1. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM. Until we talked to our community partner and saw photos of their current product, it was very difficult to approach this project; even after having our conversation and looking at their photos, it was still difficult to truly understand the problem and how to come up with a better solution that wouldn't just create different problems.
2. ORDERING THE CORRECT PARTS. In essence we were trying to replicate a blending apparatus that had been used and implemented in Tanzania. Despite having the physical product in our hands, it was difficult to replicate due to the fact that we had limited documentation. Therefore, in ordering the parts we needed, we did a lot of measuring and estimating, and hoping for the best!
3. SIMPLIFYING AN EXISTING PRODUCT. Jodie Wu's stand is extremely functional. However, it has a lot of parts, so we wanted to simplify her design. Rather quickly we learned that while it is extremely difficult to come up with an entirely new product or design, it is almost harder in a sense to take steps backwards and make an existing design more basic.
4. DECIDING WHERE TO ATTACH THE STAND. Attaching the stand to the bike frame (chain stays) or to a wheel spoke attachment was a difficult and time-consuming decision for us, as each has its benefits and challenges.
5. DETAILS REALLY MATTER! There were countless times during our process where we'd say "Shoot, we should have done that before this." We learned the importance of thinking ahead and building strategically, as it is difficult to do certain things once pieces are already attached-- especially when working with machinery! In addition, we learned that drilling a hole or cutting a rod one centimeter too small or too big makes all the difference, and that getting to the precise measurement you need is painstaking, requiring lots of trial and error.
While we may not have had the opportunity to accomplish as much as we were hoping to due to time constraints, the goal is that this blog and our final write-up (with a step-by-step instruction manual) will serve as a foundation for the next team who takes on this project.
After our bike blending apparatus was completed, we realized it was wishful thinking that the pitcher would sit and stay attached to the wheel axle during blending without support. We went through a number of different ideas and trial runs of support mechanisms, but ultimately we came up with the following design:
We constructed a wooden plank (made up of multiple wood pieces to get the correct height) to elevate the wheel axle so that our rubber wheel comes into contact with the bike wheel at the right place, as pictured below:
We attached the wheel axle to the wooden plank using screws:
The next step was the make a platform for the blender (pitcher) to sit on in order to increase stability. We decided to go with a ring shape, mimicking the shape of the bottom of the pitcher. First we constructed a styrofoam prototype, then Professor Banzaert helped up make a wooden one using the laser cutter. It has a large hole inside for the wheel axle to sit in:
While we knew we would secure the larger, square wooden platform to the bike rack using small bungee cords, we needed to prevent the platform from moving horizontally across the bike. Therefore, we screwed in metal rods to serve as stoppers, keeping the platform at the correct location for maximal wheel contact:
Our last step in securing our apparatus was securing the pitcher. We decided to be as simple as possible and use a bungee cord, going from one side of the rear rack (near the tire spokes) to the other, up and over the blender. We strategically used the handle and spout of the pitcher as holsters for the bungee:
Here is a video of our second test run (in class), in which we blended raspberries, strawberries, and water:
On the day of our public presentation, we are pleased to report that our bicycle blender was a huge hit; more importantly, it worked without fail during the entire exhibition!!! We were able to concoct numerous smoothies catered to our customer's tastes! Ingredients used included bananas, strawberries, raspberries, mangoes, plain and vanilla yogurt, and a variety of juices. Some of our customers even hopped on the bike themselves and blended their own smoothies! It was a lot of fun, and satisfying to see that our work paid off. Here we are blending an extremely full pitcher of smoothies on the day of our public presentation:
*Please note: the bike stand we used was Jodie Wu's stand. We have a prototype of our design (a simplified, easier-to-build version of Jodie's), but unfortunately we were unable to construct a working product due to time constraints.
Thank you for reading, and happy blending!!!
