Michael,

After re-reading my post I now realise that I did a bad job in explaining my issue. Let me try again...

Each fiber spring consists of 2 separate (off-set) pieces that are joined in the middle. The left section starts with an off-set to the left but then twists so that it ends up in the middle of the wheel rim. The right section starts with an offset to the right, twists and ends up in the middle of the rim on the opposing side.

As you can see in the picture, (see "A" in picture below), both off-set sections are fully aligned in the middle of the rim.

Yves

Have you tried modifing an ellipse by cutting off 1/3 and rotating it out from the top point , duplicating it with array x2 joining and sweeping the profiles around it

I think you get a better result with 3 profiles as it forces the shape to stay square on and not rotate or twist when swept.
If the bottom profile is mirrored you can easily adjust their offset position for a gap

cheers
shayne

Hi Yves, yeah sorry I didn't understand the kind of alignment you were looking for at first, I thought that your current model was already shaped close to what you needed.

So right now with only a planar path for the sweep you won't be able to make that shape you'll need to make a longer path curve that is not planar, it will need to shift over a bit instead of being all flat. One way to do this is to draw it initially flat and then select some points and move them from a side view so you can introduce some out of plane shifting to it, check out the side view of shayne's path curve above.

Another way than that which may work is to use the Flow command to map a rising angled line that marches along your planar base path. There is some description of this method here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4785.13
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4877.14

That lets you do produce a non-planar result in a more sort of construction manner, starting from 2 planar curves, one being a base profile and other being a sort of elevation control.

I'm heading out for vacation in just a bit here so I may not be able to help you with this much while I'm traveling.

- Michael

Hi Yves,

Another method would be to created the two red surfaces (Extrude) and the green surface on the diameter, I used revolve at 40°, this would be where the clamp sits, then use blend (Curvature G2) between the end of the red surface and the end of the green surface this way you can dynamically adjust the bulge, I used 2.25, join all and apply a thickness.



Cheers
~Danny~

Does this bicycle is bouncing ?

Shock absorbing spring design instead of spokes :P

Martin Spencer-Ford

A BIG thank you to all the forum members for taking the time to formulate a response. I was able to create what I need by using Shane's method where you use 3 profiles to force the shape to stay square.

Since there seem to be a number of different ways to achieve the same goal, I'm going to continue to experiment with some of the other methods.

@ Danny: I am definitely going to take a look at your method. This also looks promising.

@ Pilou: the fiber springs in the wheels provide suspension. I'm especially interested in these wheels because I ride a Raptobike low racer recumbent (see picture). The small front wheel is uncomfortable on the bumpy Belgian roads. The specific layout of the bike does not allow any other form of suspension.

Very ingenious to put suspensions inside wheels!

The famous "Pavés du Nord" of Paris-Roubaix! ;)