The Bike Project…

I was at school, I had just finished a 3 hour long stressful exam, and came down to the NIOS classroom to munch down some food. As soon as I came down, I saw Sudhir(my teacher) speaking to Vicky, Yash, and Pratham (NIOS students and my good friends) on this WACKO idea of making a electric scooter (sorta like a skateboard with a handle) that could drive a 90kilo man(sudhir 🙂 ) at a speed of 40kmph. I was amazed. My intuition told me that if a 90kilo man can ride it at 40kmph than I being a 60kilo teenager could for sure travel faster than that. I was intrigued by this fact and wanted to do more work on it. The following day we decided that after all our board exams are over we would pool in money and make this ‘Electric Scooter’.

A few days later, we all were sitting for lunch again. We were in the NIOS classroom and Sudhir comes in. He comes in to take a bite from Yash’s box which had Chapathi’s and a Mix-Veg Sabzi. But as he ate into his bite he left out some important words. Those words were ” Me and Pushkar aresetting up a makerspace!”. We had heard of this word ‘makerspace’ before, but couldn’t really guess where, so we clarified with him. He said that a Makerspace is a place where people can come and share ideas and collaborate with each other to complete various projects. Well we then realized that we had been to a makerspace before called ‘Workbench Projects’ and we really liked that experience and therefore when Sudhir told us about it, we were very happy because we could stay in such an environment for longer and figure more things out for ourselves, which I feel is essential. I believe, Sudhir was also very enthusiastic about this project and willing to help us with the electronics and other aspects of the scooter, which is extremely important for beginners like us.

Our board exams got over, and ‘Kreu’ was getting back to life after a hiatus. We started going to ‘Kreu’ frequently (3 days a week). Lot of tidying up later, it got back into workable shape. We started brainstorming on various ideas, we even did some tiny projects like assembling a F-450 drone, making a mini fridge with peltier plates, making a hot wire cutter etc. Meanwhile, we learnt to use various machine tools like angle-grinders, routers, drills, jigsaws etc. along with the safety precautions to use them. We also made a few workbenches.

The idea of the ‘ Electric Scooter’ we initially thought about was lost. We had planned it to be our first project. After we realized it, we began thinking of it again. We were now not thinking in the direction of making a scooter, instead looking for a way we could motorize a cycle. We started with the work but it was slow. We brought Vicky’s cycle and 3D-printed some gear-like structure that would be mounted on the side of the cycle and would spin the wheel with a help of a strong motor. It did work, but the 3D-printed stuff would either burn down or burn the tire due to friction, when it slipped. More traction was needed between the motor and the wheel. We lost hope after trying a few different approaches, and pushed the idea to the back of our head. Our schools also started which meant less time at ‘Kreu’.

Since then, whenever we go to ‘Kreu’ the idea of the scooter always pops up in our minds. But these thoughts and ideas always end up remaining thoughts and ideas. But wait, we’re not done yet. We’ll soon build it and conquer any obstacle that comes in the way.

3 thoughts on “The Bike Project…”

  1. Wow! This article is very interesting. I find it inspiring how you and your friends put in the effort to create a space to make your ideas practical. Looking forward to more articles about kreu and updates on the electric scooter!

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