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Project Summary
This belt-driven bicycle was designed to allow students easy campus commuting without the heavy maintenance that chain-drive
bicycles require.
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Fall 2002
Class Project
Engineering Programs/Methods Used:
- Instron Tensile Tester
- Thayer School Machine Shop
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Need Finding
As a group, we saw that students used bicycles
a great deal for campus commuting. However, many were neglected and didn't receive the constant oiling and tuning necessary
to keep the in working order. So we began our project with the objective of creating a cheap and low maintenance campus bicycle.
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Project Research
We
began the project by investigating the necessity of creating a belt-driven bicycle. We were able to use an Instron Tensile
Tester to test the strength of varying chains ranging from new, to old and rusty.
We also experimented with the strength of
the timing belt we chose to use as our means of driving the system. Further, we tested the strength of our belt splicing attempts.
As a result of this testing, we learned that splicing would not be an option leading us to alter the design of the bicycle.
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Prototyping
The ultimate goal was to create an effective
prototype for our product, The Campus Cruiser. Various materials were used and experimented with.
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By the end of three months we had our final prototype, which was very functional and met our goals as a low maintenance
bicycle ideal for use around an Upper Valley college campus.
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