Hey all,
That’s my first post here - so I’m sorry was not yet properly introduced. Me and my colleagues are in the ebike business for more than two years - building batteries, assembling ebikes, selling parts. We’ve come to a conclusion that there is hardly a choice for us for an e-bike frame. We have some 3D printer engineering background so we figured we’re going to design our own.
The design guidelines were simple:
- modular and customizable (no welding required) - you just bolt in parts
- ultra light - we use honeycomb structure to reduce mass
- full suspension
- effective turn radius
- not more than 90mm thick but with an option to change the thickness
- interchangeable batteries
As there is no welding required everyone can basically assemble such a frame from flat parts. The design itself does not put too much stress on bolts. It also allowed us to mix steel and aluminum parts together - effectively reducing mass and strengthening critical parts. Once you will own a frame like this you do not need to commit to certain shape or parameters. Just by changing a few parts you can basically alter frame properties at a very low cost.
We would like this to be more than a frame - we’re thinking about it as a platform to design and customize an ebike specifically for the needs of each user.
We hope we could have a working prototype on Christmas.
The best thing of all is that this project will be open source. You will be able to download project files and cut your own parts or help us with further project development. Soon we’re going to setup a website where we will share project files.
As for now, I think we’d like to have some feedback and perhaps some encouragement. It would be great to know there is also someone who is ready to participate in this open source project.
We can’t decide if the project should be called OpenEbike or osEbike. Maybe you could help us make the right choice?
We'll be grateful for any feedback!
Conrad
That’s my first post here - so I’m sorry was not yet properly introduced. Me and my colleagues are in the ebike business for more than two years - building batteries, assembling ebikes, selling parts. We’ve come to a conclusion that there is hardly a choice for us for an e-bike frame. We have some 3D printer engineering background so we figured we’re going to design our own.
The design guidelines were simple:
- modular and customizable (no welding required) - you just bolt in parts
- ultra light - we use honeycomb structure to reduce mass
- full suspension
- effective turn radius
- not more than 90mm thick but with an option to change the thickness
- interchangeable batteries
As there is no welding required everyone can basically assemble such a frame from flat parts. The design itself does not put too much stress on bolts. It also allowed us to mix steel and aluminum parts together - effectively reducing mass and strengthening critical parts. Once you will own a frame like this you do not need to commit to certain shape or parameters. Just by changing a few parts you can basically alter frame properties at a very low cost.
We would like this to be more than a frame - we’re thinking about it as a platform to design and customize an ebike specifically for the needs of each user.
We hope we could have a working prototype on Christmas.
The best thing of all is that this project will be open source. You will be able to download project files and cut your own parts or help us with further project development. Soon we’re going to setup a website where we will share project files.
As for now, I think we’d like to have some feedback and perhaps some encouragement. It would be great to know there is also someone who is ready to participate in this open source project.
We can’t decide if the project should be called OpenEbike or osEbike. Maybe you could help us make the right choice?
We'll be grateful for any feedback!
Conrad