Hello and good day to you from episode 26 of our podcast series Project Breakaway. I'm a metaphorical and literal time in the day. When we here at Predator cycling take some time away from working in the back shop to come and share with our listeners what we're doing, how we're doing it, what it takes to do it, our ideas, our innovative success stories, and even our missteps and failures. If you find yourself with an interest in bicycles, composite manufacturing, out of the box design, or even curiosities beyond. I encourage you to stick with us, settle in and learn a little. I'm Courtney B, co-owner and project manager of Predator cycling. I'm here with my partner Aram Goan, the other co-owner, CEO, lead designer and engineer, and returning online instructor. Arm, how's it going? It's going pretty well. Actually, I think I owe you an apology today. Why? Because I, I accidentally drank some of your latte. I know. I got your cooties. I know. Sorry. I mean, one clearly says latte and one clearly just says black coffee. But. But clearly one does not read. That's me, I don't read. It's okay, I forgive you. Thank you. For now. Uh, so before we jumped into our planned discussion for today. Um, let's just briefly check in on the Tour de France. Um, we were off last week. So we had no podcast. Yeah. And uh, a lot happened on the tour, I think. And uh, so today is stage 17. Yeah. I I I believe I'm not watching it, I haven't watched it yet this morning, but it's uh, it's a mountain top finish today. Okay. So, they went over that big mountain thing that they usually go over. The same mountains they go over every year. Uh, they go over they go over the same mountain ranges and they they approach them differently every year a little bit. Um, but Mont Von 2 was this year and they did it twice. They go over the top and then they go back over it again. So it's like insanity. Like, it's been a crazy, it's been a crazy tour. And I mean, So last week, uh, earlier this week or last week, I don't remember anymore. Uh, most stage wins in the tour is now tied. Yes. How previously by Eddie Merks? Yes. Who's probably, I mean, he is, he is the most amazing cyclist. And what years were those? The 90s? 80s? Uh, 80s. I believe the 80s is like the last time he raced the tour. Or 70s, 80s, something like that. Okay. He's he's an old man now, but he's he's funny. He's still talking smack. Like, they interviewed him because Cav just tied his record. Yes. So that doesn't make sense to anyone. So now he's tied with Mark Cavendish. Yeah, Mark Cavendish is tied now with him and Eddie Merks. Eddie Merks and Cav are tied. Um, and and uh, Eddie Merks made a comment about uh, um, how he was going for the yellow jersey and not for the green jersey or stage wins. And so if he had gone for stage wins, he would have probably won over 100 stages. Um, and Cav is is only going for stage wins. And the green jersey, so. Because he's never, obviously he's never won. Right. But how many, how many times did Eddie Murks win the tour? I believe it's six. I believe he's won six, five or six times. I don't remember off the top of my head. It's I forget what the record is now. It's five or six. So he still holds that record. Eddie Murks holds records that will never be broken. I mean, he has. Why is that? Because he was that good or because just back then it was like. No, well, he was that good. But then at the time, there wasn't, I mean, racers at that in that era. We're not as specialized as they are today. Today, they're just so hyper specialized for events and different classifications and different styles of racers. You can't have someone that wins the GC also win the classics, also win the sprint stages. I mean, it just doesn't happen anymore. Um, and he was just that much better than everybody at the time. Um, he could win the sprint and the mountain top finish. Mhm. So, uh, yeah. It's definitely, I mean, for me, that's probably the most exciting part. Of the tour is is uh, the green jersey race and that Cav is back. I mean, he's kind of had a rocky couple years. Kind of lost the love for cycling. But he only has what, four more stages to win a stage. I think he has about two more sprint stages where he could possibly tie it. Otherwise, he just has to come back next year. He has to come back next year. And I mean, it, I mean, Cav is amazing. Um, he's an awesome athlete, he's he came back. But someone will pick him up next year. It's not like. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure Quickstep will continue him for sure. But I also like at his age, I mean, I hate to say it, but his age. Like, I mean, I believe he's in his mid thirties. There are people when I was looking at their race cards that were older than that. 41. 