[TC19] The Speeder

[Seasider]

So I rejoiced at seeing a new competition, it seemed like an age since TC18.

I saw the tread, read the words motorbike and got building and came up with this ...

... yes I hadn’t read the rules in detail at this point, I’d seen the word motorbike, got all excited about building something in Technic rather than watching tv and going for walks all over Christmas (as we can’t see family) and spent 2 hours working on a rear suspension for a trike!

This morning I luckily reread the rules and came up with this ...

... some form of Chopper. It’s not going to be based off anything in particular. My first challenge was general shape and size. I think my next piece of research will be on gearboxes to see if anyone has a nice compact design that might fit this frame

[Rudivdk]

Nice, another chopper! Good start with the frame, seems you have lots of space to fit all mechanics in there. Best of luck!

[Seasider]

Been working on a gearbox off and on last night and today between walks in the fresh air. I’ve  never designed a gearbox before, so I started with the Defender 4 speed box as I want to use the rotary selector.

I then also searched YouTube and found a compact stepper.

I then realised you can make the Defender gearbox narrower by 1 Stud so I did that and married it to the stepper.

only just built it, but I don’t think the stepper is man enough to cycle the gears.

So a bit more research to do ... but not for a couple of days as lots of eating, drinking and Zoom calls with family to do.

 

 

Happy Christmas to everyone at Eurobricks

Edited December 24, 2020 by Seasider

[2GodBDGlory]

Good work on the gearbox! I think designing your own gearbox is one of the most satisfying things to do in Technic. Here is an option for a stronger stepper:

The image isn't ideal, but maybe you can figure it out.

Edited December 24, 2020 by 2GodBDGlory

[Seasider]

So an update from me ...

I soon replaced the compact stepper with @Didumos69 and set about trying to get it into the bike frame.

I was doing lots in Stud.io on my Mac and then building physically once I had something that would hold together.

at this stage I realised that the friction of using the red 2L gear changers with the orange rotary selectors was just too much and I’d have to change back to the Denfenders original dark grey 3L changers. This would create an even wider frame which would just be terrible, so back to the drawing board.

so I rotated the gearbox to make it longitudinally mounted which solved some of the width problem but then gave me a length problem. So after about 3 iterations in Stud.io frustration hit!

But, for Christmas I’d picked up an old set on eBay that I missed when it was out. The Scout Trooper and Speederbike, in my mind one of the coolest Imperial uniforms and my love for them reinvigorated by watching the Mandalorian.

So back to the drawing board ... I’ve decided to ditch the massive gearbox and go for a “themed” bike instead. I know someone on here a while ago had done a range of imperial themed bikes but I haven’t gone back to see what they’ve created, I want to keep it as my interpretation.

So here is my work on the front fork and frame shape.

Red frame was my original chopper shape.

Sleeker side profile ... much happier with this.

next thing will be working out where to position the engine and refine some of the frame shape

Edited December 30, 2020 by Seasider

[steph77]

Hello!

With such a chase angle, would it even turn????

 

BTW, i posted a gearbox and stepper that may have your interrest. 

I also notice that you tell the frame would become too wide with the defendrer's driving rings....but your frame is both side 2 studs wide; it could be only one.

This way, even with the correspondants driving ring, the whole thing could be 1 stud stiffer than actually.

S.

[Seasider]

@steph77 - I’ve never designed a bike, I’m a car engineer, so not heard of chase angle. I assume you mean the angle of the front forks to the horizontal (or vertical)? Is the question can you (a human) then physically turn the steering? Angles/forces etc ... or is it about turning circle or contact patch for the tyre?

as to my frame being 2 wide around the gearbox I needed that to get the required overlap between the liftarms to hold it all together. There’s no other way, unless I did liftarms just over the gearbox length in which case the rear frame onto the wheel didn’t work.

Perhaps I’ll resurrect the gearbox bike at another time but for now it’s consigned to the list of MOCs to return to, and the Swoop-motorbike is my chosen path for TC19

[2GodBDGlory]

53 minutes ago, Seasider said:

@steph77 - I’ve never designed a bike, I’m a car engineer, so not heard of chase angle. I assume you mean the angle of the front forks to the horizontal (or vertical)? Is the question can you (a human) then physically turn the steering? Angles/forces etc ... or is it about turning circle or contact patch for the tyre?

as to my frame being 2 wide around the gearbox I needed that to get the required overlap between the liftarms to hold it all together. There’s no other way, unless I did liftarms just over the gearbox length in which case the rear frame onto the wheel didn’t work.

Perhaps I’ll resurrect the gearbox bike at another time but for now it’s consigned to the list of MOCs to return to, and the Swoop-motorbike is my chosen path for TC19

I would imagine that "chase angle" is referring to the castor angle. With such an extreme angle, almost all steering motion is on a longitudinal axis rather than a vertical one, so it does rather look like the steering circle would be massive, but it is hard to know without testing. It does make an extreme styling statement, though!

[MajklSpajkl]

Very inovative use of those mast pieces for forks  Il ike the first frame setupbetter, looks more realistic, afterall it is a bike, not a speeder  Very interested in further progress, I love that scout and speeder set, got it still assmebled on my desk.

Best regards!

[Dazzzy]

I'm really loving this design so far.  The new frame really seems like it will lend itself well to the speeder bike theme. Awesome. 

[Seasider]

Seems like a while since I’ve posted on here. I’d been working on the rear end and how to get the shapes I wanted all joined together. It took me a few iterations, where I’d design in stud.io and then check how strong it is physically. So yesterday I had this ...

