Berk PROTO-TYPE Composites

Who are you (no off-topic talk please)

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Berk
Carbon Cowboy
Posts: 1100
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:20 pm
Location: Slovenia

by Berk

Just get some new parts:

Dura-Ace cassette 11-27
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180g


And my favourite road bar shape - this time in UD carbon and 53g lighter compared to my previous ALU Ritchey bar. It's 42cm (c-c)
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190g

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by Weenie


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sugarkane
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by sugarkane

Berk wrote:@kgt:
It's sure not a silly question - I cover the costs from the start completely by myself!
When I was only 14 (if I remember right) I get a scholarship - so called "Zios scholarship" here in Slovenia. It's for all those who are very successful in primary school and I get it and kept it during all gymnasium. You get that scholarship if you get a lot of awards etc., or 3% of the population that has the best resoults, and I had both :mrgreen:. So here was already some money and when I had enough I started with some of my work. First I worked with rockets - made my own fuel and rocket housing etc., and get the award as the best Slovenian young scientist..and I earned a bit again. And of course during all that time I also raced (since I was 10 years old) and was quite good and also here I earned some money. Later I get also a salary as a Continental cyclist, and here I am.
Well, I get the glooves for my work for free, because my father is a doctor and my mother is a chemists :mrgreen: but that's all, because I don't want to get "money for free".

EDIT: Also for my workshop I bought all the equipment etc. by myself,...



Nice I love rockets, I've never made my own motors but it doesn't look super hard. These days getting the Chemicals in the western world has become the issue

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Berk
Carbon Cowboy
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Location: Slovenia

by Berk

sugarkane wrote: Nice I love rockets, I've never made my own motors but it doesn't look super hard. These days getting the Chemicals in the western world has become the issue


Probably it really doesn't look that hard, but it's not that simple to make a good rocket motor - it has to be very stiff, the nozzle must be the right size (if it's too small it will explode, if it's to big it won't fly etc.,..). Yes, it's true about the chemicals, I also had some problems because I owned a lot of "exotic" chemicals, and that was one more reason why I rather stop with that..


Anyway, back to the frame: I just laminated the bottom bracket tube and the downtube. Hope that everything will be ok!

The BB tube is just a tube with 46mm id., for the press-fit bearing.

For the downtube I had some more work. First I had to prepare all the material, and it took me already quite a lot of time,..

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...then I had to prepare the epoxy...

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..and laminate the tube. It took me almost 4h only for the downtube :shock: but the progress is anyway quite fast!



As I mentioned I already made the seattube and toptube. For the seattube the most difficult part was to make the internal diameter exactly 31.6mm. I made it with some special inserts. It's a 34.9mm tube with 31.6mm internal diameter:

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Of course the tubes are still completely rough. Here a photo from the toptube, where you can see that the "cable stops" are already laminated:

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Next step is to make the chainstays and seatstays. Hope that I'll manage to make them in the next few days! And I still have to make the mould for the headtube and dropouts, but first I have to make all the tubes,... Will keep you updated!

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sugarkane
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by sugarkane

Ahh I ment making the fuel isn't super hard, of course the engine casings need to be well thought out and well made other wise you just have a pipe bomb..
Also the bigger they get the harder everything is as the pressures increases massively, did you get into the hybrid motors at all or stick with solid fuel motors


The new tubes look good any estimates on the final frame weight..?

Chadwick890
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Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:01 am

by Chadwick890

Just curious about that top tube. I use my right lever as my rear brake lever. Just curious what side that Top Tube cut out is for?

Also what do you think about the new Sram red?

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Berk
Carbon Cowboy
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Location: Slovenia

by Berk

@sugarkane
Right now it's hard to say, but if I would make it with the same layup than PROTO-TYPE 3, only without the ISP and integrated sadle, it should be around 880g. But I have a bit differend layup and it should be also a bit stiffer frame, so hard to say at this moment.


