Competition Road Bike: Specifications and Constraints

While working on my road bike, I’ve learned alot about how complex a personal project like this can be. I’ve through most of the steps I layed down for myself, research and ordering, then on to some minor assembly, And I am astonished by how little I actually know about bikes or designing anything this complex. While I take on more of the problems and as I get farther into this project, the difficulty of keeping the aesthetic while handling each problem becomes clear. So in this post I will document the 5 specifications and the 5 constraints that I’ve realized for this project.

Specifications:

1. Keeping the Aesthetic – This has to be the most important specification, It is not only the goal of the class but also a goal for myself. Keeping a slick design on an already beaten and battered bike is difficult. Theres a lot of variables that go into that, either changing the color palette or visualizing it through the accessories of the bike, like the handlebar wrap or wheels.
2. Keeping the Function – On top of the aesthetic, I also need to keep the base function of this project, Competition grade road bike. This is probably just as difficult, requiring large amount of knowledge on the subject of road bikes but also spare, and hopefully cheap, bike parts that can hold up a certain level of quality I needed to achieve this.

Constraints:

1. Lack of Tools – There are a lot of specific tools that have been created and globally manufactured solely for the production of road bikes because of how unique their designs are. There are specified torque wrenches, chain grips, and more, all completely foreign to anyone who’s life doesn’t revolve around bikes. This greatly limits my access to what I can feasibly do in this project.
2. Lack of Funds – All that previously said above costs much more that what the average person can feasibly spend on a bike, let alone a college student like my self, this also greatly limits what I can manage in this project.
3. Lack of Knowledge – Even with everything said above, there is one more thing that I don’t have, that is detrimental to my progress, that being, my lack of knowledge. Road bikes like these are super complex and need to studied before the can be meddled with. Even something as simple as a tire change needs to be done by something with a base level of knowledge in order to be done right. While I have been researching more and greatly improved my knowledge from when I began this project, There is still work to be done.