How to Build a Cafe Racer

Honda CX500 Cafe Racer

Charles Tregolan is a professional car designer by trade. In his spare time he designs and builds his own bikes. He's written a set of guidelines for cafe racer builders at the Bike EXEF blog.

The guidelines tell the builder how to scale and set the parameters of a cafe racer to give it a professional look; how to size and place the tank relative to the engine and crankcase, how to set the fork distance, where to set the limits of the seat length relative to the rear axle, and so on.

He uses the Honda CX500 cafe racer you see here as a real-world, guiding example. If you have an interest in building, or plan to build a cafe racer, check out his article.


  

Hot Rod Jen Pinstriping Gallery at Pinhead Lounge

Hot Rod Jen Panel Art

Last year we put up a post about ace pinstriper Jennifer "Hot Rod Jen" Skidmore of New Jersey, with a link to her SmugMug galleries. Just love her work. Now we just found that she's got a huge gallery of work up at the popular pinstriping site, Pinhead Lounge. The girl is not only talented, she's really prolific. If you love pinstriping and Kustom Kulture, check out her Pinhead Lounge gallery.

McQueen Inspired Triumph Motorcycle Design Concepts by Designcube

Designcube "Great Escape" Triumph Concept Bike

The design team at Designcube, a Barcelona-based industrial design house, has shared renderings of two Triumph concept bikes inspired by classic Steve McQueen films, the "The Great Escape" and  "The Getaway". Both are based on the 885cc Triumph Speed Triple.

Will either one or both ever be brought to market, whether as a conversion kit or custom bike? They aren't saying. These may well remain just design exercises, though it would be very cool to see at least the Great Escape scrambler pictured here come to life as either a custom or a conversion kit.

You can see more Designcube motorcycle and automotive concepts and projects at their online Coroflot portfolio.

P.S. The stunt riding in "The Great Escape" was performed by the late, legendary SoCal motorcycle racer, Bud Ekins, who was a friend of McQueen's. Ekins also stood-in for McQueen as the stunt driver of the Ford Mustang in the awesome chase scene in "Bullit." Here's the 1966 Triumph desert sled that Ekins built for McQueen.

Steampunk Vespa Scooter by Cris Cofitis

Pulsar Project Vespa Steampunk Scooter

This steampunk'ed Vespa scooter is the creation of Greek designer, Cris Cofitis, of Pulsar Project. The Damn Geeky blog has an extensive photo gallery of the scooter.

Take a look here at Pulsar Project to see other scooters and motorcycles designed by Cofitis, including the insane custom he calls "Chimera," which was an entry into the AMD bike build at the Sturgis 2011 rally.

Tip of the hat to the Design You Trust blog... we first saw the Vespa at their Pinterest board.

The Wooden "Sandwichbike" Bicycle from PedalFactory

The Sandwichbike from The Pedalfactory

The Pedalfactory is an Amsterdam-based design firm with a mission to design and sell unique bicycles. This new offering, the wooden-framed "Sandwichbike," is certainly that.

The Sandwichbike is the brainchild of industrial designer Basten Leijh of Bleijh Industrial Design Studio. Basten designed and built the first Sandwichbike concept as an entry in the 2006 International Bicycle Design Competition (IBDC), an annual industry event held in Taiwan.

Sandwichbike Packed for Shipment

The bike's frame is constructed from two flat plates of beech plywood tied together by machined aluminum tubes. The forks are also beech plywood. The design of the bike allows it to be shipped flat in a box, complete with all components and the tools required for assembly by the buyer at home.

The Pedalfactory has created a website specifically for the Sandwichbike. Buyers can order a bike online.  The first production run began shipping in Europe this month; international shipping will commence in January.

Tip of the hat to Dezeen blog, which featured the Sandwichbike in a post this month.

Art Donovan's Extraordinary Steampunk Lamps & Illuminations

Art Donovan "Tesla" Wall Lamp

Art Donovan is an extraordinarily talented designer with a flair for steampunk aesthetics. He brings these talents and sensibilities to bear on the design and fabrication of incredibly detailed and beautifully constructed lamps, lights, clocks, and mechanisms. Donovan is also a leading chronicler of the steampunk subculture; in a post last year we featured the first edition his book, The Art of Steampunk, which featured not only his work, but that of other excellent artists and craftsmen in the steampunk scene (a revised second edition was published this past summer, see our Amazon link below).

Steampunk Tendencies Blog

Crossbow Archer from SteampunkTendencies.com

SteampunkTendencies, a great big photoblog for steampunk art, costumes, mechanisms, clockworks, lamps, and mods.

Behance Design Website Showcases the Work of Designers Around the World

If you're interested in design --- print, illustration, fashion, architecture, web design, etc. --- be sure to see the Behance website. If you are a designer, you can create an account there and post your portfolio up for the world to see. Also, you can find design jobs posted there. Check it out.

