17 Jun dB25: CAD to reality
With the arrival of our CNC machined and laser cut parts this week we’ve seen some of our hard work begin to come together. We were able to assemble our rear subframe, front suspension and headlight mount, enabling us to see what has been months of designing and prototyping turn into the final product.
The top yoke has been replaced with our slimmer and lighter design, eliminating the Ducati Monster’s handle bar mounts and giving a look that is more in keeping with our style.
The front mount seen in our CAD drawing below serves many jobs including mounting for the fairing, headlight, ignition switch, speedo and wiring. With this in mind, the goal was to design something that was strong, yet still lightweight. It’s made up of a combination of steel and aluminium laser cut sheet metal parts that have been welded, folded and pressed to create a design that is highly effective and simple to reproduce.
The headlight itself is a compact unit featuring long-distance, dipped-beam and parking light functions. We can’t wait to tie all this into the front fairing and shine the lights for the first time!
The rear subframe is a complex part that, again, serves many purposes. Once we finished the CAD drawings we move to 3d printing. This low cost way of prototyping helps us to refine our design before moving onto the final CNC machined aluminium part. As simple as it may seem, the subframe is a defining feature as it determines the lines of the bike, so this 3 part process means we can make sure we get this 100% right.
It was an exciting moment to assemble all these components, made up from many different manufacturing processes. When you design something using CAD software you know you have all the measurements right and that in theory it should fit, but there’s always that moment of amazement when you receive the parts and they fit so perfectly that makes the process even more satisfying.
We’ve also been busy shaping the aluminium body panels. We now have the main bulk of the fairing complete and will soon be moving on to the tank and and tail.
We look forward to sharing more with you very soon.
Thanks for reading.
Calum