Originally Posted by
Doug Fattic
oj, a wise student always tries to figure out what the teacher is looking for in a report or on a test. I doubt he cares about the differences of sliver compared to bronze brazing or the ride qualities of steel vs aluminum vs titanium. This is just a guess (but probably a decent one since I was a high school social studies teacher before I began building frames), I would think he/she is looking for reasons bikes were built with certain materials using certain methods during a certain time period and then what where the factors that brought about a change?
I made sure this was clear, he definitely only wants the 'process' and not the 'why'. On an engineering degree this sounds pretty ridiculous, but anything that wasn't how the process was performed he was calling 'design'. I had to grit my teeth here, I loved writing the 'why' when I did this kind of report in high school, but this guy just wants steps (he was getting noticeably exasperated at the prospect of why). This whole module is a shambles anyway, the man running it is incredibly overworked and he makes things group work just so that he has less marking to do. I'm making the most of it, but like I indicated before this isn't my main focus of the semester.
Originally Posted by
Doug Fattic
BTW, Craig Calfee makes a DIY custom bamboo frame kit. That sounds like something you might want to consider. His business of making carbon and bamboo frames is located in California.
I think I looked at this before, but was turned off by the cost of shipping it to the UK. I'm more into on building solutions rather than novelties now, so bamboo will be shelved. Unless, maybe a bamboo trailer becomes necessary...