Final Product

Status

As of 10/1/12, we are planning on handing over the project to future capstone students, as we simply ran out of time this summer to build the final product.  Furthermore, we had some difficulty the final device and were considering many design changes to "get the job done quickly."  This mainly revolved around attaching our lever to the device, which presented mechanical problems and a lack of design specificity.  We suggest the following design changes and considerations to future capstone students:

Design Change Suggestions

• The device needs to be able to fold into as compact a form as possible.  This is because shipping it to Africa is very expensive.  Weight of the shipment doesn't affect cost, but size has a dramatic impact on cost--$1000's of dollars.  We did not make our design foldable.  
• The lever / tie rod system is difficult to attach to the frame.  This needs to be solved.  Otherwise, a different operation mechanism should be used.  
• To make it foldable, one might consider making the bike part separate from a trailer. 

*This is by no means a complete list!  The possibilities for improvement are vast.  It is simply a list of the things that became clear to us once we began the building the final device.  

Purchased / Manufactured Items

We have many supplies already purchased and manufactured / set up in the design studio.  Please utilize these.  There are as follows:

• tie rods (if they aren't in the design studio, please contact Rachel)
• bike wheels with special axles added to fit onto the tie rod pieces (see the "manufacturing" tab)
• cut up bike parts to be used in the operation mechanism part of the bike
• heat treated and sealed bamboo ready to be put together to form the final frame
• hemp fiber and epoxy to form the joints of the final frame
• polyurethane to coat any additional bamboo you may get
• Other . . .