41 is the oldest. But to keep that level of intensity at that age, it's just got to be so hard. It's like, uh, uh, uh. Who is it? Brett Farve. No, not Brett Farve. Yeah. Who's the football players that never retire and they're in their forties? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that. Anyways. My point being is that I mean, I hope that he comes back next year. And he kicks butt again. I I just can't like it's so difficult to keep that fitness. For that long. I'm sure if not this year, I'm sure next year he could win it, win it. And then call it a day. I mean, if if I was him, I would be focusing on breaking that record. Because that record will not be broken again. For probably, I don't know, 500 years. I mean, it's just like it's insane. It's such an insane record. So that is a highlight. And also a few big names have exited. The tour. To name a few, uh, Vanderpool. Yeah. Uh, Nely. Who says he's going to focus on the Olympics. I guess a few are going to focus on the Olympics. Well, and he has. Why do the tour? Well, because. If you're like, oh, you know what's next, you know what's next for me? The Olympics. So sometimes people use use the tour. As a as a build. to build up for the Olympics. With the intent to quit? Basically, the intent to get some stage wins and pull out. I I would assume that Nibali came. I mean, Nibali's won the tour before. He's a very good racer. Um, I assume he came with the intent to win or at least get a high G C. He didn't have a high G C. He didn't win a stage. There's really not much more left for him. He'd rather save his legs and go for the Olympics. I mean, it's a strategic move. Um, it's happened before. A lot of athletes have done it. Okay. We've talked. They were going to do this, bad luck, got a crash. Got stuck behind something. There's no way they can make it up. They'd rather pull out and be in better shape for the Olympics, possibly for a win. Yeah. So. Also, uh, Bosenhagen struggled after stage 16 and pulled. Simon Yates after stage 13 crash. Peter Sagan after stage 12 knee problems. Um, those are big names. Um, oh, whatever, what's the guy that won last last year? Uh. Oh my gosh. Uh. Poga Poga. No, last year. Oh, I meant two years ago. The Brit, the guy. Oh, Chris From. Is he still in Poland? He, well, so. He won a couple. Well, so, um. Oh my gosh. You're you're calling this all up back on me. Um. Chris From won four years ago, five years ago. He's. Um. He won like two or three years in a row, right? He won three years, he won three years. He won the tour. Um, he had a horrible leg break a couple years ago. Got dropped from, um, Sky, which is now Ios. Um, and then got picked up by, um, the Israeli, um, um, the Israeli cycling team. And was actually training in LA, our old stomping grounds. Um, is where he was training base camp for, uh, the tour preparation. But he's, he hasn't pulled out, but he's. It's amazing that he's back. With I mean, I think he broke his femur. I mean, it was no joke. He he had a major break, um, and he recovered and came back. So for him to be back racing at that elite level, it's that's insane. So what's your prediction for the next couple days? Who's who's winning this? Uh, currently it's it's Pogacha, who's who's who won it last year. And I mean, he's probably going to win. He's got a five minute lead. Um, five minute and change. Um. I mean, I don't think there's. I mean, I don't and he hasn't shown any crack in his armor at all. I mean, he's just in amazing form. I don't think anyone can take back five minutes from him. Um, UAE, which is the team he rides for, um, is not the strongest team in the world. But they've stepped up to protect the yellow jersey. So. Um, maybe there's a chance they can crack the team and somebody can take it. But I I. And then like second through like fifth is really close. It's like 30 second spread. So that's going to be dynamic. But. Okay. Well, um, okay. That's the tour. Yeah. I didn't want to spend too much time on it. Um, but. And then you the Olympics are next. I I didn't, I mean. Those are Olympic road race. There is an Olympic, there's a lot of. the Olympic events, the Olympic road race, there's the time trial, um then there's also all the track events. Um there's quite a bit. Um so it's exciting. It's it'll be exciting to watch. I I you know, I'm curious to see how I don't know. I haven't looked at all the teams and who's going and whatnot. But I I'm curious to see. It's kind of a, I don't know, just send it in, cash it in event, right? The Olympics. Well, I mean, it's already been delayed. It's been delayed. Oh, no, I mean, it's usually a pretty big event. But even like in the tennis world where my old, you know, stomping ground, I guess. Yeah, there people are pulling out. They're like, it doesn't seem worth