Da Buffs “Squad”
12/11/14
GEEN 1400
Final Written Report
Abstract:
Our team designed and built a winterized bike titling it, “The Ultimate Boulder Bike”. The bike includes an automatic seat cover, heated handgrips, studded tires, and blue LEDs. The purpose of the bike is to create a comfortable and safe riding experience in locations with severe winter weather. Intended users include anybody who lives in a sufficiently snowy environment with an avid interest in cycling while the main functional goal is to improve winter riding conditions for cyclists. The heating pads for the handgrips were purchased as well as the winter tires, steel studs and the bike. Every other component was built from the ground up.
Design Process:
The design of the bike progressed following the path of least resistance with the easiest components being built first followed by successively harder components.
Table of Parts and Materials:
Recommendations for Improvements:
The most obvious shortfall of our project is how fragile the bike is. A bike built for winter weather would be expected to be very sturdy in order to handle the elements, however, much of our bike is made out of plastic and held together by glue. The central box that houses the electronics is made of acrylic but would be much sturdier if made of aluminum. Another area for improvement is the seat cover, which is made of tarp and held on by glue whereas; it could have been made from welded aluminum. Two added luxuries that would have greatly improved the bike would be a windscreen as well as an insulated cup holder. Furthermore, a design drawback is the LEDs and the heated handgrips could have been on the same switch as to alert the user when the grips were hot. One final improvement would be adding gears to the bike so it would be better suited for hilly terrain.
Operating Instructions:
Being a bike, our project is relatively easy to operate for anybody that understands how to use a bicycle. Additionally the bike is very user friendly so there really three bits of knowledge the operator must know. First, the switch on the handlebars activates the heated handgrips with right being the off position and left being the on position. Second, the automatic seat cover is activated by a switch on the roof of the box towards the front of the bike. Lastly, a switch mounted on the rider’s left side of the box activates the LEDs. In order to recharge the batteries, the central box can be accessed via a magnetic window on the riders left side of the box.
The Design Expo:
The design expo was easily the pinnacle of our group’s semester. During the expo, we received extremely positive feedback from everybody we encountered. Our position in the ITLL was a very high traffic area so we interacted with people the entire time asking about our project. Overall, people were most impressed with our heated handgrips that heated up very quickly and reached upwards of 1150F. Many people were also impressed by the automatic seat cover although less so than the handgrips. On the other hand, the judges were not quite as enthusiastic as the majority of the population but seemed impressed by the utility of the bike
Team Process Summary:
In the beginning of our first project, our group took a little bit of time to form as everybody warmed up to each other and fell into their group roles. Once the group began to solidify, the storming stage began. What is most surprising though is that no major conflicts arose, as every group member was very agreeable and open to new ideas. When we moved past the storming phase the group immediately normalized and in many aspects preformed really well. When the second project began, our group, already having normalized, moved on to the preforming phase. It is clear we were preforming due to the fluidity of our work as well as the ease at which we finished our project well before the deadline. Dillon Kidd made the most significant contribution by writing the Arduino code for the seat cover. Other contributions include Brad Briscoe who organized much of the project, David Setter who designed many components of the bike, Dillon Stevens who created Solid Works drawings, Matt Normile who wrote our materials testing paper, and Erik Kardash for his heat transfer work.
References:
1. http://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/blog/how-to-make-your-own-studded-bike-tires-a-video/
2. http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/?page_id=131
Appendix A:
//da buffs squad
#include <Servo.h>
int button1 = 4; //button pin, connect to ground to move servo
int press1 = 0;
Servo servo1; //defiines servo and button pins
void setup()
{
pinMode(button1, INPUT);
servo1.attach(7);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH); //enable pullups to make pin high
}
void loop()
{
press1 = digitalRead(button1); //reads the status of the button
if (press1 == LOW)
{
servo1.write(180); //moves servo 180 degrees
delay(1);
{
press1 = digitalRead(button1); //reads button status
if (press1 == HIGH)
{
servo1.write(40); //turns servo 180 degrees
delay(1);
}
}
}
}
