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[Doug S]

Is anybody else 3D printing parts for their bikes? I was really unhappy with the mounting brackets for my windshield, so when I got my Creality CR-10S, I printed these up. I haven't mounted them yet, but I'm very happy with how they came out.

[Shadow]

Yes! Very interested. I have been procrastinating about a year now from doing a 3d-printed J1772 bracket for mounting a J1772 inlet (or Tesla clone inlet i.e.) on the passenger peg area of 2013+ Zero S/DS; I think it can be done in ABS or Nylon and be durable with a metal spacer and washer for attachment (hardware store item).

To all: Open for suggestions on things to design? Let's hear what you'd like to see as an open design!

[Richard230]

My recollection is that Energica says that they 3D print some of the fairing parts of their motorcycles. From what I have seen, it seems to come out as well as any other method of manufacturing plastic pieces.

[Erasmo]

Looks neat. I recently laser cut a gopro mount for on the crown plate, but you also should be able to 3D print one.

I have worked on some caps to make the frame holes more suitable for storage but haven't really made progress on it.

[Doug S]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that since I was worried about vibration causing a failure, I printed it with a carbon-fiber infused polycarbonate blend:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074DS3986/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There's a lot of pressure on a windshield when you're on the freeway. If you don't believe it, stick a hand out in the windstream and think how much more surface are the windshield has. I was able to get a nice print at 260C on the nozzle, 110C on the bed. I had to upgrade the bed heater to a 115VAC unit to achieve 110C, and as you can see in the picture I have a high-tech print surface as well. I thought I was going to need an all-steel front end to run at higher temp, but maxing out at the stock setup at 260C did well enough.

I'm thinking about a bracket for a set of Hella DualTones next, or maybe a headlight adapter so I can mount a standard 5" round headlight without leaving all that wiring behind the headlight exposed to the weather.

[Doug S]

So I got the brackets attached, together with the top struts from my old Slipstreamr windshield, and they work great! The windshield now stays in the proper place, rattles around only a tiny bit, and deflects air over my helmet better than it ever has.

The only (minor) concern I have now is that they'll break prematurely. They're plenty strong, I made sure of that, but it's always possible they'll fail under vibration. I'll be keeping an eye on them for a while.

[yhafting]

I 3d printed the struts for my rear wheel fender.
I used ABS m30i on a stratasys fortus250mc we have at work. These worked fine until i moved the fender to the outside of the existing mudguard, which caused the bike to hit the fender and thus break one strut when i went over a bump with my wife sitting behind me. (I moved it to the outside to allow for some more travel after i got 1 size bigger rear tire). I did print some tests using PLA, but these were never something intended to last (more of a form/fit test).

For the second version i printed the same parts using a Markforged printer having nylon and chopped carbon fiber combined with carbon fiber, which makes it much tougher than abs plastic. Now for security measure i also cut the fender flip on the rear side, as it was positioned better before i got the larger sized tire. The nylon-carbon fiber does allow for more abuse, but the main improvement was avoiding to allow the bike hitting down onto the fender. (By the looks the material is just the same colour as Doug S', which matches the bike well without painting).

So for anyone considering 3D-printing parts, i would advice you to research a bit what kind of stresses the part will have to endure. In my case, the failure i had was not catastrophic, and it would be unlikely that it would be. I have attempted making a guard for my belt by 3D-printing, but i decided to not use it, because of fear of how it may induce a failure.

When it comes to your windshield brackets Doug, how to you consider the brittleness of your polycarbonate blend?

I have only seen polycarbonate samples and charts for 3D-printer materials, so my concern by using polycarbonate would be brittleness.

On my design, printing nylon (with our without chopped carbon fiber)  without added carbon fibers would have been soft, possibly too soft (but i did not check). By adding the carbon fiber i got the much needed stiffness of the struts, while maintaining a part that can withstand heavy abuse, since the nylon is unlikely to tear due to its flexibility. In my experience however adding fibers (chopped or continuous) does not help if the issue is layers coming apart, so orientation plays a huge role when printing parts..
 
PS: The images shown here is from the first version before i painted them.

[Doug S]

When it comes to your windshield brackets Doug, how to you consider the brittleness of your polycarbonate blend?

