{"id":3646,"date":"2017-05-04T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/swcommunity\/?p=3646"},"modified":"2024-03-12T11:40:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T15:40:02","slug":"solidworks-meets-vintage-works-speeder-bike-motorcycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2017\/05\/solidworks-meets-vintage-works-speeder-bike-motorcycle.html","title":{"rendered":"SOLIDWORKS Meets Vintage Works: Speeder Bike Motorcycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our customers range from cool to coolest. Recently, we had a conversation with Vintage Works<\/strong><\/a> founders Paul Nelson and Dave Wall about their vision and some of the projects they\u2019ve tackled over the past couple of years. If you\u2019ve seen the Star Wars Speeder Bike motorcycle, you already know some of their work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe Star Wars inspired Speeder Bike motorcycle was an insane project, and I’d say we did it out of passion. We said \u2018we’re basically going to spend our life savings on some really, really expensive machined parts and design something to show off what we can do\u2019 because we’re trying to figure out how to do something we love for the rest of our lives. People describe me as the dreamer and my business partner, Dave Wall, as more practical and grounded.\u00a0 Most people let their time and finances limit their creativity.\u00a0 We do the opposite. First we set a goal, and then we figure out how to do it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Co-founder Paul Nelson tells us: “Dave and I had many conversations about the Speeder Bike project. There are so many people who talk about their dreams but don\u2019t take action. We have full time jobs making industrial machinery, so if we want to use our mechanical and electrical engineering backgrounds to create projects that will capture people\u2019s imaginations and inspire people to believe anything is possible, we have to take action and make something incredible.\u00a0 We can\u2019t just talk about wanting to do it.\u00a0 Our challenge was that this project could financially ruin us if we weren\u2019t careful, but we decided the reward is worth the risk.\u00a0 Once Dave said, \u2018you know, Paul, you’re right. Nothing’s going to change for us if we don’t take a risk like this. I’m on board. This is the right thing. We have to do it,\u2019 we made a commitment that we were going to design the Speeder Bike starting in October 2015 and have it ready to unveil at the Iola Car Show in July 2016.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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“We designed and built the bike in 9 months on nights and weekends, but when it was about 90 days\u00a0away from the unveiling, we had no Speeder Bike. We made the challenge even more difficult by deciding to build a second Speeder Bike and leave it bare aluminum. We basically had a body designed and some of the frame. We had maybe 30 or 40 pieces on hand, 200 parts in the machining process and 150 more to come. There were still so many things to figure out, like the hubless wheel design, suspension, and steering. We had to design our own sound effects, and find space to cram in the PLC controller, 400 watt sound system, air compressor and tanks, pneumatic valve bank, and more.\u00a0 One of the hardest parts of the design was finding room for all the components inside a body made to the same dimensions as the movie vehicle.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never a point where it was obviously going to work, especially in the timeframe and the budget we had. We even got to a point where, by the end of March 2016, we said \u2018there’s no way we\u2019re going to get this done without something changing,\u2019 so we ended up taking a ton of vacation just to get to the point where we had enough pieces to put this all together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a tremendous amount of doubt whether or not we’d actually be able to get it done and even Dave was making comments like, \u2018okay, we don’t have to make it drive during the car show. We’re just going to have it be there and just get it painted, right?\u2019 I thought we were really close, so I recommended we shoot for having it work and if we don’t get to that point or something comes up, having it ready to get its weathered paint job at the car show isn\u2019t a bad fallback plan. But, let\u2019s do our best to have it finished for it\u2019s unveiling.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cFinishing the Speeder Bike came right down to the wire. We started assembly with less than 3 weeks before the unveiling. Fortunately, there were no major assembly issues. Our retired \u201cmetal magicians\u201d Chris and Mitch tweaked any parts that didn\u2019t fit quite right. The stress to finish the bike was offset by all grinning as the Speeder Bike went from an idea and a pile of parts to quickly look like something right out of the movie!\u00a0 With only 2 days before the unveiling, we made a video. We hadn\u2019t driven it yet, so one of our guys, Josh, turned the throttle and it went five feet, and said \u2018okay, let’s go drive two miles to where we\u2019re filming.\u2019 And everyone’s asking, \u2018you sure you don’t want to trailer it there?\u2019 We don’t have time to trailer it there! Josh did his best to ride it and he found out that it was pretty top heavy. Most motorcycles have an engine and transmission down low, whereas for this to actually look like the authentic movie vehicle, everything was way up high, so it has a real high center of gravity. And then with the handles it’s kind of like driving a zero-turn lawnmower so it’s just not a conventional motorcycle to ride at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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