„Passion, engineering and manufacturing skills – a symbiosis that we call design“

SMD – passionate about bringing design ideas to life, finding practical and appealing solutions for technical questions and providing manufacturing solutions.

SMD offers engineering and surface modelling adivise and/or service to its customers. Come to us searching for a technical solution for your bike and leave with a manufactured product. We provide the solution, if it is just about some neat speedometer casing, or e.g. a complete café racer re-design.

We started in 2019 being backed up by over 12 years of experience in D&E as well as manufacturing. Within the past years we have worked in various projects. Check out our website to find some examples.

NEWSFEED / WEBLOG

Ducati 750 Sport Trackbike Rebuild

Yamaha Yzf-R6 RJ095 race fairing Winglets
late 2021

On a trackday, someone suggested one could try to do rather nice winglets for „older“ casual race bikes. I drew up a couple of sketches, shaped some of the major surfaces in a CAS system and did the rest of the engineering in a classical CAD system. I tried to catch the lines of the fairing within the winglets themselves. The decision to keep them rather small was made because I did not want to mess with aerodynamics to much for the first design attempts, so I could see if a small application like this causes wobbles or some kind of twitchy riding.
These ones here were made from Polyamid and SLS printed. They’re bolted to the side fairing.

Our Zündapp db200 Restauration has reached it’s final stage
August 2021

We are at a point where I consider the db200 project to be done. We had it running quite a while ago, but the registration and validation process, as well as some minor changes still took a while. The original rims have been replaced by aluminium rims that are a bit less wide then the originals but also suitable for the tire-size. The original rims turned out to be so deformed, that I was not able to get them round enough by various spoke tensioning so the bike would run smooth. The fenders have been replaced as well, through more sporty looking aluminium ones, the mounts were manufactured here. Another interesting piece would be the chain guard, it is slightly shorter then the original one, but it is not just chopped but newly manufactured. More to be read in the article considering the entire rebuild.

Chain sprocket Cover for the belt driven 2 valve Ducati engines
March 2021

A small project we started in early 2021 is a redesign of the secondary drivetrain covers of the Ducati models. Basis for this was once again scan data that we took from the original part. In our present case, we decided to go with a design that is similar to the one that we decided to go for with the clutch cover for the 916/748 Ducati series. The cooling ribs match nicely with the older air cooled engines. The part is made with the „multijet fusion MJF“ technology out of PA6 Polyamide. The MJF technology gives it a smooth and clean surface texture, comparable to the original parts.

„Performance parts“ for Balance Bikes
Feenauspuff
January 2021

Early this year we have mainly been focussing on getting our „Feenauspuff“ website up, developing new Adapters for various balance bikes and starting the marketing. in adition to that, we got a pending patent on this developement, which aim to push further in case the sales actually start off. A lot of effort was put in flyers, videos and picturing, as well as setting up a small webshop!
www.feenauspuff.de

The idea behind the „Feenauspuff“ emerged, when I wanted to cover larger distances with my kid on his balance bike. As soon as you get to a spot that is rather steep, or of uneven topography, the smaller kids start to struggle. So what does the adult do? It helps by pushing the kid up. First by bending down and pushing with the hands in a croocked posture, secondly by searching for a branch, to be able to push while walking upright. The problem with that is, that on most bikes there is no ideal point to situate the branches tip.

Suzuki GS500e Racer – redesign
September 2020

I have been involved in a redesign Process for a Suzuki 500e! The motorcycle is not the first pick when it comes to realising a Racer-like bike conversion (especially since its neither particularly fast nor powerful), but the model has its benefits! Due to a short wheelbase it can handle quite well (If you get the setup right) and ther barely is a cheaper bike around in western Europe! Which was quite an argument here, since money was very short on this one. The project was realised in collaboration with the owner, who is a talented model-maker and surface-modeler. The design features were developed in cooperation with him, including CAD-surface modeling, hand-sketching and „design by manufacturing“-efforts. The manufacturing itself as well as the „what you need to do to get it back on the road“-works were done in my workshop and came close to a „frame-off-restoration“ The rear frame was reengineered and manufactured from scratch and TIG-welded onto the original frame work and the rear seat-fairing was manufactured of glass-fibre! We even added some nicely done AM-made parts. If you want to know more about the build look it up here!

Finally getting a Ducati MHR 900 back one the road!

August 2020

I spent quite some time on this project! Getting a old Ducati back on the road that had been standing around in a shed for 30 years, being salvaged for parts and initially partly destroyed by a small fire was a task I had not very much dealt with so far!
The customer didn’t want it back to the original state, but wanted something that would transport him back into his early-motorcycling years, especially since this MHR was his first bevel-Ducati. He rode it on a daily basis as a student and was „mothballed“ and kind of forgotten until a couple of years ago.
The rebuild itself was quite an endeavour and took me a lot of time until I had all the little problems solved!
read more about the rebuild here!

