A few months ago a mutual associate referred us to Steve Smith.  He was looking for another design firm to help create documentation for his new invention.  His prior designer was just not producing the results he wanted. 

Steve has been working on a design to allow people with Osteoarthritis the chance to keep/return to bicycle riding.  Since shifting was a major cause of pain the below renderings shows how a radical new approach to bicycle riding (and shifting and braking) will allow many more people to enjoy riding. Steve’s Adaptive Bike was awarded the Silver Medal on the occasion of the 50th Minnesota Inventors Congress.   

Steve and I have been working closely together to optimize the design. It offers a variety of design opportunities utilizing plastic and metal parts, with some kinematics.  This was the first time I utilized IRONCAD’s kinematics capability.  I constrained the four-bar linkage and I ran it through its motions.  I was surprise to see that it had an interference I previously was not aware of, when I did basically a static evaluation in KeyCreator.  This is a enjoyable project.    

Below are a few pictures of the product.