Micro Bike – Electric

This was a personal project to design and build a small electric bike, to be used in the city and easily transported by car or public transport.

The whole design was conceived around the battery as a central element, placed low and centrally to achieve the best distribution of weight. I personally executed every part of this project including 3D design iterations, FEA and production of drawings. Then sourcing of all materials and components and fabrication of the whole frame system and fork using tube bending, manual machining for bearing interfaces and production of the laser cut sheet metal elements.

I then notched the tube ends and tacked and TIG welded the frame together including a custom front fork where a 500w hub motor was integrated. I then assembled the bike using high quality components and built the wheels; lacing the hub motor and rear hub to the rims using a wheel building jig.

Once the initial fit of all parts was checked and confirmed the parts were removed to prepare the frame and fork for paint. I used a rust inhibiting primer followed by 3 base-coats and then another 3 coats of the darker grey using a vinyl stencil for the head tube logo.

Finally the lithium-ion battery pack was designed from scratch to fit as efficiently as possible into the frame, using a 3D printed cell holder and integrated balance wire routing.