@Chadwick890
If you look the photo you see the left side of the frame/toptube. The headtube area (by the toptube) will be a bit more reinforced, and that's also the reason why I changed the design a bit. I tested my PT3 quite good and know what I have to improve.
No really big changes, but I know all the details that I have to improve, and it's the area where the toptube joins the headtube. The second thing is the "integration" of both chainstays. On the last frame I just made a tube and each chainstay separated, now I made the layup for both together,...I already prepared the material for it

About the new Sram Red - personally I prefer Sram, so I would love to try it. If I would change my group I would take the new Red (but I would sure change a bit their graphic design :mrgreen:).

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Berk
Carbon Cowboy
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by Berk

Some good news - the downtube is already made:

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I still have to cut it and at the end it will be around 200g

And I also laminated the chainstays, and just put them out of the mould:

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Everything went perfect, without any bigger problems :thumbup:. Now I just have to make the seatstays, headtube and dropouts...
I only damaged a bit the mould from the chainstays, but nothing too serious and I'll be able to repair it then for a potential "ultra light" frame project after this one, will see..
This frame will be a stiff-racing frame (like I want to have it), mostly for climbing in our beautiful mountains - I live 15km closer to the mountains than you can see on this photo (it's from the castle from our capital city Ljubljana):
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...so quite a lot of nice climbs here 8) on the left (but not on the photo) there are some even higher mountains...I really enjoy training here!

gumgardner
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by gumgardner

Looks like a great place to live!

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sugarkane
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by sugarkane

gumgardner wrote:Looks like a great place to live!



Eastern European women are sooooo hot too :D

tomaz69
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Joined: Tue May 12, 2009 11:09 am

by tomaz69

Eastern European women are sooooo hot too :D[/quote]

Hmm, I wouldn't say Slovenija is Eastern Europe. :wink:

Sorry Jure for offtopic

Regards from Slovenija

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sugarkane
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by sugarkane

sugarkane wrote:Eastern European women are sooooo hot too :D


tomaz69 wrote:Hmm, I wouldn't say Slovenija is Eastern Europe. :wink:

Sorry Jure for offtopic

Regards from Slovenija




Sorry but in the western world if your country was once under communisim and in Europe then 'eastern European' is a bit of a given..

I'm sorry for my ignorance :)


dosen't change the fact the ladies are pretty hot!!!!

EKIMIKE
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by EKIMIKE

20th Century anachronisms > ZZZZZzzzzzz :smartass: Slovenia is very much a Central European nation, in more than just geographical terms. We're now in the 21st century and Slovenia is a fully fledged member of the European Union.

Great to see the new project in full swing. Those mountains look sooo enticing too! It's good to know you're taking full advantage of them, 'cos i'll admit - i'm jealous. Such a beautiful part of the world. :beerchug:

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Berk
Carbon Cowboy
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Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:20 pm
Location: Slovenia

by Berk

@EKIMIKE
:thumbup:
Yes, I really enjoy cycling here!

The best thing is that everything is quite close. I live near Ljubljana and you can see that everything is really quite close...from the mountains till the seaside:
Image
On the left there is Italy, on the nort Austria, on the right Hungary and on the south there is Croatia. ..just that I introduce a bit also the country where I live ;). I also posted a few photos on page 16 some time ago if anybody would like to see a bit of our countryside...otherwise as soon as there will be a bit better weather (right now there is snow and -7*C) I'll make some more photos from some of our mountains, with my new bike.. ;)

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Berk
Carbon Cowboy
Posts: 1100
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:20 pm
Location: Slovenia

by Berk

Some good news! I just prepared the last moulds for the headtube, seatstays and dropouts. As soon as I'll have some more time I'll make the rest of the carbon work.

Here just one photo from the fork that I'll use. It's from Edge/Enve. I removed the paint because I want that the UD carbon is visible. I just add a small "ENVE" logo and lacquered it, and here it is:

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When I designed the chainstays for the frame I made them very similar to that fork, and it should be a really clean looking frameset.

danny
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by danny

Berk wrote:Some good news - the downtube is already made:



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how do yuo have press the carbon fiber to the shape of mold? do you use a rubber bladder with air pressure?

by Weenie


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