scooter carbon frame

General Composites Discussions Engineering Talk
#1

Hi, folks!

I would like to try to make a carbon frame for my scooter. It`s original weight about 100kg/220lbs. I already noticed some heavy parts to be replace with composite ones: exhaust muffler, side pad with kickstarter, center stand. The frame, is most massive part of the scooter, as well as most important.

On the one hand, I would like to make it lightweight, on the other hand, I afraid to make it not enough strong. How to calculate exact amount of CF to use? I saw a lot of DIY for CF bicycle frames, looks not too complicated…

#2

100 kg is way too heavy, I helped building a sprint scooter wich was 38kgs, with steel frame and composite body.
solidworks has a calc. function. but it isn’t completely reliable, so testing to the required specs is needed

#3

Wow, 38 kilos is pretty light! :slight_smile: I never thought that plastic panels are that heavy. Actually, I`m not going to build a race scooter. Highlight of the project is to look as usual scooter.

Unfortunately, I`m not familiar with Solidworks software… Does it have calc function, which consider type of material is used?

UPDATE: I found a great video tutorial. No questions about SolidWorks now
http://blogs.solidworks.com/teacher/2011/01/static-analysis-of-a-bike-frame-solidworks-is-engineering-solidworks-is-statics.html