Ever since I started working with composites, I’ve wanted to make a bicycle frame. Unfortunately, I currently don’t have access to suitable tubing (the commercial tubing I can buy doesn’t have the right layup schedule). As such, this project is on hold until the Filament Winder is complete and I can make my own custom tubes.

That said, I hope to build a beauty similar to the Seven Cycles frame shown below.

Closeup of a Seven Cycles frame

Reason for deferring further:

• Cost (time and equipment) to do it right is too high - I’d be better off just buying a bike and spending that time/effort on other things -
  • Would have to model the bike frame and then actually make it
  • Making it would require filament winder and 3D CNC and lots of pain
  • Then I would have to test it which would require expensive or custom-made machines

Progress:

• Just the preliminary research as seen below

Resources:

• Bike CAD
• ITALIAN CYCLING JOURNAL: The Making of a Carbon Fiber Frame
• Homemade Carbon Fiber Bike Project
• EFBe Biketest: TOUR-Frametest
• The Knowledge :: Technology :: Carbon Fiber - Velocite
• How I built a carbon bike frame at home (and a bamboo frame too)
• How I Made a Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composite Bike in my Garage, by Damon Rinard