3D Printed Bicycle !

lester12483 said:
3d printing is only in its infant stage. Its like the internet of the 1960s. I look forward to the future with stuff like this! :idea:

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lester12483 said:


No Problem. Thanks for sharing. I put this on my "Watch Later" list
 
^ +1 Good advice: Wait for Version 3. :lol:

Man was that bike wobbly. Those guys might be good at designing aircraft parts but they don't know dirt about bicycles. That bike probably had one more ride in it before they happily put it in a glass case never to be ridden again.

Thanks for sharing, KF
 
Give it time. In about 10 years you will see small startup companies doing this and making some really cool locally made bikes.
 
Right now, 3D printing is the hot glue gun of geek tech. Which is to say, it's the tool that people seem determined to use for everything, even things it's no good for.

There are quite a few things that ABS is a great material for. Bicycles are an excellent example of something that shouldn't be made of ABS. The same general principle will still apply when and if fiber-reinforced resins and powdered metals become common 3D printing materials.
 
http://gizmodo.com/5964609/custom-3d+printed-beams-can-be-10000-times-stronger-than-steel

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They were clapping like he just finished his 50,000th mile on the thing.

I don't really know how to shortly put most of this idea into words without leaving huge portions out. Ideas surrounding economics, patents, and greed all prevent us from growing. No matter how amazing an inventor is, he didn't do it alone nor without the aid of progress of countless other individuals. It is with that fact that the idea of owning things seems superbly destructive. I think what I could use to summarize most of my argument with might relate to ideas surrounding basic income for all and perhaps a few ideas involving the re-working of the patent system. Even if I make an amazing new bicycle and try to sell it, someone else harvested the raw materials, shipping it to various locations, processed the materials, shipped them to me, made the tools, shipped those tools to me, and then theres the people who did things like maintain various parts of infrastructures, make and grow food and so on and so on. I guess it's strange how disconnected so many feel but how extremely connected we are. Everything is a remix and everyone helped you make it.

We make progress on technology many times slower than we could be.
 
Very well put. Industry is really slowing us down in a lot of ways.

Patents are a load of crap. All they do is make it possible for big money to keep running the show. Everything I've invented happened because I saw something someone else was doing or had invented and I either came up with a better way, or a way to utilize someone else's new invention in a new invention of my own. Where are my inventions you ask? They're largely stuck in my head. Why? Because, being a creative person, I don't fit into the worker bee mentality of society, and regardless of injuries, have a lot of trouble being satisfied with my quality of life when I'm working a full time job. Even if I could be happy working full time for someone else, finding a job that would fit me would be really difficult, maybe impossible. Why is that? Since I'm more creatively endowed than production endowed, my brain frequently tends to keep me up all night thinking about new ideas...sometimes for days at a time. Can you imagine working on some designs for 20 hours straight, then going to work and running a machine safely for 8 hours? I can't. Also, I've found that cannabis has a huge positive impact on my life. It helps me with physical and mental pain, helps me sleep, eat, and other things that others take for granted, and on top of it all, it boosts my creativity and drive. If I could find a job where I could come in and leave whenever I needed to and didn't have to pee in a cup, I'd go for it but I'm pretty sure that jobs like this don't exist.

This is where 3d printing tech gets me really excited. There are free drafting programs out there and cheap 3d modeling programs. Anything anyone ever wanted to know is accessible on the internet. So, other than money and actual part production, creative people have everything they need to research and develop ideas. If the 3d printing technology keeps advancing and someday we all have machines that can print whatever we can draw, the only drawback left will be the funding necessary to take the ideas public. There's a solution for that though. With a good design and an actual working prototype, it will be very easy for people with good ideas to get financial help through crowd funding. Then more people can start making their own jobs, on their own terms, and all of this corporate/industry/greed/patent BS can go the way of the dinosaur.
 
Fine Ride: World's First 3-D Printed Bike Frame Weighs Just 3 Pounds

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It's a first: a bike frame created entirely via 3-D printing. Empire's prototype, on display at the London Bike Show, is solid (or rather hollow) titanium, and weighs just 1,400 grams — around 3 pounds.

Naturally, things like the tires, seat and chain can't be 3-D printed, but printing the entire frame is a big step. It's not printed out whole, though: The parts are made clustered together in a block by melting titanium dust with a laser, then bonded together.

Empire teamed up with additive manufacturing company Renishaw, and it took them about six months to produce the bike. Other companies have produced 3-D printed parts, but this is the first frame that's entirely made by this method.

Is it actually practical, though? It's just as strong as the Empire frame it's based on and quite a bit lighter, but the process doesn't exactly lend itself to mass manufacture.

So chances are if you buy a 3-D printed frame any time soon, it'll be a custom job and quite expensive. But a few years down the line, this may be both common and affordable.

Promising. KF
 
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