it. Well, COVID Olympics, plus just, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I think the Olympics have definitely lost a little bit of their. Plus there's no spectator. There's no spectators. There's a lot of little things. It's probably not going to have the viewership in the as it has. Like last couple, I think, isn't it last? The last Olympics too were down on viewership. I don't know. I watch it for gymnastics. Oh, I watch it for track. And ribbon dancing. And swimming and diving. Like the fun sports. Like cycling. Yes. Like cycling. Mhm. It's the best sport. So, uh, let's talk about what we want to talk about. LinkedIn learning class. You had yet another LinkedIn learning class that went live and is now up for our little learners. Yep. That's what they call kids in the class. The daycare, little learners. So now you have a course entitled Fusion 360 Sketch Fundamentals that is now up. Um, so, uh, basic explanation of what that is. Yeah, so Fusion 360 is the program that we use here a lot. That's our the basic backbone of what we use for our design work. For Autodesk. For Autodesk, it's a really awesome, um, cloud, uh, the back end of it is run on the cloud. All your data stored there. And it it's it's a really cool software. I love it. And you use that software for what? I use the software for most, like about 90% of our modeling. Um, is done in uh Fusion 360. So, um, I do all of our bike designs and all of our, um, components, assemblies, uh, the bearing systems. All that stuff is built inside of Fusion 360. And then once it's built there, um, I'll pull it out to do simulation work. Um, but the the basics of of fusion is you you can really start a project in a couple ways. But the way I like to start with everything is with sketches. Um, so the sketching. Is that like 2D or 3D? Or. So, I mean, it's lines. Um, they're lines and shapes and circles. So, um, they they are 2D in that sense. But you can draw lines in full 3D, so you're both X, Y and Z coordinates. You can change. Um, and so throughout this course, it's basically fundamental. So we talk about all the tools and how to use the tools. Like line tool. Line tool, rectangle tool, uh, circle tool, edit tools. Um, how to run parameters, how to do 3D sketches, how to take those 3D sketches and turn them into 3D objects. So it's like pencil and paper, but then making it 3D. Yeah. Um, and it's just really talking about the fundamentals on how to use. tools and the way I set it up was um I kind of made it like a cheat sheet. It's like for myself, like I know how to use, you know, a lot of times in software like I know how to use like 80% of the tools. I'm like, oh, how do I use this one tool? So I basically, if you go through my course, there's um the titles of all of the the the videos are all the tool sets that I use. That you use. Not not all that's available. Just the ones you use. Essentially everything that's available within sketching I basically cover. So if you have a question about how to use the rectangle tool or the circle tool or how to do parameters, um I basically have a, you know, a two to three minute video, some of them are five-minute videos on it. And then at the end, I basically do walk throughs of how you can use all those steps to create more complex geometries. So like I do an example of uh um of a bike frame, which you have another fusion course that's designing a bike frame using different component systems. The basic of that is is is is driven by a sketch. So I talk about that. Um I also do like a not so real, but like looks pretty good. Uh turbine. Um. Like a for a car. Turbine. Yeah, like a turbine. Turbine. The the fan. Not a turban. The headwear or the the fan. For a turbo. Um a turbine, the fan for a turbine, I use I I designed that with sketches. From a single sketch and then uh use it to pull um using the tools and fusion. And how long is the course all together? I think it's two hours. Two hours. I think so. Um and then um so sketching is kind of like for smart people. Like, I have an idea, is this my first step? It can be. Um I I typically go to sketching. Is how I do things. I I use sketching as all of my kind of my anchor points. For everything is sketch. Um and then I use a lot of T splines to kind of connect everything is usually how I do it. Um or surface tools. But that's probably a different class. It is, but this is just to talk about sketching. And how you can derive it. So like a lot of people that come from things like 3D Studio Max or like modeler programs like that, um that are building like working in in in um in like nerve surfaces and and and 3D surfaces. Um have a hard time transitioning to 2D and like how to drive parts. So this course is really good for that. Um it's also good for anyone that's