Smoooth Cycling

In the second unit of Design & Engineering, I learned that the customer wants what they want. If they want us to adjust to their needs and wants, then the producer will adjust because they want more sales. We specifically targeted bikes and how we can innovate and change them. This was quite interesting as I never found a problem with bikes before I got into thinking deeply about them. I would say that, despite my great experiences with bikes, I'm surprised and proud that I pushed myself to a point where I could critique them. I especially applaud the design of the bike, simply because they're so useful. This truly helped me understand how to innovate in order to start building my bicycle with my partner! The purpose of building our bicycle is to piece together everything we've learned throughout this course, pertaining to empathizing with our customer and the mechanics of building a bike itself!!

"Smoooth" By DR & MF. Oct 21, 2015.

From researching existing bikes, I've learned that regular bikes are boring and full of flaws. I've also learned that, although those bikes are boring, in order to innovate them, we may have to keep some of the key elements of the original bike, in order for the bike to run properly. "Bikes are so innovative and creative, you can do anything you want with them," Said by a specialist named Micah. I fully agree with this statement to an extent. By saying, "you can do anything you want with them," you are presenting false information because I have had multiple ideas where I stopped and thought about "how?," meaning there are certain components of the bike that you may have to keep in order for the bike to actually move.

For our assignment, my partner and I were asked to create a bike for Christine, a 13 year old girl that commutes to school for 3 miles. She likes a comfortable ride where she can enjoy riding up and down the hills on her way to school, even while it rains. The bike cannot be that heavy, as this young girl must store her bike in her family's storage unit, five steps below ground.

My new bike includes several features such as a new and more comfortable seat where you can sit back, an umbrella port and a waterproof basket for rainy days! This multi-speed bike allows Christine to get to school smooothly, as she crosses over hills and enjoys the scenery on a rainy day. We specifically designed this bike to improve Christine's experience getting to school. Trust our design because it's FOR YOU. It will allow you to cruise down the path as you are protected from rain. It also supports you in storing your bike when you get home from school! Everything you asked for!

"Model of Smoooth" By DR & MF. Oct 22, 2015.

"Model of Smoooth" By DR & MF. Oct 22, 2015.

Calculations:

Our persona’s commute is 3 miles and it will take her about 16 minutes to get to school. Given this information, the average speed of our persona is 11.25 miles per hour, or 5.02 meters per second. The diameter of our wheels is 28 inches. To find the circumference of our wheels, we had to multiply the diameter of our wheels (28) by pi (3.14), and the answer is 87.96 inches. As far as wheel rotations go, 3 miles divided by 87.96 inches is 2,161 rotations!

The scale we used to create our model is: 2.75 inches on model = 28 inches in real life, so 1 inch on our model = 28/2.75 or 10.18 inches in real life.

Our gear ratio is 3:2. Our bike needs gears because our persona needs to travel up and down hills. For every three pedal rotations, the wheel will turn twice. We made sure the big cog is in the front of our bike for smooother riding. The front chainring has 20 teeth and the back cog has 30 teeth.

Since my persona will be riding over hills and such, potential energy is stored while she's at the top of the hill. Kinetic energy is presented everywhere else or specifically when the bike is moving.

When coming up with the design of our bike, there was many problems. One obstacle we had to overcome while creating the bike was the constant pressure of being able to enjoy riding in the rain. We decided to install an umbrella port and basket at the front of the bike that has a waterproof material that flaps over to protect whatever's in the basket. Another obstacle we had to overcome while creating this bike was the fact that our customer wanted more comfort. We thought of the bike seat being an actual seat, where you can rest your back and your butt won't hurt like when you sit on regular bicycle seats.