Blender Motorcycle Concept Project....Part One

This week with working on several different projects at once I find time once again to also work on a new project in Blender 3D.  I work in the shop and have to either let things dry or cure or wait for parts so to fill the time I play around with new ideas in Blender.  So a new motorcycle is the course of action for this project.

  I have been wanting to create a motorcycle for some time but just never set out to making it simply because I did not slug my way through figuring out how to make a motorcycle tire.  They are a bit different of course than a regular car tire so I have waited and finally forced myself to the task this week.  This is what I have come up with so far.

I first started with the tire and came up with the design that you see in the image above.  I liked it so that was that.  At least it does not look like a car tire and the tread pattern is believable for the project.  Along with this next came the wheel and I went with 40 spokes instead of a solid wheel design.  This image was the first go around as you will see in the following images in this post.  Close but not quite right was the shape of the spokes at this point.  So more work was needed to get things right.

I refined the spokes in this image but like most Blender models a lot can be hidden and so the changes to the spokes only I know about and you would really have to dig into the actual model to see what I corrected at this point.  In the first image the spokes at the center hub stuck out to far so I corrected this but after adding the disc brake and the drive belt hub the changes were hidden.  At least I know that they are correct so I can be happy with that. 

I had to do some research online to see how an actual axle is mounted to a motorcycle frame.  The blue part at the axle is correct as it makes sense to be able to adjust the rear axle rearward to tighten up the drive belt for the bike.  I also put in the mounting for the disc brake caliper along with a hydraulic line that runs along the upper portion of the right side frame.  Little things like this make the model stand out just a bit more.

I thought I would go with a belt drive for the Blender cycle and so I modeled what you see in the image above.  Not sure yet about the placement of the belt as it goes around the pivot point on the frame.  I will have to do a little more research on that one as my real motorcycle that I ride is a shaft drive so I'm not really sure how that part of the assembly works here.  

Lastly I got the shocks modeled and they turned out very well also for this project.  Again with a lot of modeling that I do I change around things as I go and looking at what I have created this far I can see changes coming up.  I thought I might make this setup a mono-shock layout instead of dual shocks.  Again something to think about.  Also maybe a three wheeler instead of a two wheeler.  No matter what I like the progress I have made with the start of the Blender model.  Nice detail already with the rear end at least.  

I will have to figure out if this will be a concept bike that looks like a normal motorcycle or not.  I did a model of a futuristic looking motorcycle years  and years ago (shown above) so I thought I might go back to this idea and redo the model of this design. As you can see my modeling skills have improved greatly since this old design was created around 10 years ago.  An update would be in order for sure and would look way better than my earlier work.  In the meantime this is a good start for this model and a great way to spend a rainy afternoon while I wait for varnish to dry in my workshop. I'll keep you posted on my progress as this Blender bike project moves forward.