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The Talon
© 2008 Raptor Designs Pty Ltd. (Last Update 3rd March 2008) 




The "Talon" is a homemade quasi-lowracer with a frame constructed using wet-layup carbon fibre cloth over a carved blue styrofoam core.  The rear forks were laid up over an alumimium former, aluminium dropouts bonded on, then the fork assembly was bonded onto the foam core and faired into it prior to the full carbon layup.  The seat is an integral part of the frame. The front forks are still too heavy and perhaps the next job will be to make a set of lightweight ones.

The Talon has exactly the same basic frame geometry as my previous bike, the "Noodler".  The wheels, front forks, pedals, steering and brakes are all from the Noodler. So far it rides the same as the Noodler did but is a kilo or two lighter.  And it looks much, much nicer! 

The seat of this bike is taken from a mould I made previously for making recumbent "Euro" style seats, but doesn't have the traditional rear ribs you see on these seats since the frame itself provides full-length support. The seat is a structural part of the bike. The seat angle is about 26 degrees.

The frame of the bike forms a deep beam, somewhat deeper than most bikes of this type - as I was a bit nervous about strength. 

I get asked: "Is it fast?".  Well it would be if the engine (me) was fitter, younger, stronger and naturally athletic.  Sadly, these are not the case, and even a lowracer cannot make a Lance Armstrong out of a short middleaged man who never got picked for sports as a youth.  Nevertheless, it does give me a boost, and I don't often get passed by roadies on my Beach Road training runs.
Gallery:

The chainring guard is highly visible! (includes reflective strips!)
Rear forks: The derailleur hanger is removeable. The rear brakes are a cut down set of v-brakes as there's not enough room for a full length v-brake.

The front end showing the idler setup and chain path.
The seat, handlebars and controls. The tiller hinges up for entry/exit. The bag hanging from the tiller is for mobile phone, money and reading glasses!  the seat is covered with open-mesh Ventisit.

Another view of the front end


Here are some pics of the frame under construction.

Here's the blue foam as it was being sculpted into shape.  It has 3 layers of 22mm foam laminated together.  A 2 inch aluminium tube is epoxied into the nose section and some hard points are inset into the foam as well.

The rear forks were laid up over an aluminium former.


The foam core, seat pan and rear forks


This jig was used to align the frame while the rear forks were tack-epoxied into position.