I have posted homemade carbon fiber bikes before and I always find it very interesting to see composite bicycles that people design and produce in their garages and living rooms. Svetlyo Kostov (aka Mr. Freehand) first learned about carbon fiber construction at a young age building racecars, motorcycles, and airplanes. Recently, he decided use the technique that he developed for building one off structural carbon parts to create a bicycle for himself. Svetlyo built the Oval bike first and rode it everyday for six months before deciding to make his even less conventional “Ferrari” bike”. That second bike features a 2-piece frame construction and an integrated carbon fiber rear fender. Today he rides both of his “different” homemade bikes for commuting and urban riding, and it sounds like they generate a lot of attention wherever he goes.
Update 11/30: I just want to add one more interesting thing that Svetlyo just told me. He wanted go through the process in a “green” way, so while constructing these bikes, the only electricity used was to power 4 light bulbs. He did not use a computer for the designs or any power tools for the construction (he also mentioned that he didn’t even use heat or AC). The red paint was leftover from a car repair job and even the compressed air for the airbrushed letters and graphics came from a truck tire that he inflated with a hand pump.
Update 12/1: You can see more pictures of both bikes here.
Some people are just amazing.
Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!
Oh yes!
Real, not concept as below. Also using carbon as carbon, not as imitation steel or aluminium.
Thank you, your comment means alot to me!!!
i’m sur
Ellsworth ‘The Ride’ (complete with integrated fender!)
& Softride carbon ‘Power V’
r sincerely flattered.
at first blush i even imagined seeing a softstem on the “ferrari”.
shame he couldn’t fab a mono-stay on that one.
what’s up with the bullet-nose fetish, does that serve any purpose?
only ever seen that on a faux-motocross themed wal-mart kids bike.
guess that’s his trademark sig?
of course they’re very nice (as are the originals they’re patterned after),
but that’s a long way to go for something you can already buy off the shelf for a whole lot less effort.
My designs are 100% original, frames are made inside-out with 4 wet-on-wet layers seamless twill, impregnated with best quality epoxy resin. No metal inserts are used anywhere. Bullet-nose contains headlite and GPS unit. “Ferrari” bike was designed in tribute of Kimi Raikkonen World Champion’s title in F1 as a promise to my 12 years old son. Frame was meant to contain 36 V Li-Ion battery and motorized BB. Rear hub in this case would be Alfine 11, all this in 14kg package and $1350. Dear gSPIN, good luck buying off the shelf something like that. Thanks for comment.
did you make the wheels for the Ferrari bike? they’re very cool
No, I did not, but they had the right look for this bike and looked nice on photos, I only re-painted them and designed the yellow lines. After I had them in my hands I realized they are JUNK!!! Sure enough this summer the front one exploded after little over-inflation. Now I make my own, and also make carbon cranks. pedals, handlebar and suspension fork.
I’d love to see some of your other work. I’m sure a lot of the people who read this blog would too. It’s great to see someone who actually builds interesting bikes, rather than just producing pretty 3d renders of them.
Thank you a lot!!! I started 11 other bikes, some production-ready, but my money don’t grow on trees, you know…
I’m seriously interested in your design and would like to discuss further both designs in particular options for your Ferrari design. I’ve been looking for some time someone who could build me a custom carbon fibre design. You’ve achieved very close to what I want to build.
Please let me know if you are interested.
Nick
Mr. Freehand, I like how you integrated the headlight in both designs. Transportation bikes really should make lighting and visibility in general a higher priority and not just assume that the owner will just clamp on an easily stolen headlight to the handlebars. Where do you live? Did your construction method utilize molds? Is there rear suspension on the Ferrari bike? Great work!
“Ferrari” bike has really cool pair of taillights, reminding F1 car’s exhaust, and the “oval” bike’s pintripe and letters are light reflecting, it can be seen in the dark by drivers from more than 1/2 mile away.
Those two bikes are built inside-out, no molds. Using molds I could reduce weight by half or more, but at the time this was not possible.
Yes, “Ferrari” has coil-over rear, suspension geometry was not set for air spring.
Those integrated taillights are a nice detail. See the picture here.
Those are especially intriguing designs.
I really like the line/pinstripe on the Oval bike’s fork that seems to turn the rim downward along the fork, is that effect visible in person, or just this picture?
Are pictures of the bikes from other angles visible on the web anywhere else?
Can you adjust the seat on the Ferrari or is this one size fits all?
Thank you! Yes, that is the effect and I am glad you noticed. Pic is taken in 2007, now I have new wider cabon fork and tire with same light reflecting line and the effect is more “pronounced”. Ferrari frame is made for me, seat is molded for my butt just like Formula1 car seats are made. For production seat end and “tube” are fully adjustable. I have more pics, but can’t link you there thru this site
Svetlyo, I would be glad to add a link to the additional pictures if you send it to me.
Mr Freehand, I keep on coming back to look at your bikes, there’s something about the “oval” bike that just works for me (and I’m a hard-core triple triangle steel nut!) And the cable operated disc brake (no hydraulic oil!) Please keep us posted on further developments
When you’re finished may I please have the oval bike with a belt drive and a Rohloff hub
Thanks a lot! I really wanted to design natural “organic” eye-pleasing shape, but it also should be strong, light and ergonomic. Bike was meant to have Nexus8 at the time, now I think of Alfine11, but I have no sponsors to do it all. Please read some of my replys above.
Love the oval one!
Did you had a ride on it?
Thank you, this is my first and favorite too. It was my only transport for two summers, as it is super comfy for me.
it looks realy confortable to ride.
great job
Very impressive design and construction! I am interested in producing carbon components for my own bikes, and would like to know if you can recommend any books/resources for learning the construction method?
Forgot to follow the link.
If you followed the link to the previous post, you probably already found the archives of Damon Rinard’s tech pages. Those are a great resource for DIY composite construction.
Missed that. Thanks! I’ve spent a lot of time on Sheldon Brown, but never came across the composites page.
Thanks Logan, within month or two I hope to finish couple of downhillers with unique suspension and instant gear change under load, very light and strong frame design, tested already. In the cases above construction methods were invented for the particular seamless (one piece) carbon frame, process is too detailed to explain here.
the designs are great, very beautiful indeed.
However you do not end up being green by not using electricity to use computers to design. You can find optimum amount of materials needed by FEA methods and use less carbon fiber/epoxy, in turn using much less energy. Carbon fibers are quite energy intensively produced.
thanks Carbon, not using energy was not my goal, just an interesting challenge among many others during the whole process.
I would add that using FEA to analyse carbon fibre designs is significantly more complex than metals or non-reinforced plastics (not to mention the thousands of dollars of computer equipment and software) The amount of energy wasted here by using too much material in the lay-up (if any) would also be significantly less than the electrical energy used to design the frame in a 3d CAD package and carry out computer-based FEA.
I want a quote for the oval, brilliant!
whats your website?
Thank you so much and sorry, I do not have website, but James Thomas added a link (see last “update” text after pictures) to my Picasaweb photo gallery, where you can find my email address.
What would be the dimensions of this cycle ?
I made those (and a few more) bikes for myself, never meant to offer them to customers, so dimensions suit me only. But starting next month, August 2012, I open business making custom frames, any shape imaginable upon customer’s request, from classic diamond shapes to ridable artwork. Will be located in Minneapolis area, feel free to contact at 610-515-5229. Thanks for interest!