Cascade Bicycle Club

Portable Mount for a Bike Rack

This student team will work to design and build a transportable bike rack mount to provide learners with an opportunity to practice loading a bike on a bus bike rack. Cascade Bicycle Club will provide the bike rack. The student team will work to design and build the mount. Due to the size and weight of Cascade Bicycle Club's current bike rack and mount, it is not feasible for teachers and schools to use. This student team will work to design a new device that can be transported by one person safely up to 100 yards, up and down ramps, and preferably even over stairs. The device should also be as compact as possible, or modular, so that it can fit inside a standard size vehicle. The mount the student team is working to design and build should be no more than 5 wide and no more than 3.5 feet deep in order for it to Cascade Bicycle Club trailers, but these numbers are on the larger side. Having it be as compact as possible will allow for transport in vehicles and storage at schools. The mount should be on sturdy casters so that it can be wheeled around easily with the rack on it. The mount and rack should be able to be wheeled inside a standard door frame. As noted above, the mount should be lightweight enough so that one person can move it down ramps and/or stairs. If the mount is modular, then taking it apart without tools would be best, like some sort of click in system or a button to push to take the mount apart. The mount should be able to hold a bike rack and a bike, so roughly holding about 50 pounds. The desired deliverable the student team is working to achieve is to have a transportable, lightweight mount for a bike rack. (Think of this like a hand truck for a bike rack). The mount and bike rack will be used for educational purposes to help students learn how to use a bus bike rack for storing and transporting their bikes. Cascade Bicycle Club would like this to be something they can later outsource and replicate in order to serve the high number of schools their programs are in.