Electrification of a Tandem Tricycle
June 2020

Although bicycles are not SMD’s standard repertoire we got the assignment to electrify a tandem-tricycle. The customer planned to participate in longer cycling trips alongside usual single seated bicycles, which turned out to be rather problematic since the tricycle was only equipped with a 3-speed hub gear, powering one of the rear wheels.
The rather difficult tasks here were: 1st: Deciding what layout was suited best for the task – mid engine design would have resulted in major frame-changings as well as only one powered wheel, since the riders bicycle cranks only transport power to one wheel (We assumed that this would result in driving experience similar to riding a sidecar-motorbike… often steering to one side), wheel hub motor – layout would come with similar steering difficulties and the tricycles rear-wheel design would not have been easy to translate onto a wheel-hub-motor rim. So we decided that a hub-motor substituting the front wheel is the most suitable and easiest to realise.

The second bigger question we ran into was, that we bought a bicycle-electrification-kit that was designed to fit standard bicycles. So we had to find suitable poitions for the control unit, as well as the accumulator and expand several cable lengths to make it work. We chose a 250W engine that is supposed to be used in cargo-bicycles and a cube-shaped 20Ah accumulator. A housing for the accumulator was hand manufactured from 1,5mm steel-sheet metal and fit into the rear of the vehicle. The control unit is now fastened in 3-D printed Polyamide-mounts on the lower mainframe.

The first test rides were already a success, since the components of the purchased kit fitted and worked well together. The 250W motor provides quite enough torque for that kind of vehicle, more would only lead to more chassis-instability and additional weight.

A new appliance for additive manufacturing in January 2020

Altough it’s a rather small application it held and still holds interesting aspects that can brought new intel and further experience with the materials as well and the process(es) itself. I reverse engineered a small engine cover that would fit most of the older ducati engines (one on the left engine side that covers the support bearing of the crankshaft). This time, differently to the clutch cover I had manufactured via AM in the past, it has to hold motor-oil and is more exposed the the engines heat. I had samples manufactured from two slightly different materials, one PA12 with aluminium particles and the other one with glass-particles. both have „better“ (for the use as engine cover) mechanical properties then standard PA12 and are more temperature resistent. The MJF procedure, as to be seen in the right picture below, results in a finer texture while the aluminium filled one looks a bit as if it was cast-aluminium. I have installed the black one on my 748 and it does seem to hold the oil and the temperature (the manufacture indicates roughly 130°C peak. On the position mounted it should mostly be less) and is currently being tested. The left one unfortunately broke while tightening it’s bolts, which first appeared weird since PA12 is known to be a very elastic material (the aluminium particles, altho increasing stiffness and toughness, unfortunetely do make it more brittle too). I discovered that I made a major mistake here, since AM-parts tend to be „weaker“ in one dimension, and the bolt put tension onto the part in exactely that dimension. I am currently having new parts manufactured to see if my assumptions are right (this time with the appearing issue in mind).

First actions in 2020

During the mostly undecent weather in early 2020 and late 2019 and the upcoming COVID 19 „crisis“ in our backs, I found the time to proceed with my Zündapp DB200 restauration. I was able to finish most of the bodywork and bring it up and running with a most minimal wiring, just to see if the rebuild engine and the rather antique Noris-ingnition work properly. Sadly I discovered, that there were minor issues with the engine, which forced me to pull it and make it right, which was luckily doable within a day. After some minor adjustements with the carburettor (there isn’t much to adjust, but still) it runs pretty fine now and appears to be fun to ride. I stopped it for the current moment, due to the fact that I am unsure If I want to modify a couple of aspects on the bike. It was sold in larger numbers and during a firmly long period (1935 and 1951 according to wikipedia), so I do not think that advocates of a „very original appearance“ will get to angry on me if I start to give it a bit more sporty appearance although it was never made for sporty usage. I already went with a reduced drivechain coverage, shorter rear fender and a selfmade shift-lever-ball, so the „originality-train“ has already departed. The plan is to add some slim aluminium fenders in the front and the rear, and maybe a more minor lamp unit in the front as well as a „bobber like“ license-plate holder.

2019 Formnext 3D-printing convention
in Frankfurt

It was my first visit at a convention regarding this topic, and it was definitely worth the trip! Since we are trying to get deeper into the topic of additive manufacturing I thought that coming here was a necessity that I should not miss. Since many engineers seem to have (that’s a quote) difficulties in „thinking additive manufacturing“, it was good to see how companys that deal mainly with AM choose their part design. I was surprised how motorcycling seem to be an interesting playing field for those companies: Quite a number of them had motorcycles or motorcycle parts displayed in their exhibition. It seems, that the borders between surface modelling and usual solid part engineering blurr even more then usually, since many 3D-printed parts have very fluent transitions and the transition-radiuses are varying constantly. AM is shown to have a very wide field of relevance: From lightweight construction, over medical application to rapid prototyping, implementation seems possible and the freedom of figuration does not appear to be very limited.

