[Matt Obal] had a problem. The local skatepark was too far to skateboard, but close enough to bike. Carrying a skateboard on a bicycle is a rather awkward (and unsafe) maneuver. [Matt’s] answer to the problem is Truck Stop, a bicycle mounted skateboard carrier he developed and is manufacturing himself.
[Matt’s] work on Truck Stop began about a year ago, with his purchase of a 3D printer. He designed a seat back mounted device that secures the skateboard by wedging between the truck and the board itself. The design is printed in PLA and is hollow. Truck Stop’s strength comes from being filled with resin and fiberglass cloth.
If you’ve worked with resin, you probably know that some formulas get hot while they harden. This caused a few melted prints until [Matt] figured out that a dunk in cold water at the right time would allow the resin to complete it’s hardening process while keeping the heat below the melting temperature of PLA. He’s since switched to a different resin formula that generates less heat.
[Matt] is selling the Truck Stop at his website, and spent quite a bit of time working on a silicon mold so he could cast as many mounts as he wanted. The problem was fiberglass poking through the final cast part. In the end, he decided to stick with the resin filled PLA of his prototypes.
I’ve often wondered how to mount an umbrella to my bike in a way that doesn’t interfere with normal use. Unfortunately it’s not this way, that rear light cannot be seen through the skateboard and the rear reflector might be blocked too making this illegal to ride on the roads in my country :(
The concept is good though, maybe if it attached to one side like a pannier bag?
Or extend it flat over the rear wheel to act a mud flap.
That could work, certainly there are rear racks that clamp onto your seat post and extend backwards so putting a skateboard on one of those would be sensible. The thing about mounting it like side bags is you could carry about four skateboards if they’re mounted vertically. Why I do not know, but you could.
You always need a few to stack up and prove you have the highest ollie out of the crew
Seen a guy ollie 13 stacked.
Cool idea, I would look at molding this from glass filled nylon or maybe making a premium version machined out of aluminum and black anodized. This type of product is perfect for kickstarter because it’s low risk, just need preorders to help pay for your tooling and increase your order quantity if you are ordering from a machine shop.
A PLA part filled with resin is a great way to prototype but in no was a scalable manufacturing process, particularly at that price point. Don’t go down that path for too long or you’ll burn out!
Reading his notes amongst the photos on imgur, it seems like he tried once to do a mold and gave up after one attempt rather than redesigning the mold itself. He’s done it as 3 parts with one having a long pocket which all seems a bit excessive to me – with some minor tweaks to his design he could probably do it with 2 and make the de-mold step a lot easier (and allow for a rigid mold rather than the flexible one he used..which he then had to create an elaborate clamp to hold it together).
Unfortunately with the current design I suspect it would be very difficult to directly machine – again a minor change to the design might make the really easy (say by splitting the shape down the middle, along the same plane as the seat-post clamp, and having a bolt join the two halves).
Agreed, I’m sure his design will need some manufacturability tweaks. I read that blurb as well, he went down the wrong path trying to make silicone molds and casting parts himself. This is totally fine to try if you’re messing around for fun, but it is ultimately just a prototyping technique.
If you’re trying to start selling and want to make a product that won’t be miserable to manufacture, just follow design rules for either injection molding or machining and have a professional shop make your parts. This costs more up front which is why crowdfunding is great for products like this.
Truck Stop.
Great name!
Better than Truck Stop Hooker, ha ha. He came up with a good name for a good product. I hope he sells many of them.
Silicon: natural, hard mineral. Silicone: synthetic, flexible polymer.
That’s a nice solution, back in my day I’d lash the board across my bike’s handlebars with rope. Which was awkward, bounced around, got in the way. Used to ride my bike to more distant spots to skate. Today, being in my 40s, most of my skateboarding is done via XBox and EA Skate.
I would always use a bungie strap to secure the board diagonally across my back like a rifle sling
i still believe in backpacks for all bike light cargo. if it doesn’t fit in the backpack, it’ll hang from one of its loops.
the best ideas are the simplest in execution. this idea is simple in execution and therefore, awesome.
I’m not into skateboarding, but I looked around anyway and found this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Seat-Post-Skateboard-Rack/
I kind of like the simplicity of that build.