Jack Lennie is a recent Edinburgh-based product design graduate with a first class honors degree, a SolidWorks certification and a national award under his arm. He also just released a downloadable build kit for manufacturing a motorcycle in nearly any modern workshop. Not bad.
Designed to breathe a “new lease of life into damaged or non-road worthy motorcycles by reframing the existing or purchased engine and running gear,” Tinker can be assembled using non-specialist tools while allowing for maximum customization for experienced riders.
Inspiration for the bike came from a combination of classic British motorcycles and aesthetics driven by modern digital fabrication methods. Due to the wide availability of computer numeric control cutting machines such as waterjet cutting and CNC routing around the globe, Lennie has distributed the design as .DXF files ready to be manufactured without the need for in-depth technical, welding or manual machining knowledge.
“By publishing two separate DXF. files, one for CNC router cutting and one for water jetting or plasma and laser cutting the componentry, Tinker can be cut in the most efficient way possible depending on the tooling being used,” he explains.
Another issue that Lennie wanted to tackle for the Tinker was sustainability – which he addresses from three different angles: the ability to upcycle engines that would previously have been scraped, an open source and distributed manufacturing network for sharing the design without transportation and finally, optimized CNC cutting paths for both reducing the amount of material waste during manufacturing.
Currently, Lennie is refining the bike – which can reach speeds of up to 140 MPH – so that it exceeds road regulation standards for motor vehicles. In the meantime, he has posted the design files for the bike over at Wevolver.
Just don’t forget to wear a helmet, kids.
