Sincro Custom Wheel Design.

I thought I'd post up a concept wheel I designed earlier this year.  I think this is a fun idea that has a number of possible applications.

The concept is based on a traditional three-piece wheel design, consisting of an inner, outer and centre disc.  The difference with this concept is that the centre disc is made from two pieces.  One piece, the support structure, is manufactured from forged aluminium to create a fine, strong and lightweight wheel structure.  The second piece can be manufactured from a limitless number of materials including timber, rubber, silicone, plastic etc.  As this second piece is not required to support vehicle load, it can be of interesting design and material composition.

Of the three potential market applications that initially sprung to mind, the first market would be for luxury or expensive modified cars requiring custom wheel sets with a unique point of difference.  These consumers would be able to work with sincro to create a unique disc design that reflects the style of their vehicle.  This unique piece could then be machined from a material of the customer's choice, including decorative timbers.

The second would be tuner/race/modified vehicle enthusiasts who wish to modify wheels to be unique in design/style/colour.  Here, people would be able to use an online service to select from a number of component configurations in order to 'customise' a personal set of wheels to reflect their style and taste.  In addition to this the outer shell could be manufactured from molded plastic to exploit the light weight design of this wheel and create optimal aero-dynamic effect of the wheel's disc.

The third option is similar in ways to the second, in that the wheel's outer and supporting structure would be standard components and the outer shell would be manufactured from molded plastic.  In this application, the wheels would be utilised by automotive manufacturers as an 'optional extra', where they could offer the consumer, likely of a younger generation, the opportunity to customise the wheels to match the rest of their vehicle, style and taste.  This application has a real potential as the demand increases for standard, yet 'culture specific' automotive components.  This variation could be considered as an improved contemporary version of the hubcap.

Feel free to leave a comment.  Anyone, it's getting lonely over here haha.

Brad

Stance..

I saw Sea Shepherd's new anti-whaling vessel on the news tonight.  It's a pretty rad machine and will be registered in Australian waters.  I still like Sea Shepherd's late Ady Gil vessel better, with its lairy curvaceous 'Batmobile-esque' physique, but perhaps the new godzilla vessel is a tad more refined with a more of a 'no bull shit' image.  Regardless, these wave piercing vessels are a pretty rad piece of design.

Ady Gil.

In its original Earthrace guise.

The new Gojira (Godzilla).

Cool.

Brad.

Forgot to mention.

Decided on the colour scheme for the fixie.  I mixed up some paint today: Porsche Macadamia Metallic.

So this means the canvas will consist of brown, black and polished.  The frame, forks and other accents will go brown.  The seat, grips, chain-ring, chain, wheels and hubs will be black.  The goose neck, seat post, front brake caliper, brake lever, bars, crankset and pedals will be polished alloy.  Will be subtle but classy I think.

Brad

Frame Prep

The work on my single speed hipster whip continues.  I prepped the frame a few days ago and honestly haven't done much on it since, the return of the freshly caged pony had thieved my attention momentarily (pics to come).

Into it.

Wire brushed all the lug joints.

Stripped.

I love the lugs that appear to have been popular at the time these bikes were manufactured.

And what about how the seat stays are attached to the seat tube.  Awesome.

Primed and primer fillered.

Brought out the hard stuff :p  Spray putty, primer filler's big brother.

Bog.  This was where I welded up the first hole in the frame.  I was a bit over zealous with the bastard file and ended up with a slight divot in the tube.  It's likely that no-one would have noticed, but when in doubt - bog!

Bit of a smooth character.

Final coat of primer.  Although, I have now noticed a couple of small spots that I will touch up before colour.

The forks needed a bit of attention, they came up nice.

I was keen to see how these were constructed, as they appear to be one piece.  Here you can see what looks like a braze to join the legs of the forks with the connecting part that joins to the lower bearing race.  This is a rad way to make forks, they look much nicer than a bent piece of tube or three pieces brazed into a lug.

Sharpen the shoulders with some filler/sanding.

As I've previously mentioned, the crank-set is all alloy so I started polishing them to see how they'd come up. There were some deep scratches so the took quite a bit of work with the Emory tape (then a bunch of wet & dry) to get them relatively smooth.

Had to fend off the magpies.

With my new pedals.

Brad

Food

Stumbled across a couple of cool things this morning on my daily interweb stroll.

Brake on the BB:

Carbon belt drive:

Brad

Way Back Home

A friend of mine put me onto this video.  This guy's skill is incredible.  Well constructed video also, check out the landscape in some of these locations.  The cinematographic, music and scenery fit so well.  I could (and will) watch this video over and over again.  Enjoy.



Brad

Watch - Marshall 1

I finished off the band of my Marshall 1 concept watch the other day.  It turned out okay, I might start a new one thats a little bit different, more casual, but based on the same idea, plus I need to get started on my nano carrier and finish my fixie model.  Enjoy.

 Brad