Category: Design

This is my second pass at producing something strong enough and reliable enough to put onto my triathlon bike, and in this case some carbon fiber arm rests. My current arm rests pretty much did the job but at 300+g for the set, it seems like an easy win to reduce weight by making something similar out of CF.

The design for these took quite a lot of time, lots of trial and error and mistakes along the way 🙂 Cardboard cutouts, angles and long prints were the most tedious aspects, but ultimately I think they came out OK in the end.

Ideation and prototyping Steps

Tool/CAD Design

Mould 3D printing

These moulds had various finishes I was testing, everything from raw prints to epoxy coated. read more

After having some reasonable success in #D printing moulds and doing some layup in CF, I thought I would attempt a “forged” CF version of a part I have 3D printed in the past. Unfortunately it didn’t quite go according to plan, it ended up weighing close to 4 x more than the basic version. A fun experiment none-the-less!

After years of dreaming and ideating around making carbon fiber products of some sort, I finally had a need to build some custom parts for my triathlon bike. After spending a considerable amount of time reading, watching and listening to tutorials online, I took the plunge and purchased some starter materials. My initial plan was to work with 3D printed moulds and do wet layup.

I purchased a 3D printed started kit from Easy Composites. The shipping was a little expensive (they are based in the UK) but seemed to have the best products, prices and matching material requirements for my needs.

My first project was a simple chain ring cover (which would be the next version of the 3D printed aero cover I 3D printed here). The purpose of this cover is to streamline airflow over the crank while in motion to reduce the bikes Cda (Coefficient of Drag). aka. More slip streamed. read more