The Making of Motorcycles Archives - Canada Moto Guide

Episode 06 : Marketing

Michael Uhlarik — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:19:10 +0000

The marketing of motorcycles is usually done by individuals and companies that are not part of the internal product development team, which means that the trust and experiences shared by the core group are not easily accessible. As a result, motorcycle marketing usually lives inside an isolated bubble that has very little authentic connection to the product, and that can make things interesting.

Source

Episode 05 : Mass Production

Michael Uhlarik — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 12:43:52 +0000

The last 10% is always the hardest In the run up to full mass production, a motorcycle has to go through a short but painful post-design production process that puts designers and engineers inside a hamster wheel. Round and round we go for months, in endless circles, running faster and faster but seemingly going nowhere. Until, at last, the motorcycle begins to roll off the assembly line.

Source

Episode 04 : 3D Without Glasses

Michael Uhlarik — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 14:23:31 +0000

Play Dough for Grown Ups Every car and motorcycle you see on the street from a major manufacturer was first given form by making a full-sized physical model in automotive styling clay. The clay process is not the only way to render a motorcycle into three dimensions, but it is the most versatile and also the fastest. In the past, designers carved master models out of hardwood “bucks” as they…

Source

Episode 03 – Principal Layout

Michael Uhlarik — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:07:51 +0000

Great engineers of motorcycling are many, and all of them are unknown. They are the people who toil in decidedly unsexy office cubicles on computer workstations to solve mechanical puzzles, calculate stresses and oversee costs. To some extent they are the anti-designer, but that does not mean that it is imperative for the two to be able to work together to make the motorcycle vision a reality.

Source

Episode 02 : Drawn and Quartered

Michael Uhlarik — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 14:25:40 +0000

Act One : Chopping The Line My social nightmare happened in the year 2000 in Amsterdam. I had just started working at Yamaha’s design department, GK, and was enjoying my new life. Invited to a big expat party by a friend, I was making the rounds when a pretty girl I was talking to asked me what I did for a living. “I design motorcycles for Yamaha” I told her, proudly. She arched her eyebrows…

Source

Episode 01 : GENESIS – Motorcycle Product Planning

Michael Uhlarik — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:05:54 +0000

Act One : It’s Not About You In 2004, my fledgling motorcycle design consultancy got a contract from a family run company that imported Chinese motorcycles and scooters and sold them under its own brand name. The task was to design a modern roadster out of a copy of a Honda Rebel cruiser that would then attract young, urban Europeans. I was not allowed to alter it mechanically…

Source

The Making of Motorcycles – A Six Part Series

Michael Uhlarik — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 13:31:31 +0000

Starting next week this six part monthly series will walk through the steps of how a motorcycle goes from an idea to “in stores, everywhere”. We start by examining product planning and how a company decides what to make. We then go into the heart of the creative design process, from sketching to 3D clay modeling, ending with the twin efforts of pre-production design, which prepares a raw design…

Source