coming into it from another modeling platform like from SolidWorks or Katia and they want to start playing with fusion. Some of the tool sets are just a little different. So. So what do you do? You sketch something and then what do you do with it? You send it into a different software or do you send it to a CNC or do you send it to your 3D printer? Well, usually the way I use it like for a bike geometry, I design the bike geometry in sketch. So all my angles and offsets and bearing locations are all done in 3D sketch. And then I actually link all of our assembly components to that sketch. Um uh so everything is driven from the sketch. So if I update the sketch, it updates the location of everything. And then and then I basically connect all of those points with T splines. So, for me, it's kind of the core of a lot of the designs that I do is driven by sketch. I use it to define where my precision geometry locations are throughout a part. Uh you could also design it for like, you know, making bolt patterns or um, you know, setting something up so that you could send to a laser cutter or drilling hole locations on a CNC machine. I mean, you could use it for a million and one things. Um typically it's used to drive 3D geometry within Fusion 360. Okay. That's typically I think how you use it. And then what is the takeaway for for our little learners? Um, for our little learners. Uh basically it's to go over all of the tools within um the sketching environment and what you can do with it. And also to kind of think about how you can use sketches to drive 3D geometry and to drive really complex geometry. Is this for someone who's never opened Fusion 360? Absolutely. If you've never opened Fusion 360 and you want to learn, sketching is a great place to start. Um and this could this could be a first step. I mean, I literally walk you through every of the basic tools within sketching. And then uh build some parts with it. I don't do step-by-steps like click on this, click on that, click on this to to build something. It's not sketch for dummies. It's not my reading materials. No, you could do it. You'd do it just fine. Um so I do basically, I show you all the tools and then I do like high-level overviews of how to use those tools in conjunction with each other to build complex geometry. How's the availability of this software because I it's pretty accessible now? Yeah, Fusion 360 is super um affordable. They I believe they changed their pricing models a little while ago. But if you buy a full seat of fusion, it's like, I want to say it's like $400 a year. But it's pretty economical compared to other software. Yeah, so like if you're looking at inventor. Or you're looking at um. Inventor is Autodesk software. As well, that's their um. They're another tool set that's kind of more comparable to solid works. ish, um it's about $2,000 a year subscription fee. Um Solid Works seats, I think they start at six or 7,000. Um, I don't I don't want to know. I want it, but I don't I don't want to know. But also colleges and universities are there student discounts and. Yeah, so I think if you're a student, it's free for three years. I don't know, you got to look this up, but I think it's like three years. Or something you get a free license. Um, it's also like it's a lot cheaper than um a lot of different software. It's it's it's very economical package. Um and then it has cool because like some of the higher end stuff. You can buy in software. So you can buy like, you know, access to um nesting and fabrication for like, you know, $100 or $200 for the month or something. And get access to it. And then, you know, it goes away and and you can kind of like rent and borrow different higher level um um services from within fusion. So it's kind of cool. Cool. Yeah. Uh anything else about this specific course? No, I think it's a good course. And I think if you, yeah, if you go to the website, I'll do that you're free like a free link for 24 hours or 48 hours or something. Yeah, it's a. Yeah, 24 hours. If I share the link, if you go on LinkedIn, uh, if you predator will share it and the website will have it too, but as long as it comes from my link that I share, um, you get 24 hours one time. And then I think you can buy the class for life for like $49, I think, or if you have a LinkedIn, um, premier membership. Which varies in prices depending on exactly what you get, but if you have that, then you get everything in learning. Mhm. Um, and then a lot of universities and and school and and employers also offer offer offer a LinkedIn learning subscription. And if you do do a LinkedIn learning Pro, then you'll have access to the other five courses that you did this year. Yeah, I got four, I got five now. All done. So. Um, I got the fusion modeling a