Veterma in late 2019
Mannheim

The Veterama in Mannheim is one of the older and also one of the largest part trading happenings in Europe (source: www.Veterama.de) . I personally am a annual visitor of the site, since it is always a nice occasion to get an eyesight of very rare historic motorcycles and cars, see how much of what is traded by whom for what amount of money, or to even buy one or two nifty parts for projects or my personal fleet.

I always enjoy seeing various kinds of early front end suspensions and frame solutions. The russian flat twins, especially the M72 Flathead engines, are a real alternative to its BMW pendant. Since the original BMW R71 engines are close to unaffordable, these could be a nice platform for a future „1920s racebike interpretation“ project.

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride 2019 in
Frankfurt

This year, we decided to again participate in the annual „DGR- Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride“ in Frankfurt. The last two years, I went to Antwerp in Belgium for this event, due to my fondness of this city. In 2019, we decided to stick in the vicinity of Kaiserslautern and went to the metropole region along the river Main istead.

This year we participated with two vehicles, the 50cc Sportster that I used in Antwerp the previous year and its „powerplant-donor“, a patina-restored mostly original NSU-Quickly from 1956 (read more for the NSU-Quickly restauration story here). These two have proven to be the almost perfect rides for an event like that, due to the fact that the maximum speed rarely exceeds roughly 50 kilometers per hour! Luckily, we succeeded to get the small NSU ready to go in time. We worked quite a bit during the last two weeks, to make that possible, since a month ago, the restauration job was still only halfway done.

The weather was way better then expected, the other participants were chatty and in a good mood, and even a couple of passants smiled at the sight of the two green mopeds. In the end there were fries and beer in a nice location. The only downside were the large number of traffic lights and the dense traffic in general. The Antwerp ride of the last years had the whole event channeled by the police and most traffic lights were turned off to let the DGR-crowd pass by as quick as possible, which made the ride itself more fluent.

First modeled Ducati clutch cover manufactured

September 2019
We decided to have a Ducati clutch cover 3D printed out of Alumide, to see if the material would withstand the stress. The design carries cooling ribs, that are closing off with the 748/916 side fairing. Between the cooling ribs are breakthroughs, that make the rotating clutch visible. The cover fitted quite well, and looks very similar to sandcast aluminum.
The material data sheet attests alumide proper mechanical properties up to 130°C. Using the original clutch cover rubber sealing, the here shown cover barely heats up, even in hotter conditions.
It worked quite fine and looks pretty neat, especially since there is no comparable design around.
We offer printed Ducati clutch covers for sale, the customer can express his own design ideas, since every one of them is manufactured on demand.

NSU-Motorcycle-Museum and special exhibition 2019:

We recently visited the national motorcycling museum of germany in Neckarsulm. It features a very fine collection of international motorcycles and devotional objects. It also puts a good number of the NSU-companys products and racing-motorcycles on display.
It is certainly nice to visit it from time to time anyways, but this time, I wanted to see the temporary exhibition that is on display currently: motorcycles with which land speed records were planned and/or executed. The shown vehicles are often unique products, combining fine craftsmanship and engineering. A very nice opportunity to collect ideas and impressions. Some of the bikes and the record attempts they were used in were parts of magazine-articles, that are very nice to read, especially in the prefield.
The exhibition is on display until Oktober 2019 and definitely worth a visit, if you’re interested in ancient motoring and the lunacy some people performed with them.

The Monster Clip-On Setup on the track:

After I was done with the major changes on the monster, an annual track training that I like to attend to came close. So I decided to get it at least trackworthy to be able to ride a couple of laps with the new setup, to see how I would feel and work in an proper environement.
Unfortunately, the bike had not been on the road for around two years, so getting it trackworhty meant more then just getting the front-end fixed up.
Quite a bit of standard maintenance had to be done and a new rear tire had to be mounted too. Not because it was worn of, but because during that italy-trip, the bikes rear tire blew up on me and I had to get a new one from the next closest shop. Sadly, the only one they had for me, because I didn’t want to wait for a couple of days, was a pretty sun-ripened and therefore pretty slippery Pirelli.
Back to the topic at hand: The front end setup works actually really nice, and provides way more comfort then most of the clip-on setups I personally encountered on a Monster, especially without changing the footrest position.

Track riding in Cheneviers/France 2019:

While we brought the M750 from the upper contribution for testing purposes, the main vehicle I used these days was my 2002 748. While lacking quite a bit of power compared to other bikes nowadays it is still very pleasing to drive and the chassis is still competitive, even against most other bikes in that price and ccm-range that are almost ten years younger.
the weather conditions were very good, although very hot as well. A couple of the guys who were riding with standard street sport tires suffered from gooey riding behavior.
Apart from that we had:
– no accidents, which is very good
– tons of moscitos
– good beer and bbq in the evenings
All in all a good time!

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