... and so today I’ve cracked on with the frame. For this I worked physically and it was only for some items like the seat that I worked back in stud.io, mainly as I’m still not used to how to rotate parts and assemblies in the software. This is what my frame looked like when I transferred it across to the new rear assembly.

... then after a couple of hours work it matured into this ...

it doesn’t look a lot different but getting to this point involved taking a lot of the model apart multiple times. Also I did a lot of this physically as I’m not great at rotating parts and assemblies in stud.io yet. I think I just need to physically calculate all my angles and then I can transfer it across to digital.

Things to do:

Finish the fuel tank - I like the shape and rough position but need to review how it’ll fit in

Add Foot Rests

Add Engine Intake

Add a proper Flip down stand

Rename the model / this thread

Might do some tomorrow if I get a chance, otherwise it’ll be next weekend as I’m back at work Monday and I know it’ll be crazy.

enjoy 

[Jurss]

That engine placement seems somehow strange.

[Dazzzy]

20 minutes ago, Jurss said:

That engine placement seems somehow strange.

I love the engine placement, gives it a nice low COG and it'll heat the seat.  Speaking of which @Seasider  Is there any way you can spring the seat, seeing that it's a hardtail? 

Really loving the look so far!  Especially those rear lights and how you've done the exhaust placement. Looks fantastic! 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Dazzzy

[MajklSpajkl]

Wow, I love the way where this is going. The rear section looks very interesting and as I already said - great use of those mast pieces for the forks!

Looking forwards to seeing it finished!

Best regards.

[Thirdwigg]

Long and low. I like it. The tank will be a defining part as the bike is long, so I am looking forward too seeing it. 

[steph77]

Cool to see the way it goes  

Does the 2 cylinders engine be the final choice? seems a bit of undersized no?

Maybe, if keeping the 2  cylinders setup, built it in the spirit of set 8051 (b-model)?

S.

[Seasider]

Thanks for the comments everyone, glad you’re enjoying the build so far.

@Jurss & @steph77 - the engine is supposed to be (relatively) small and far back in the bike. I consider the engine to be all the light grey not just the cylinder blocks, and it’s a fantasy bike based off a SW Swoop and Speeder and their engines are at the rear.

@Dazzzy thanks for your comments, I’m glad I managed to get the rear lights and exhaust to look how I hoped. Hopefully a little SW inspired. unfortunately under the seat is the engine and gears to turn the drive by 90degrees so I’ve go not space to squeeze a shock in there for the seat. I could consider mounting it on the 2L Technic rubber pieces, but that’ll be a challenge too. Something to consider if I get time at the end.

@Thirdwigg I haven’t really thought about the fuel tank yet and what shape it will take yet. I might use Technic panels, but I’m also considering half cylinders that I have in my collection. But I don’t want too much System build. I want to update my second frame to the same shape as my final bike as I’m hoping I can do some reshaping along the bottom at the front to make the frame less heavy there, especially with the engine being at the back. The challenge then will be footrests.

[Dazzzy]

I'll assume it's a really soft padded seat cushion then.    Even if it isn't sprung, i still think the overall look is brilliant. 

[Seasider]

Had a big build day today a full 5 or 6 hours to attack it and I’m really pleased with how much I’ve achieved today.

First was to reshape the front of the frame to make the bike look less heavy at the front especially with my engine position.

Next stage was to modify the “intake” from the SW Speederbike and add it to the Frame.

Then it was the challenge of the fuel tank. It took me quite a lot of iterations to get from the top image to the bottom one. Lots of challenges to ensure the frame was strong enough but also the steering had enough movement.

So at the end of today I’ve got this far.

I even managed to put a small kick stand in.

Pretty much all of this today has been done using lots of iterations by physical build and it’s all thanks to having a spare frame to test things out on. Thankfully the full bike only had to come apart twice today.

No more updates for a while from me, next week is crazy at work and next Friday is a big birthday for my better half, so Friday and Saturday will be busy with Zoom calls to family and Friends. So I hope to get some more build time next Sunday, only the Handlebars and Footrests to work out.

Enjoy

... oh and time to change the thread name I think

Edited January 16, 2021 by Seasider

[Seasider]

So I think I’m finished.

Lates adds are ...

A recolour of the upper frame to be more aligned to a speederbike (colour upper, grey lower).

Modified tank to make it look better and more closed off.

Added some white connectors to make the area under the seat look more connected visually.

Replaced the blue 3L pins with black ones, unfortunately I don’t have any black 2L axle pins.

Added a front light and simple handlebars.

So the only thing I’m undecided on is whether I use the panels around the front wheel. I think without looks better than with. What are your thoughts ?

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by Seasider

[Jurss]

Without is better.

[Thirdwigg]

Yeah, without for me too.

[Seasider]

Thanks @Jurss & @Thirdwigg without it is.

I’ll try and take some final photos and a video tomorrow.

[Nazgarot]

Great work so far!

I think it would look better with panels on the front, but a different alignment. It may not be in accord with the speeder visuals, but using those long panels in the same direction as the mast pieces to partly cover them and the shock absorbers would look better. It would also look very "StarWarsy" with mechanical parts (shock absorbers) protruding form under a panel, and make the white colour scheme flow better.

_ED_

[ralphie]

Tail of the bike looks amazing.

For the front, IMO keep the panel if you can get the top edge level with the ground.