PLYCYCLE

Take a look at the finished bicycle here.. www.plycycle.co.uk

Thursday 24 March 2011

Wooden bike - in miniature.

It is not a great thing of beauty, but this model has really helped my see where this is going. I cobbled it together in lunch break at work and then shot it on a green screen set down in one of the studios, on my phone. Perhaps I should have spent more time on it and shot it with a proper camera, but really at this stage that is not the point. I really wanted to see the shape of the frame in 3D. I tacked a print out of the bike design onto some foam core card and set about cutting it out. The foam core is not quite to scale, too thin for the main frame and too thick for the rear stays, but it is good enough to get the idea. Oh yes and I used square section brass for the forks...... Remember, cobbled together.






I made the forks too long on the model and it really makes a huge difference to the intended design. The bike now looks unbalanced, squat at the back and lanky at the front. I dont think it is worth changing the model at this stage. I like the model and I think I may make another, proper scale version at some time in the future. 

1 comment:

  1. Merlin,

    In my, admittedly limited, experience working with scale models in foam core I have found great success in scaling up to 50% or larger. The challenge with bicycles is that the parts make up a large part of the final outcome so even a very detailed frame model doesn't really give a good visual. Why not go full size? Cardboard laid up with 6oz glass fiber will be strong enough to bolt components on to and more accurately reflect the flat stock nature of the material you are intending to use. Plus cardboard is cheap, cheap, cheap.

    Just a thought....

    michael

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