SoCal Motorcycle Startup AVA Velocity Works Brings Sixties GP-Styled Cafe Racer to Market

Designer Adrian Van Anz & the Swift 250

Wunderkind designer Adrian Van Anz is the design talent behind AVA Velocity Works, a Los Angeles-based motorcycle startup that is bringing a 250cc cafe racer to market. Van Anz styled the Swift 250, AVA Velocity's first model, to be reminiscent of the Grand Prix roadracers of the Sixties, such as the classic Bultaco 250 TSS.

The Swift 250 is powered by a single-cylinder OHC engine sourced from a Chinese manufacturer. The bikes will be assembled overseas. No word yet on will they will be available for purchase, but if you are interested you can inquire here at the AVA Velocity Works website.

Cycle World magazine had a first-look review back in May, after the Swift 250 was rolled-out for its first public viewing at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering last April.

This is Adrian Van Anz's first foray into motorcycle design, but not his first design effort to be informed by motorcycling's yesteryears; check out his Derringer Cycles gas-engine powered bicycles with styling inspired by early-Twentieth Century boardtrackers.

Vanilla Bicycles, Handcrafted in Portland

Vanilla Bicycles "Randonee" Model

The folks at Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, OR described themselves as a collaborative community of framebuilders, painters, wood, leather and metal workers, and photographers. At the center of this community is owner, designer, framebuilder Sacha White, who's been building bicycles since 1999.

Check out their elegant handcrafted bicycles, which are constructed with high-tech steel tubing silver-soldered, for strength, to beautiful Henry James investment-cast lugs.

Also check out the larger community of bike builders, craftsmen, artisans, and racers that the crew at Vanilla works and socializes with at their Community page. You will see there an ethic of collaboration and sharing that is very much a part of the culture of Portland's creatives, which is celebrated in Charles Heying's book, Brew to Bikes (see the Amazon link to below).

Also check out the bicycling apparel and bicycle-themed t-shirts and hats that feature their stylish logo at the Vanilla online boutique.

Stratasys Mojo 3D Printer Leases for $185/month

Stratasys Mojo 3D Printer Kit

Stratasys still has its Mojo 3D printer lease program going here in the US. This is an industrial grade, professional printer of the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) type that you can lease for as little as $185/month. It prints with the Stratasys ABSplus material.

You can find a YouTube video of the Mojo in action here at a post we did about it earlier this year.

You can get a free printed sample by registering with Stratasys here.

Please note again that the lease program is available only in the United States.

   

Buildatron 2 3D Printer from Buildatron Systems

Buildatron 2 3D Printer

Buildatron Systems in New York City designs and builds open source 3D printers. The basic design is apparently adapted from the RepRap printer, but is much more robust.

I believe the price for a fully assembled system is $2500, and a DIY unassembled kit is $1599. However, I went to the Buildatron online store page and could not see how to put a unit on order online. A contact number and email address is given there, so if you are interested in a printer you can give those a try.

Buildatron has several galleries of printer pics and parts pics here. Their blog is here.

If you would like to get into the research and design of 3D printers, Buildatron wants you to know that the company is looking for engineers and interns. You can contact the research and design department here.

I have embedded one of their YouTube videos here.

Solidoodle 3D Printer Breaks $500 Price Barrier

Solidoodle 3D Printer

MakerBot's former COO, Samuel Cervantes, left the company last year to launch another 3D printer company, Solidoodle. At $499, the Solidoodle 2 printer breaks the $500 barrier.

The build material is ABS in filament form, available from the Solidoodle store in natural, red, green, blue, and black. The build volume is 6"x6"x6".

Unlike some other small, low-cost 3D printers, the Solidoodle is strong and robust; the Solidoodle people claim that a 200lb. person can stand on the chassis without damaging it, even while it is printing.

See the Solidoodle in action below.

Contes Engineering "Athos" Quad Bike

Contes Engineering "Athos" Quad Bike

We went into downtown Hillsboro the other day for  Saturday Market and saw one of these babies, the Contes Engineering Athos, in the window of the new Hillsboro Bike Company shop that just opened at the corner of Main St. and 2nd Ave. Stepped inside for a closer look and was really impressed with the tech and the apparent quality of the workmanship... four-wheel independent suspension with 8" travel, disk brakes front and back, and Contes Engineering's differential with constant-velocity (CV) drive joints.

The Athos is engineered for street and dirt. 

The Contes website indicates that both their CV joints and differentials will be made available on the market for DIY builders. Contes also offers a consulting engineering service to product developers, with a focus on cycling, though they say they've also done automotive work and automation for semiconductor manufacturing.

Check out the video of the Athos in action below.

