A while back, a bunch of you saw my rear storage box for the Cervelo P5 and asked that I make one for the Felt IA and DA. Well, after extensive design and fitting sessions on some volunteers’ bikes, the boxes are now available for sale at http://www.custombikexcessories.com
Below are my boxes on a Cervelo P5 56cm, Felt IA 54cm, Felt IA 48cm and Felt DA 51cm. The box for the IA will fit on 48cm and up. The one for the DA which will fit on 51cm and up.
**NOTE that the boxes are not the production versions. They will be matte black with a texture that feels like 1200 grit wet dry sandpaper. **
But how do they ride??? Be great to get some user feedback from testing the prototypes. Is there any movement or vibration in the box when going over bumps. The lack of a fixing at the base of the box looks like a potential rattle source. We all hate rattles.
But how do they ride??? Be great to get some user feedback from testing the prototypes. Is there any movement or vibration in the box when going over bumps. The lack of a fixing at the base of the box looks like a potential rattle source. We all hate rattles.
Admittedly no one has ridden the bike with the box yet. But I stand behind my product, the design is proven on the P5 and will actually be better on the Felt because of the arc and the stabilizers.
As for the BB box for the p3, it’s coming. I’m working on it today. Hoping to have 3d print of the prototype tomorrow for test fitting on a p3.
I see that on the P5 you have different sizes, but on the IA it is one size fits all. Any reason for that? I worry that on my 58cm frame it may look a bit small.
I see that on the P5 you have different sizes, but on the IA it is one size fits all. Any reason for that? I worry that on my 58cm frame it may look a bit small.
Good catch, the reason is that on the P5, because of the sideways V on the rear of the frame, it would look really bad if I didn’t have the box go all the way down to the tire and not match the curve of the frame.
On the bikes a with straight seat tube like the IA, DA, Parlee TTiR, that is not an issue. I would have liked to make the box go all the way down and just have 3-5 mm clearance between tire and bottom of the box, which aesthetically would look much better and REALLY COOL, but that presents it’s own set of problems:
this makes the box deeper, which means that any small item in the box that ends up in the bottom cannot be reached with your fingers, the only way to get anything out of there is to flip the bike upside down and end up with all the contents of the box spread all over the road. As it’s designed now, I can just reach the bottom of the box with the tip of my fingers and grab whatever is down there, like the valve core removal tool. The bigger the box gets, the more expensive it becomes to 3d print, it’s substantial increase.The 3d printers have a limited size that they can print. With the 58 box for the p5, I’m close to that limit.
If you like, you can email me at yann@custombikexcessories.com and I can email you a pdf of the outline of the box to print out and cut and place on the bike so you can get a sense of scale on your frame.
Looks great. Would get one, I’d just need the bike to mount it to…
I’m considering a similar job on my road bike/hacked tri bike. Not sure if I’ll 3D print or choose another method.
Are you willing to share info on your printing? Printer, material, wall thickness, fill density, etc?
How is the lid attached? Does it seal well?
By the way, at the lower alignment tabs, I’d be using double-sided tape to help keep it in place.
For surface finish, maybe try an acetone dip after sanding (dip for a few seconds then air dry). Adds an excellent gloss to FDM prints.
Looks great. Would get one, I’d just need the bike to mount it to…
I’m considering a similar job on my road bike/hacked tri bike. Not sure if I’ll 3D print or choose another method.
Are you willing to share info on your printing? Printer, material, wall thickness, fill density, etc?
How is the lid attached? Does it seal well?
By the way, at the lower alignment tabs, I’d be using double-sided tape to help keep it in place.
For surface finish, maybe try an acetone dip after sanding (dip for a few seconds then air dry). Adds an excellent gloss to FDM prints.
No, no wind tunnel data, box was born out of necessity. I hate the saddle bag on my TT and it got in the way when I had to put a behind the seat water bottle cage. I had no choice but to design a box for my stuff.
As for settings, I am using a Prusa MK3 printer using the prusa version of Slic3r printed in PLA. Wall thickness on the box is 1.25 mm. Fill density 20%
Lid is attached via 4 magnets, 2 in the top, 2 in the bottom, and a short leash to keep from losing the lid.
So to confirm the ones for the Felt IA are one size fits all? I have a 58 and this is exactly what I’m looking for. I’d love to order one!
Yes, they are one size fits all. For the IA, the same box was fitted on a 48 and 54, so minimum size for the IA is 48. On the DA the box was fitted on a 51, therefore minimum size is 51.
The design is nice and looks good. However, $200 for a 3D printed piece is way over priced. That is in the realm of being made from carbon fiber with gold inlays.
The design is nice and looks good. However, $200 for a 3D printed piece is way over priced. That is in the realm of being made from carbon fiber with gold inlays.
I understand that you think that it is overpriced. I struggled with pricing the boxes I’ve designed. A few things to think about:
This is super low volume, I may sell a total of 150 boxes across different bikes, maybe 200 if I’m lucky. So far I’ve sold about 35, with another 15 or so that are preordered for the p5 and p2/p3 bottom bracket boxes.I looked into injection molding, however making a mold for injection molding of each box is around $10000, with a minimum order of 1000 molded pieces at $2 a piece. Given that for the P5 I have 4 sizes available, that would be $40000 investment in molding alone with hopes of selling 4000 boxes and another $8000 for the pieces just for Cervelo. Add in Felt IA, Felt DA, Parlee TTiR, that’s an additional $36000 invested in the molds and inventory of 3000 units. That’s 7000 boxes I’d have to sell to recoup let’s make it an even $90000 investment without making a profit. the above makes 3d printing the sensible thing to do. I only have to get boxes printed when i get orders. Note that I am not printing the production versions, those are outsourced and cost more than half the price that I am charging. Then there is the time I have spent designing and testing my boxes on the p5. I’ve spent over a year developing it and testing it on the roads of Marin County and elsewhere, logging over 6000 miles on my p5. The past 3 weekends I drove an hour each way to measure and test fit the boxes on a couple’s Felt IA bikes. I do have a regular job, this a small side gig I thought I would pursue just for fun, gives me an excuse to play with bikes. I’m working in the evening till 1-2 in the morning designing and finessing the boxes, 3d printing them and test fitting them.At one point, I had the same reaction from a guy in Australia who could not believe how expensive it was to 3d print the box. He thought he could get it printed cheaper in Australia, I uploaded the file to the printing service in Australia and it was twice as expensive as here given current exchange rate. I could 3d print the boxes myself on my $800 printer where each box takes about 18 hours to print at high quality, material cost is about $4 per box. But the printer is busy for 18 hours. If the print fails lets say 90% through because of power outage or the printer get jostled somehow causing the print to have defects, then I have to start over.
Given all that, I hope you understand the price. I’m certainly not going to get rich on this nor quit my day job. I’m doing this because people had seen my original box on my p5 and have said that they wanted one for their p5 of different size or for other brands. I thought I would give it a shot and see what I can do and make a little extra spending money on the side.
Being a mech engineer I can completely understand your costing, and the amount of effort that has gone into developing this.
Without a tooling budget it makes no sense, unless you’ve got the quotes ready to go and put it on Kickstarter.
As a thought, might it be feasible to use your 3D printed design as a pattern for a silicone mould, then cast the production pieces in polyurethane or similar? That is what I’m thinking for some one-offs for my own bike (so I don’t have to deal with CAD around some complex compound curved surfaces), however with a buck made from clay or somesuch.
