I'll need these bikes form you for reference to make my own LEGO motorbikes, for sure.

Edited by Matn, 27 February 2009 - 09:26 PM.

[MetroiD]

Thanks mate, it's actually not really comments or even commenDs I'm after, what I'd like is some piece of friendly advice on how to improve stuff, since I'm far from being half as good as most of you guys around here. That's what I really miss @ Brickshelf & MOCpages and that's the kind of support which I like about this place.