PLA for Bicycle Tubing Feasibility Study, FreeCAD FEM Analysis
Evaluating 3D printed PLA as Bicycle Tubing Material: a feasibility study
Joe Ganio-Mego (ORCHID ID = 0000-0001-6462-9842)1
ABSTRACT
There is this question: does it make sense to build a road race bicycle frame by FDM 3D printing? And, in case that simple 3D printing of PLA filament would no be enough, would it help to skin over the 3D printed frame several layers of carbon fiber? These two techniques, might be found practical, in the custom made bicycle frame-building community. We apply here a super simplified methodology to compare bicycle tubing and we find that there is the possibility for a frame made with carbon fiber skinned over a PLA core to be competitive.
Keywords: Bicycle, 3D printing, carbon fiber, Bicycle frame, PLA, Aluminum Alloys, chromoly steel, Freecad, Calculix, carbon fiber skinning, framebuilders.
![](https://github.com/joeganiomego/PLAforBicycleTubing/raw/main/Fig14.png)