Jarek Turkosz's Goldster Motorbike caught our eye last month - we couldn't believe the beauty of the curves and slick renderings by Jarek. So much so, we had to put the Spotlight on this fine Design Engineer and GrabCADr and get an answer to that burning question 'Who's the one behind the CAD?'
Jarek Turkosz is a design engineer at the Customer Adaptation Department for Volvo Buses, residing in "Wrocław, the most beautiful city in Southwest Poland". It's not what one could call a boring job, says Jarek, as his job is to customize buses for clients. You're a big city with millions of people and you want a bus that has extra space for wheelchairs and ease of use for the elderly, Jarek is your man.
In his free time, Jarek is drawing, designing and building in his own workshop, tinkering with his Yamaha Dragstar to attain some unattainable perfection. Rocking a PC Athlon X4 3GHz, 3GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600, Jarek CADs with CATIA V5. Shopping around for some blueprints on Google, he stumbled across GrabCAD. "I remember that GrabCAD impressed me a lot, and since then I became an active member. It's phenomenal to see how big GrabCAD has developed in such a short time." We can't believe it ourselves either.
The Goldster
The whizz, the bang, the roar and the chrome of motorcycles have been an obsession for lots of us in GrabCAD. Jarek is no exception. And once you have one, you're hooked. Some ride to go somewhere, some ride for speed. A few just disassemble the entire thing. "My friends sometimes joke that I don't need I bike to ride, just to work on, and it's hard to disagree."
But why the Goldster? What was the inspiration there? Frustration, not necessity, is the Mother of Jarek's inventiveness. "One day during a fight with the rear fender I got an idea to make a virtual custom bike. This would allow me to express all of my ideas on how the bike should look without being limited by the budget, machinery and time." And while people use CAD to improve productivity, increase time-to-market and improve collaboration, we all know that CAD is really just a dream-maker.
But what was the dream? 'Old-school hardtail bike. Low, loud and without any unnecessary equipment.' The loud roar comes from the Harley-Davidson Evo 1200. The model was created using technical documentation and Google Image Search. "It took many hours to finish and I can say that it was the hardest part of the whole project." Engines are the most common starting point for any Engineer creating a useable blueprint - it's the least flexible part of the final design for Motorcycles.
Jarek used a "Skeleton-based Modelling Technique" (as he calls it), parametrically controlling basic geometry, dimension and angles. "This allowed me to make general changes of the bike geometry by only one sketch modifications. I recommend this method to everyone working on similar projects. It can save a lot of time.". 3ds Max with Brazil R/S was the preferred method of rendering for visualization, leaving these stunning images that you see here.
The primary benefit of these sorts of projects (outside of plaudits, handclaps and expression of total admiration from GrabCADrs) is you learn. "First of all I improved my Catia modelling skills - I also gained knowledge about Motorcycles." Getting the process right so that you can expertly craft works of engineering art comes from mistakes, frustrations and perfectionism. And almost always, doing it again and again.
And you bet, Jarek is going to make more. "I can say for sure that i wasn't the last one. The Mindstorm Process has just started ;)"
Can't wait to see it too!
