Competition Road Bike Progress

With my current final design project, a competition-ready, modern road bike, I’m still in the research, planning and ordering phase. Along with the base set of tasks planned at the very start of this project, I also overestimated my knowledge on bikes, and more specifically how complex each little component can be. For example, for the front wheel alone, I had to teach my self all the different road bike wheel sizes, all the different parts of a wheel, and all the different ways that these parts fit into each other, vastly more complex than I initially anticipated. A possible solution to this could be just replacing the front wheel altogether, it already doesn’t match the back tire, and replacing it could save a lot of time on possible future repairs, however, road bike wheel don’t come cheap and can range anywhere from $50 to $500.

Along with the front wheel, I’ve discovered a handful of problems with this bike. The back derailleur, the mechanism responsible for both shifting the gears on the bike and also applying tension to the chain so it stays on the bike is hanging on a faulty derailleur hangar. This small, static piece of metal is crucial for giving the derailleur enough support to work properly. The current hangar is not compatible with the current derailleur, its to small and the screw that the derailleur creates contact with hangar is hanging of the surface, and not fully supported. The only solution for this is buying another hangar, not another cheap solution.

Another large obstacle is attempting to take on the aesthetic, formatting the bike to look professional. I’m still on track to achieving this aesthetic, keeping all the new parts to black, and any already existing parts could either be spray painted black or will keep their original color, depending on how I feel.