bike frame, which is just different modeling approaches to design different tubes of the bike. Then connect them all together. And then I got the composites, the the three-part composite series on how we made um our little boy's push bike. So the first one is like a kind of a composite 101 course about what composites are, how they work, how to design for them. And then designing for it and parameters with early simulation, and then a deeper dive into simulation and manufacturing and actually showing the manufacturing process and testing of the bike. And then this is my final um fifth course. For the year? Uh, yeah, I don't have any other courses on the books right now, but um, we'll see. What's next? I don't know. I mean, what would you like to do? I don't I don't I've been thinking about a couple different ones, I've been thinking about maybe doing like an assembly, like assembly um type course about making things like um parts that already exist without like too much custom stuff. Like off the shelf stuff that you can buy and assemble um in CAD. Um, and then like order it and make it kind of thing. Um. I don't know, I'm I mean, simulation stuff is is kind of my draw. Um, Omniverse is super cool. Um, but I don't know what the how many people are actually interested in some of that stuff. Uh, exactly, but also like we we're just like messing around with that right now, so before you start teaching classes on it, we should really. Yeah, for sure. I it's not something I want to do now, but I I think the implementation of how we are implementing some of the stuff in like Omniverse and stuff could be kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that's your uh LinkedIn learning professor. Uh, Professor Gogan. Tenured. LinkedIn learning professor. Yeah, right. Okay. Uh, things to mention. You have been designing our cleat adapters that we have talked about before. Yep. The SPD SLs are available on our website and on Amazon. You just finished the production version design for the Delta and Kio cleats. Um, and we're actively doing the 3D print test runs right here. Yeah, so we got the first. production batches of And Delta's Peloton. Yeah. Yeah. It's the one that uses Peloton, so the Peloton, um, the Peloton bikes use a Delta cleat design. It's just the original look cleat. Um, and so yeah, we have one that's specifically designed for that. So there's no excess. Because like what used to frustrate me about some other products is always that you had, you'd get a Delta cleat or you'd get a Kio cleat. And you have all this extra material behind it. And it was never like, I don't know, it just didn't fit right and you'd always have to cut it and trim it. It was annoying. So these are all specifically built for each cleat system on the market. So that we can have, um, each cleat actually has its own kind of quirks on how it connects. And like, you know, how it works. And so each, each adapter is designed specifically for that cleat system. So, um, And there's quite a few Peloton owners, uh, from COVID era. So, Yeah. I don't know if a lot of just Joe Schmo people know that they even can have wedges on their cleats. Um, probably not. But it's actually interesting. Do you have to have clip-ons on the Peloton or they can you have like the little strap over pedal like at the gym? I think you can. They have a little dot like on the back side, there's a little tiny platform. Which is, I don't know how people actually use it. But people actually use that. Just like a bike at a gym. When I strap my foot in. It's smaller, smaller platform. But yes, you also make adapters where you can actually clip in a Delta cleat. And then have like a platform pedal. Um, there's some adapters and you can obviously just change the pedals. Yeah. But yeah. No. It's it's um, it's actually interestingly enough, one of our first test cleats that we sent. Um, went to a Peloton writer. Well, um, yeah, and we've decided to also, uh, add a Torx key and include it in the kit. After my past rant about the reviews. Yeah. Of not supplying a Torx key and the feedback that we received. We got a couple people that said, you know, that had didn't that knew that the Torx key came with it. But like, I didn't have a Torx key. So I had to go out and get one. So it's like, all right. We we found a we. And my problem in the past about doing it was that I didn't want to put some cheap. Junky Torx key in there. And like, just, I don't know. I have this thing. I hate those. Free. You know, you buy IKEA furniture and they come with those really horrible Allen keys. That only work five times and then you have to throw it away because it just literally rips apart. Yeah. I hate that. I I can't stand that stuff. Yeah, but also sourcing those things right now. It's super. So