Vallie Components - bicycle part and accessory design

Really, I'm not.

I've been avoiding blogging however. I guess I'm nervous to say anything, because so much goes wrong every time I open my mouth. I'll just give a brief update on the state of Vallie Components.

1. Patent - I spent the past month polishing a document to submit to the USPTO. I'm fairly certain I followed all their rules, and my device is novel and patentable. I've cited references, dotted my eyes, crossed my Ts, checked my line thicknesses, PDF versions, etc. I'm sort of playing the waiting game on that.

2. Right after I got that in, everything flooded to the forefront of my brain immediately, and it is forming some kind of bottleneck at the bridge of my nose.  Vancouver is hosting its first 'Maker Faire' soon, and I have signed up. I guess they don't have enough cycling people there, because they've accepted me. Now I just need to figure out what to do for it.  Its exactly 10 weeks away, giving me a possible 300ish hours with my current schedule. I also need to figure out how to make it interactive. This isn't a standard trade show.

3.Racks. I'm working on a batch of 10ish stainless racks.. well, starting to do some calculations for stainless racks. I want to have a universal fork design buttoned down and simulated before I cut any metal. I'm going to do it all in batch operations and try to make these things in under 10 hours per rack.

4. Cargo bike. I've been studying bakfiets geometry between the different types I've been able to reverse engineer. Phil over at Metrofiets was even kind enough to help me out! I basically want to do a one off, using an existing mtb frame I've got. I was inspired by THIS a long time ago. Ideally, this would be a grocery getter for the wife and I to share, so its got to be stable and rideable by anyone. Its an experiment that I want to work WELL.

5. Back on to hubs. I spent a few hours yesterday at DMT, hacking a pneumatic foot switch into Dennis's lathe. Today, I'm spinning rear shells again! It felt pretty good to have them up and running. Quantities are going to be very limited. But I'm measuring EVERY part at EVERY step to ensure that we don't waste another single shell.

6. Cogs. I've got all the cogs done. They actually came back from the Coaters before this whole patent kerfuffle.. but I'm hesitant to sell them, because right now I think I have enough of each size for each hub. What if EVERYONE who buys a hub wants a 15T? exactly. They look nice though.

 

7.Bikes. I'm not riding enough. Still. always. My commutes are too short to get my cardio on, so I've resorted to going out of my way across the north shore to get into town. I'm sadly not MTBing up there lately. I've got to get back on that... gradually to avoid hurting myself.

Thats about it. I guess I should edit some pictures into this, and add links. Thanks internet. You are being kinder than I expect you to.

 

 

 

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