I have only seen polycarbonate samples and charts for 3D-printer materials, so my concern by using polycarbonate would be brittleness.

I'm not a materials expert, but my understanding is that pc isn't brittle at ALL. It's strong as hell and tough as nails (toughness being the opposite of brittleness). So much so that it's considered bulletproof in proper thickness. Even if it does crack or even shatter a bit, it's not going to let a bullet through.

In my experience however adding fibers (chopped or continuous) does not help if the issue is layers coming apart, so orientation plays a huge role when printing parts.

I agree entirely. Carbon fibers add stiffness, not strength like a lot of people think, and you're right, they do nothing at all to help if you have issues with layer delamination. That's my real concern. 3D printing is always a layer-at-a-time process, and there's no easy way to verify the layers are well adhered to each other (other than maybe printing up a test coupon at the same time). The brackets I pictured are actually the second print, because I was able to break the first set with my hands. They were plenty strong along the length of the bracket -- I couldn't really budge them -- but I was able to get the layers to delam pretty easily. The reason for the giant flanges I put on there is to add lots of surface area between the layers, and it seems to have worked. I couldn't break these by hand, and they've been on my bike for several hundred miles now with no sign of cracking or other problems.

Do you know if higher printing temperature helps with layer adhesion? It seems like it would, since when a layer is printed it would partially re-melt the previous layer and fuse with it better. I've recently upgraded my printer to an all-metal hot end, but I haven't changed the firmware so I'm still limited to 260C. When I get around to doing that, I think I'm going to print up test coupons of the leftover material and see if higher print temperature does help. There's no point in paying for premium materials if the end product doesn't wind up stronger and/or tougher.

[yhafting]

I'm not a materials expert, but my understanding is that pc isn't brittle at ALL. It's strong as hell and tough as nails (toughness being the opposite of brittleness). So much so that it's considered bulletproof in proper thickness. Even if it does crack or even shatter a bit, it's not going to let a bullet through.

Good. I know polycarbonate is used for visors and such, but you can never know completely with 3D-printer materials. For example the ABS we use in our Fortus is much stronger than the ABS we used for its predecessor (Dimension SST768).

Do you know if higher printing temperature helps with layer adhesion? It seems like it would, since when a layer is printed it would partially re-melt the previous layer and fuse with it better. I've recently upgraded my printer to an all-metal hot end, but I haven't changed the firmware so I'm still limited to 260C. When I get around to doing that, I think I'm going to print up test coupons of the leftover material and see if higher print temperature does help. There's no point in paying for premium materials if the end product doesn't wind up stronger and/or tougher.

What i do know about polycarbonate is that it is not considered safe to laser cut (without proper fume extraction)- in fact the fumes produced may be lethal (cyanide). Thus i would stick to the recommended temperature for 3D-printing, and provide good ventilation. It is of course less likely to have hazardous decomposition while 3D-printing, but with any plastic material, raising the temperature will drastically increase the amount of hazardous components released.

My impression is that when the temperature is right, the print looks good. I don't think there is much point going further than that. However i am sure there are many that have much more experience testing this than i have. For my part i have mostly been using a connex500 (which is useless in this scope) and the Fortus (which is great, but it won't allow experimenting with temperature).

[Erasmo]

Bender made something nice: http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=8359.0

[BenderEmf]

Whoops! I wasn't aware this thread existed until just now. Very cool and interesting to see what others are up to, and thanks for the link Erasmo!

[Doug S]

...in fact the fumes produced may be lethal (cyanide). Thus i would stick to the recommended temperature for 3D-printing, and provide good ventilation. It is of course less likely to have hazardous decomposition while 3D-printing, but with any plastic material, raising the temperature will drastically increase the amount of hazardous components released.

I don't know if it was toxic, but it sure did create some noxious smells when I was printing it. I have my printer in the living room, the largest open area available, and it pretty well stunk up the whole house. Didn't smell anything like bitter almonds, though, just a chemical odor of some sort.

Maybe I'll experiment with layer adhesion over the recommended printing temperature range with PLA instead. It is a lot cheaper material to play with.

[Erasmo]

You can always cure PLA in the oven to make it sturdier.