V-Chops is founded by Sander Kraijema and Gabriel Patrascu, two Mechanical Engineering students at the TU Delft, The Netherlands, in 2007. This website is entirely non-profit; by its content we hope to inspire readers which plan to build their own bike – by showing the real life building path of the Savage project. Also, we hope to inspire students to look for the practical application of the – often tedious – calculus and mechanical theories. Lack of imagination is the only limitation.
So better don’t expect TV-style chopper building stories with huge budgets and extraordinary workshop facilities. Instead real life, low budget – often self made – parts are used in a small and poorly equipped home shed. Did this decrease the fun factor and the appreciation of the final result? – Well, what do you think?
What started as a wild idea, formed in between strength calculation classes and fair amounts of beer, got its first shapes during 3D design modeling courses, and advanced even further during an Ansys Finite Element analysis modeling project. Again in between day to day student activities, an affordable and classic engine type was sought and found. 3D strength modeling gave confidence that the beautiful – yet pure theoretical – frame design could really be robust enough to actually be driven around… maybe even strong enough to get an official Dutch license plate!
So this bike needed to be built.
An appropriate donor bike – within a student’s budget – was selected and some correct sized radiator pipes were carried by foot from the nearest hardware shop. Basic frame shaping could now begin – see the first photographs on the Savage Project page.
From this point on, the building fase started. A befriended – certified and highly skilled – retired welder helped us out with making the final welds. A lot of mechanical parts needed to be made by hand, requiring craftsmanship an a lot of patience. Gigi Patrascu, who helped build many of details on the bike, did an excellent job on understanding the design line and delivering various exquisite tailor made parts.
In the meantime, several other projects were added to the portfolio: from beautifully shaping up a Honda VT700 Shadow to wild plans with a Yamaha MT-01 1690cc air-cooled twin engine.
~ Content is added to the site on regular basis ~
For any questions or comments, e-mail us!