Introduction

Having now written a number of these  how to do it guides for our web site, it has given me the opportunity to stand back from the action and review what we have all been doing. And one of the things I find both interesting and worrying is the reliance we all now have put on computers.  From the laptop (I am using now) to the number crunching desktops used in the design analysis, our project to date has been literally electric!  The future looks the same, manufacture of the components, and even assembly of the framework will be electric in some way or other.  Even running the bike will not be possible without the on board electronic controllers and operating systems!

So, being an engineer of a particular vintage, is this good?  Does it help? Does it do what we want it to do? Is it any faster in producing a bike? And more to the point, will it result in a faster bike?  Let us start by looking at What It Does first and then lets make up our minds.

Ability to communicate: the internet

The biggest difference I can see is one of Communication.  Since the first of the pit crew started drawing on cave walls one of the biggest problems of communication has been how to circulate the message, but now I am writing this on an internet page that can be read, anywhere, at any time in the world! The internet enables the messages, information, and entertainment to be sent and received literally at the click of a button. That must be good.  The members of the Bulldog team spread across the country would not be able to function without it.  (At a personnel level I am trying to wean myself off from the email banter … too much communication can sometimes get in the way of designing a bike)

Ability to sketch out ideas

Yes, there are plenty of readily available electronic methods of throwing a few simple lines down on paper.  As below, an example from early swing arm discussions….

My only gripe is that once you have committed yourself electronically then you are stuck with lugging around a laptop. And perhaps showing my age, I find it easier to doodle ideas on paper with a pencil.

Ability to turn these schemes into more complex assemblies

These initial schemes get turned into design layouts where the interaction between the various assemblies can be virtually assembled.

Ability to turn these schemes from 2D into 3D

Depending on the necessity to explore alternative layouts and check how best to fit all the required components, some parts or assemblies are then modelled in 3D.

Here a picture of a suggested drive chain assembly.

And here some pictures showing problems with the chain, and chain sprockets interfering with the frame of the bike.

An added bonus of producing these great 3D drawings is that the boring 2D drawings that are often only understood and read by engineers become more accessible.  The ideas and intentions shown in these 3D solid models suddenly becomes transparent to others.  And with electronic production techniques the information contained in these models, which fully define the shape of the space frame for example, can be used directly in its manufacturing process.

But behind these drawings or pictures is what I regard the clever part, the bit I enjoy most, (and I guess defines my, and my fellow engineers reason for being in the project..), the understanding, finding out how, and making things work.

And it seems to me that in trying to explain our use of computers in the sections above I have inadvertently also suggested a process of design.  Interestingly I have got it completely wrong and have missed an important part that computers allow us to do.  The process is not sequential.  All aspects of the process are interlinked, and what computers allow us more easily to do is to do is to share the information.  This allows us to explore far more design alternatives and iterations.  Also like using a PC to write a letter where miscorrect spellings can easily be changed if recognised,   Designs once on PC can also be more easily changed.

So continuing in no particular order: