3D-printed socket-style lugs are used to join commodity tubestock, and those joints are then reinforced with carbon fiber and epoxy. The process that I came up with takes advantage of the growing availability and affordability of CAD and 3D printing to allow people to build themselves a unique custom bicycle with unparalleled design flexibility. I wanted to design a process for building bicycles that allowed an enthusiast to spend less overhead, less time on finicky details, and put the emphasis on actually designing and making a bike that you want to ride. If you’ve been adding up the tally, you’re already at more than $600 for your first frame – hopefully you won’t make any mistakes! Bicycle specific tubesets will cost you upwards of $100, and a set of lugs and dropouts is about another $100.
While it would be possible to braze a frame with commodity straight-gauge 4130 (chromoly) steel tubing, it would be very heavy and wouldn’t ride very well - bike specific tubesets are double- or triple-butted to save weight and place extra material at the lug junctions. Next, the materials for the bicycle frame itself. A TIG welder suitable for working with thin-walled steel and aluminum bicycle tubing is more like $1000. If you want to learn to braze steel frames, an oxy-acetylene starter kit with everything you need to get brazing is something over $200 (plus the price of an additional gas cylinders, brazing rods, and flux that you’ll use). Next, you need to consider the tools that are specific to typical framebuilding.
Rapid-prototyping has pushed the costs of pre-made bike jigs from $1000s down to $300 or so, but if you don’t know how many frames you really want to make, it’s still money that you aren’t putting towards your first frame.
Fabricating a jig with basic versatility and functionality for framebuilding takes time and patience, and the raw materials costs are at least $200. Before you’ve even thought of the bike, you need to think about the jig. And that’s when things start to get daunting. There’s something truly special and deeply rewarding about riding something that you’ve built yourself, and being able to choose whatever custom geometry and extras that you want only adds to the appeal.Īt that point you probably looked at everything that you needed to do to make a bike. If you’re really into cycling and are on this site, chances are that over the years you’ve at least toyed with the idea of making your own frame.
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