Daniel Proulx, Steampunk Artisan & Jeweler

Daniel Proulx Ring Featured on Warehouse 13

We recently posted about The Art of Steampunk, a very cool book that features the work of nineteen of the best known steampunk artists and artisans. One of those is Daniel Proulx of Montreal, Canada, a prolific Steampunk jeweler. His work is also featured in another popular book, 1,000 Steampunk Creations.

The ring pictured at the left is worn by a character on the popular SyFy show, Warehouse 13. 

A large selection of Daniel's exquisite work is available at his Etsy site, including a copy of the ring pictured here. Check it out.




            

Sheet Metal Fabrication, Tools & Techniques

I've really enjoyed working with sheet metal in recent years. It's really satisfying to start with just a sheet of say, 18guage steel and some mallets and hammers, and shape something useful or beautiful from it. If you've got a hankering to try your hand at metal fabrication, take a look at some of the resources available from Amazon and Amazon Supply here.

I have some Martin body hammers and dollies, very nice tools... high quality stuff.

Ron Covell is a great teacher in this arena. He has various books and videos out there, and he holds seminar classes around the country, too.

            

Budnitz Titanium Bicycles

Budnitz No. 2 Titanium

Paul Budnitz is an American original with a heck of a life story... a man of many talents: computer programmer, artist, photographer, author, clothing and footwear designer, toy designer at Kidrobot, filmmaker, and a successful entrepreneur who's founded a dozen companies in the arena of art and technology.

Paul started designing and building his own bikes in 2006.  By the time 2010 rolled around, people were stopping him in the street to ask where they could buy one. Some even asked if they could buy it from him on the spot, so with all that encouragement he founded Budnitz Bicycles in 2011 to bring his designs to market.

These bikes were born of Budnitz's desire to design and build bicycles that he would love and value... quality, durability, easy and comfortable to ride, and beautiful, too. He ended up with a bicycle he loved and rode so much that he sold his car.

To get lasting quality and durability, Budnitz bikes are constructed from titanium, stainless steel, and cro-moly. Only top-end components are used, many hand built by boutique suppliers of racing bicycle parts.

Budnitz Bicycles are expensive... $3,000 and more. But they are built to last a lifetime and more, and meant to be valued for their utility and beauty. Here are some thoughts on that subject from his Budnitz Bicycles blog:


A very good bicycle fits your body.  The geometry is well thought-out so it’s comfortable, you don’t feel like you’re going to fall off when you pedal.   It doesn’t creak or rattle.  A very good bicycle is beautiful, and it makes you feel beautiful.  It’s an extension of your body, just as the car is an extension of your body when you drive.  And a very good bicycle will last a very long time, maybe your whole life.

Check 'em out here.

    

3D Stuffmaker's RepRap 3D Printer

3D Stuffmaker "Allstar" 3D Printer

In response to our recent post about Cubify and the "Cube" 3D printer, one of our readers contacted us about 3D Stuffmaker and their RepRap-derived 3D printers for the DIY market. RepRap is an open-hardware, community-based project, so makers are free to create and market their own printers based on RepRap designs.

The engineers at 3D Stuffmaker have made it their mission t o improve on the RepRap technology, and to make it much more accessible to a wider range of home users and educators by offering DIY kits and assembled printers... at their website, click on the "Sales & Specs" tab to see what's on offer.

If you are in the market for a low-cost 3D printer, or just want to get a feel for what's happening in the 3D print community, check out 3D Stuffmaker.

We will continue to post here about 3D printing and other Rapid Prototyping technologies as things develop in those arenas.

Renovo Bicycles, Constructed from Hardwood!

Renovo "Badash" Hardwood Mountain Bike

Renovo Bicycles of Portland, OR is building bicycles from engineered hardwoods, even a mountain bike... amazing.

Ken Wheeler and his son Stuart developed these groundbreaking wooden wonders, even though neither one of them is a trained carpenter or woodworker. The closest either one ever got to that was some time in high school woodshop classes. Ken previously worked with composite materials as the designer of the Wheeler Express four-seat composite aircraft.

Renovo now has a versatile lineup of eight proven models on the market, ranging from road bikes, a daily commuter, a mountain bike, and a triathlon competition bike. Their bikes have enjoyed an excellent reception on the domestic and global markets... they are shipped around the world. For example, see this review from a New Zealand bicycle mag. They have just announced a collaboration with Audi, the German automaker, to produce three models to be labeled and marketed by Audi.

Steampunk Arts & Crafts Materials

Amazon Supply is a great source for Steampunk project materials, such as brass, copper, adhesives,brass nuts and washers, gears, metalworking tools, leatherworking tools, etc.The Amazon bookstore is, of course, a great source for Steampunk how-to project books.

Check 'em out.