Anyone know of any courses that would teach about bicycle design, hardtail and full suspension? It could be here or in the US. Cheers

Dave Yates does a frame building course, not sure that’s what you’re after but I’m sure you’d pick up some pointers.

I’d be surprised if one exists. The numbers are tiny. Some designers may have relevant qualifications like design but most will have picked it up.

Ugh of what you read about how different designs work is BS IMO anyway.

A manufacturing or mechanical engineering or product design course would probably be more worthy as most skills will be transferable and you’ll be far more likely to get a job.

Thanks guys :o)

would recommend a good materials course… from experience mechanical engineering is not truely wha you are looking for!

I dont think anything is what he’s looking for, be surprised if it existed. Reckon my mech eng (based) degree has the required content to design a bike from a theory/structures/materials basis, though I’m fairly sure a lot of experience comes into it rather than just theory.

Beware that not all degree courses are the same, from one uni to the next you’ll find vast differences in content and theory/practical bent depending on the staff at the place.

The materials course where I did my undergrad was almost purely about materials, nothing to do with structures etc.

where you do your degree CK?

I’ve never seen a course, but there is loads of information on the internet:-
http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/the_reading_list.html
phred
mtbr frame builders
frame forum
and so on

I found this software pretty useful for understanding bike suspension:
http://www.bikechecker.com/

You probably need the analysis and materials knowledge from Mech-eng. The styling skill from Product Design, and the real world design for manufacture knowledge of Industrial Design. And a bit of marketing wouldn’t go amiss in temrs of product line development and product positioning.

You need all those disciplines to make modern bike design work..

I did a mechanical engineering degree, and while it would have helped with the structural part of bike design and to some extent, materials choice, it wouldn’t help at all with the handling. This isn’t really an exact science and geometry issues like frame angles, rake, trail, chainstay length, top tube length Vs stem length, bottom bracket height, etc, etc, etc are really a matter of trial and error.

if you take a quick look at the past and present On-one designers you’ve got an engineer / journalist, a ex formula one red bull team car designer, a designer who has been designing something to do with yacht radar tracking systems and a guy currently designing LED systems for fish tanks…

so basically you can do what the hell you like and still come into bike design. there are loads of forums and such that will give you info on this but I’d say choose a course that will get you a good job, then start designing stuff and see how it goes. I would suspect very few people make a living out of it.

where you do your degree CK?

Liverpool (the red brick one, not John Moores).

As thepodge says, the design team on a bike frame will be a team, and will consist of designers and engineers – to have the knowledge behind all areas you’d need either a very long degree course in multiple disciplines or many years experience, the latter being more useful IMO. As mentioned earlier the effect geometry etc is actually calculatable and simulatable, but nothing compares to building one and riding it. I think a good design team would be one with experience of what geometry to use and a good mech/mat eng to spec how that geometry is put together, and a design eng to spec the locations of parts and the aesthetics.

J I actually started my bike design career in the USA as at the time I started out over 15 years ago the industry in the UK was impossible to get a job in ,couple that with the fact I was racing bikes and was thinking there was a career in it ,was my main focus.

Thanks again everyone for the input. I have a good materials engineering background and a couple of years in the bike shop/mechanic business and as you said compositepro, the states might be easier to get into the bike design and development industry. There isn’t too much here. I’m hoping with my background and some more work/study in cycle mechanics/design it might open up some doors for me.

Where do you work? Are you still designing bikes? :o)