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01.05 Bicycle Disassembly Assignment

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Bicycle Sculpture Project

Throughout the metal fabrication portion of the course, the bicycle frame will become a platform for learning new fabrication techniques.

As you learn cutting, welding, tube fitting, joining, and metal finishing, you will progressively transform the original bicycle into a kinetic sculpture.

Your goal is not simply to repair or customize a bicycle. Use the bicycle as a collection of structures, mechanisms, and materials that can be reorganized into something unexpected.

Possible approaches include:

  • Altering the proportions of a bicycle frame.
  • Combining multiple bicycle frames or components.
  • Adding additional wheels, pedals, handlebars, forks, or seats.
  • Creating unusually tall, long, wide, or asymmetrical structures.
  • Using pedals, chains, sprockets, or wheels to activate sculptural movement.
  • Creating a human-powered vehicle with an unconventional method of riding or interaction.
  • Creating a kinetic sculpture that uses bicycle components but is no longer recognizable as a conventional bicycle.
  • Incorporating additional fabricated steel elements as your metalworking skills develop.

Initial sketches do not need to solve every fabrication problem. At this stage, concentrate on possibilities. We will use the fabrication process itself to test ideas, discover structural limitations, and allow the material to influence the direction of the work.

Initial Workflow

  1. Metal Shop Introduction
    • Shop organization and expectations
    • Personal protective equipment
    • Safe work areas and tool use
    • Basic metalworking hazards
  2. Bicycle Anatomy
    • Frame tubes
    • Fork
    • Wheels and hubs
    • Crank and pedals
    • Chain and sprockets
    • Handlebars and steering components
    • Other reusable mechanical components
  3. Select a Bicycle
    • Examine available bicycles and frames.
    • Look for interesting proportions, components, and mechanical possibilities.
    • Consider the bicycle as material rather than as a finished object.
  4. Sketch
    • Generate multiple quick possibilities before committing to one direction.
    • Experiment with scale, duplication, rearrangement, movement, and unusual relationships to the body.
    • Do not limit ideas based on your current fabrication abilities. We will determine what is feasible as your skills develop.
  5. Disassemble and Cut
    • Remove components that need to be saved.
    • Identify which parts of the frame can be cut apart for experimentation.
    • Practice controlled cutting techniques while preserving useful material.
  6. Prepare the Metal
    • Remove paint, rust, grease, and other contaminants from areas that will eventually be welded.
    • Use the sandblaster or appropriate stripping tools where demonstrated.
    • Leave clean steel available for the next stages of fabrication.

The bicycle you begin with today is only the starting point. Over the next several weeks, it will become both a material for experimentation and a structure through which you learn the fundamentals of metal fabrication. Rather than designing a conventional bicycle, consider the existing frame and components as raw material. Wheels can become rotating sculptural elements. Pedals can activate mechanisms. Frames can be stretched, stacked, widened, shortened, or combined. Handlebars, forks, cranks, chains, sprockets, and other components can be reassigned new structural or kinetic functions.