we actually sourced a really high quality nice Torx key. That's economical. So we can actually include it in the kit. So we're include it in the kit. Yeah. So if you buy the kit, just just keep it. Just, you know. Just keep it. Yeah. It's I mean. It's a great Torx key. It's it's my gift to you. Yes. So, uh, we've also gotten, um, local feedback here. To help us revisit our branding. Yeah. Uh, previously, we've always said Predator cycling. Built by hand in Southern California. A couple things, uh, wrong with that. Uh. Uh, one, we're not in California anymore. Yeah. And two, uh, we still do, uh, build everything in house. And you I use my hands. Uh, but we uh really utilize the softwares and technologies provided to us and that includes a new manufacturing systems that are more automated. Yeah. And uh built by robots doesn't sound so great. So, we've decided to change it to Predator cycling designed and manufactured in Tennessee. USA. USA. USA. We added the USA because we didn't know if everyone knew where Tennessee was. Uh, yeah. That was just a clarification just to make sure it's not some place else. It's it's actually Tennessee. USA. Um, within the United States. Anyway, so we're going to uh working on that new logo/emblem and we're going to include it in our new 3D printed items. To really make our product line more cohesive and representative of where we are now. Both locationally and uh creatively/ uh manufacturally. Is that a word? If that's a word? Uh, it is now. Where we are in our process of manufacturing. For sure. And I think it's like, I mean, I don't know, I've tried to I thought that was probably a good way to split in that we like we actually something that we take a lot of pride in is that we actually design and manufacture our own parts. Like here in house, we build it. In the I think US manufacturing definitely taking a big hit and I think. Yeah, well, but like I you know, US manufacturing's great, especially if you're here, you know, building it. But like my big thing is like companies that actually make their own products. I think it's a big thing. Because you know, you get that quicker response in your design to manufacturing workflow. You actually know what's going on. Um, you're not designing a part and sending it out and having like some other subcontractor company engineer the part for you. And then make it. Like, I don't know. Like I I think it's a big deal when you design and make your own parts. Um. So we take a lot of pride in that. Um. And it's hard and we do it. Um, and we figured out how to do it. So. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Anyway. Working on that. Adding that. Trying to I mean that's just I mean you just don't slap a sticker on, you're actually designing it into the 3D print. So we have to design it in the software and actually test it in the 3D print to see if that logo actually works. And. Yeah, so we're just I'm just I I just I'm running the the Deltas I I've already done the test, the nested test print for the the Deltas and it everything worked. Um. And we're just doing the updated logo now and then um and we have the Kios that are pretty much done. We'll have a test print of those coming up here in the next day or so. And we got to figure out how to get that logo on the tiny little uh genius water bottle cage. Yeah. I don't know if that's going to fit. So maybe I'll slap a sticker on it. Anyway. Uh, yeah, no. Anyway. That's what's going on. So, anything else before we wrap it up? No. Uh, I mean on the genius bottle cage actually front. Uh, we are there we're going to have a hang tag coming. Oh. Got a hang tag coming soon. Hey, exciting news. Printed on cardboard. Yes, on recycled paper. Yes. I'm working on it now. Yep. Sorry. Anyway. Uh. Uh, I'll unveil it soon. Yep. Uh, okay, it's cool. So. We thank you for choosing to take some time with us and we look forward to future breakaways. Look for us on Instagram and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and in person here in Tennessee. We ask our listeners to please share, like and subscribe. We're available on all major streaming platforms. Thanks for listening, have a good one and find some time to break away.
EpisodeJul 14, 2021 · 27:38
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Project Breakaway with Predator Cycling
26: Sketching Fundamentals in Fusion 360, Ep. 26
Join Courtney B. and Aram Goan as they kick off this episode with a lively discussion on the latest Tour de France developments, including Mark Cavendish tying Eddy Merckx's record. After this exciting update, they prepare to dive into the core topic: essential sketching fundamentals in Fusion 360, offering valuable insights for designers and engineers.
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