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Building My Playa Bike: Part 2

Furring the Bike & Thinking About Lights

Austen·

I’m making good progress!

Furring the Bike

It takes a long time to fur a bike. I’ve managed to complete the accessories and have made some progress on the frame.

Furry Bike Accessories

In addition to the fenders…

I’ve also put fur on the chain protector and I think it’s very fun.

I used the same method on the chain guard that I used on the fenders:

  1. Cut a piece of fur fabric to the rough shape of the target accessory
  2. Glue the face down to the fabric
  3. Fold over and glue the edges, making strategic cuts to help with any curves

This shape was a lot more complicated than the fenders, but I think it came out very nice. Definitely worth the time & effort.

I’m hoping the long fur doesn’t cause problems with the mechanics… I imagine I’ll be doing some trimming when I get the bike all put together.

Furring the Frame

Front Fork

As for the frame, I have the fork completed.

ℹ️ // Name That Frame!

The part of the frame that grabs the front wheel is called the fork.

I wasn’t sure how to best approach this part of the frame, but I decided to follow this method:

  1. Cut a strip of the fur fabric
  2. Run the edges through your hands multiple times to get all the shedding out
  3. Starting at the top, glue and wind the fur around the frame to secure it in place

This was inspired by this very flamboyant human who made this video:

The spiraling method worked pretty well, but it took a long time to get done and I’m not 100% sold on the results.

‼️ // Warning

Yes — I used the E6000 adhesive inside.

Don’t do this! The label has some very clear warnings about the fumes being known to cause cancer. I did a bad thing; don’t follow in my footsteps.

Honestly it turned out pretty good — but, I think this method doesn’t allow the fur to fluff out in a totally natural way. I want to pet my bike and stoke its fur!

The Down Tube

For the down tube, I decided to go back to the method of cutting a piece of fur to the size of the piece I’m covering.

ℹ️ // Name That Frame!

The bottom portion of the frame is called the down tube.

This came together quite well! It’s much more “stroke-able” than the fork.

There is a seam down the middle that I plan to use for some extra wiring.

Thinking About Lights

I Have No Idea What I Am Doing

I’ve never soldered, programmed LEDs or done really anything related to this project. So where to even start?

Adafruit!

Adafruit has a great starter tutorial that I highly recommend: Make It Glow – Your First NeoPixel Project

Per their recommendation, I purchased:

Soldering!

I knew that eventually I am going to need to solder, so I bought this Soldering Iron Kit on Amazon. It’s quite nice, especially for the price!

I have learned that the solder this kit comes with sucks, though. I recommend purchasing this AUSTOR 60-40 Tin Lead Rosin Core Solder as I’ve found it is much more effective at bonding wires.

While you’re at it, you may as well get these items as well:

LEDs: They Work!

Following the Make It Glow – Your First NeoPixel Project tutorial, I quickly brought the LEDs online.

I am excited by how easy this was!

LEDs in My Fur

Next, I wanted to see how these lights look when placed deep into the fur fabric.

I like the way this looks! So far, so good.

Next Steps

With some LEDs in hand & fur going on the bike, I’m ready to get serious about the lighting design of my bike.

In the next post, I’ll detail some of the experiments I’ve done, what I decided to purchase and some of the current challenges I’m working to solve.