It was a disaster
It was a resounding success, because it was clearly never intended to function. He never intended to ride the thing. Its like calling a lego model of a plane a disaster because it doesnt fly. Such worthless journalism.
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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This is like those DIY videos where they're doing it wrong in order to drive engagement
They basically rewarded him for advertising that 3D printing a bike does not work - please buy a real one instead.
I like bikes and I like 3d printing. If nothing else, this project exemplifies the can-do spirit, because sometimes the reason is simply "no else has done it yet" or "it'd be cool".
With that said, a true-and-proper 3d printed bike would likely have substantial differences from a conventionally produced bike, to suit today's 3d printing limitations. It would likely be a hybrid that still uses some conventional parts.
But that's not a bad thing: the 200 year history of bikes shows how technology morphs the machine. When machining tolerances allowed sprockets to mesh with chains, gone went the directly-pedaled "big wheel" of ancient penny-farthing bikes, in favor of two wheels of roughly equal size. When rubber and tire construction suitably advanced, we got balloon tires that made bikes more comfortable and complied to rough road surfaces. When li-ion batteries and electric motors became sufficiently miniatured, we attached them to bikes and turned the old "moped" idea into the multi billion dollar ebike segment.
It's not a stretch of the imagination that more changes and experiments will take place with the basic design of the bicycle. It would odd if that didn't happen. In that sense, the more bikes change, the more they stay the same.
I thought he wanted to ride his 3d printed bike at first. I was so confused when he said he printed the wheels.
What a load of bullshit. It's only hard if you want it super lightweight. You could 3D print in shell mode and then turn it into composite by glassing on it with carbon fiber (~50€/kg) or glass fiber or basalt. Or use wood as core. Or steel tubes and a little welding. But a non-suspended bike frame is so cheap and mass manufactured it's stupid to make it yourself. And who the fuck 3D prints wheels lol.
3D printing makes sense if you can print the whole frame in one go and in some good alloy.
It would be far more interesting to do this with a tadpole recumbent, combining 3D printing with fiber glassing.