Hey Everybody!
I'm a 19 yr old who's looking into designing his own full suspension bike out of steel using what I have in my garage. It's focused more on being a more aggressive xc style bike (or downcountry as I call it), and it's shaped out to be a similar style to that of a modern specialized epic evo, with a horst link 4 bar. I've gotten through most of my geometry in linkage x3, and am in the CAD stage currently. One aspect of the bike that I'm curious about is what other people have done for the pivots in their linkages. I have a few ideas but I'd love to hear from some other people.
For instance, the connection from the seat stay to the rocker arm. it would not be hard to cut a slant in my tube and weld a bent piece of steel to it, but I can't bend steel thick enough to embed a bearing in it for the connection to the rocker arm. And that's really the root cause of my dilemna, which is just working around my manufacturing constraints.
Let me know if more context is needed!
Good job taking the initiative to build your own frame. Well done Sir! I've built two suspension bikes for myself, but I've only done single pivot frames using Santa Cruz swing arms. An OG Bullit Slopestyle frame and a second generation Bullit DH frame. I'm actually in the process of designing new dropouts for the second gen DH bike so I can give it to a friend's son as it currently has 26" wheels. His dad has a hobby sized CNC to actually make them. Are you using existing rockers from another bike? Or are you planning to make those as well? I'd highly recommend contacting a local frame builder for such advice and potentially the tooling to make it happen. Perhaps offer to sweep up machine chips in exchange for tool time and advice. I always worked with local builders in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area and always put their frame stickers of the finished product as thanks and to advertise their companies.
I will be machining my own rocker and yoke for the rear shock. I have access to a lathe, tube bender, cnc mill, router, mig and tig welder, as well as the usual bandsaw, drill press, and plasma cutter. I plan on making this almost entirely out of chromaly, and ideally using something like pcbway to have custom parts ordered. I don't know of any convenient frame builders in the area unfortunately, otherwise you bet I would've gotten an apprenticeship or internship there,
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