WizWheelz Industrial Design Work

Over the summer of '07 I worked as a Design Intern/Assembler/Jack of All Trades (that was more or less my title) for WizWheelz (home of the TerraTrike), a recumbent trike company. It's like a lawn chair with wheels and a Ferrari chassis. Check out the WizWheelz link for pictures of these comfortable speed machines.

Anyway, I did frame design and reworks for them and also had a hand in designing some accessories for the line of trikes. I specifically worked on a headrest design that I helped with in the final prototyping stages and a seat riser which was given to me in the initial stages of development. This one was my baby, it was handed to me as a rough idea and prototype and it was my job to make design it to look good and function flawlessly.

The headrest is currently finished and back from Taiwan in full production and you can now buy something that I had a hand in crafting. Below is one of my technical drawings and a picture of the finished product.

My technical drawings.
The finished product.

For the headrest my main input was the adjustably of the model. Initial drawings and prototypes only had the telescoping rods for height and neck adjustment. When I got my hands on it and applied the companies tag line of having the most adjustable trike on the market to the headrest. The rotating joints you see behind the pad and on the lower telescoping arm are my doing. With these joints the customer is able to specifically set how they want the pad to rest on their neck. I was very proud of this contribution. If your into triking and have a TerraTrike you can purchase one here, the WizWheelz accessories page, it's at the top. (There is however, no commission in it for me. I'm making no money if you click there...or am I? Nope, I'm not.)

My baby, the seat riser, is still in Taiwan waiting for final production.

The Main Unit

The Lower Seat Stays

The seat riser was super rough when it landed in my lap. We had a rough prototype that we had tested and structurally liked but it needed some help with it's looks and finer details. It was very boxy when I got it and I gave it smoother, rounded lines and designed the attachment system. I also designed the lower seat stays from the ground up with torsion resistance in mind because of the extra length they would have to cover than the normal lower seat stays. I can't wait for this one to get back from Taiwan and see the final product. I'll post it when it comes in!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments.