New Vedetta NeckRest R&D

[RojoRacing]

Ok for those of you who have been following my road to 500 miles thread you have read of my struggles with the stock headrest. So over the last week I've brainstormed several ideas that in effect will accomplish two things.

1st Keeping the headrest in contact with the neck up to the base of the skull and no higher to avoid discomfort from helmet interference.

2nd Adding a small amount of shock absorption to bumps in the road that with the stock headrest makes it feel like someone just hit you with a baseball bat with every sharp bump.

My first idea was a plate system made from spring steel and after some searching around I found that someone was already making a system similar to what I was thinking but out of aluminum instead. I liked their execution of the idea but with a lack of up and down adjustment I didn't want to spend the $150 on something I may not be 100% happy with, plus I have my own sheet metal shop so I can make as many prototypes as I want till it's perfect. I was doing just that this morning when another idea popped into my head. Why a foam pad? No matter what grade of pad you use there will always be spots of high and low pressure that can lead to discomfort so why not ditch the pad for suspension? If I make a small leather hammock in just the right place it should be light enough for racers and comfortable enough for tourist.

Here's what I've got so far and obviously I lack the proper leather material for the hammock part but I can make do with some foam toolbox drawer liner for now. My first impression is extremely positive and I can't wait to fine tune it a bit more so I can take it for a spin.

With the new hammock idea I don't think I'll need the spring of the spring steel so I may just stay with the 1/8" aluminum. If you guys and gals have an ideas or suggestions nows the time to speak up so I can still change my design as I go.

 

[RojoRacing]

 

[Charles.Plager]

Very nice!

(I do recommend looking over Mr. Steve's thread: My Neck Rest is Better than Yours to see if there are any ideas you can "borrow".)

 

[MrSteve]

We work with what's familiar to us, don't we?
For me, it's wood.

Now, Mr. guythatusedtobefast, be mindful of tight-radius corners on your working neckrest.
You know, sharp corners and stuff.

This looks promising, so far!

 

[RojoRacing]

We work with what's familiar to us, don't we?
For me, it's wood.

Now, Mr. guythatusedtobefast, be mindful of tight-radius corners on your working neckrest.
You know, sharp corners and stuff.

This looks promising, so far!

Already ahead of you and on to my third prototype

 

[John Dorlon]

I like the design. You might want something a little more breathable and less stink-absorbing than leather for the hammock part. I don't know what the material is called that they make trampolines out of, but I think that would be a good material.

 

[LarryOz]

That's one thing I love about this group - almost everyone makes super COOL stuff!

 

[Doug Kline]

Agree with John, leather doesn't sound quite right. Seattle Fabrics sells a couple fabrics that might work: Spandura and Italian Nylon Lycra. I haven't tried either of those but have bought plenty of other high tech fabrics from Seattle Fabrics.

 

[RojoRacing]

Well it's not the best angle for a photo but here is version #3 with improved multi segmentmented bends to reduce material fatigue. Also ditched the C-clamps for a couple pressure plates.

I rode it around inside the shop and it's amazingly forgiving if maybe slightly too flexible. I didn't take it in my ride today because of a few little things that could become issues after the rubber stretches. I think the width of the hammock is ok but length needs to be shortened from 4" to maybe 3" or 2.5" because the lower section almost touches my neck. Other solution would be to make the hammock legs taller and reduce the height of the base to maintain the total height but give greater neck to base clearance.

I agree about the breathability of leather not being that great and could pose a problem with sweat but I was thinking perforated leather. Other reason I was thinking leather was I wanted to mimic the firmed fit after breaking it in like you get with brooks leather saddles. The guy who used to make my leather racing suits for motorcycle racing has some other material like a stretchable Kevlar fabric that's super tough and very thin. I'll see about stopping by his shop and asking what he thinks would work best.

I left everything at the shop for the weekend and I'll do some more work to it on Monday.

 

[RojoRacing]

Agree with John, leather doesn't sound quite right. Seattle Fabrics sells a couple fabrics that might work: Spandura and Italian Nylon Lycra. I haven't tried either of those but have bought plenty of other high tech fabrics from Seattle Fabrics.

Thanks I'll keep this note handy.

 

[Supertramp]

Have you seen the ICE headrests' design? Looks like you could merge your ideas with theirs.

 

[SamP]

Those screws protruding into the area under the neck give me shivers...

 

[jond]

awesome effort. getting comfortable on the bike is all. i was able to use simple closed cell foam and overlap about 6 pieces like a leaf spring suspension unit and tie together using cable ties. this provided a suspension element. this was placed in front of the supplied hard closed cell pad and behind the soft foam. now i have some play and it works for me supporting the base of my skull and neck with no helmet interference. like any fine tuning it took some time to dial in but once found was duly marked up. good luck with your headrest experiments.

 

[RojoRacing]

Ok since I left this project at the shop over the weekend I decided to try the inner tube idea on Sunday while at home. The improved performance from such a simple and cheap idea is really quite something. There are a few issues that I'm sure vary from person to person but in my case the overal shape of the headrest still causes the helmet to contact the inner tube but now they form around the helmet better. My tube is folded like an "M" so I have a flat cushion with 4 chambers, problem is each slightly differentiate size due to inconsistencies in rubber density throughout the tube. I also routed the valve stem out the top and back so I can adjust the air volume without removing anything. I think if CruzBike invested in a run of former air bladders for their headrest it would go a long way in getting their customers comfortable right from the get go.

I'm back at the shop now and working on the hammock neckrest inbetween doing my actual job

 

[LarryOz]

I'm back at the shop now and working on the hammock neckrest inbetween doing my actual job

You mean you have a real job too!

 

[John Dorlon]

"My tube is folded like an "M" so I have a flat cushion with 4 chambers, problem is each slightly differentiate size due to inconsistencies in rubber density throughout the tube.

Did you try an 'n' shape too? After riding both 'M' and 'n', I preferred 'n'. With the tube sandwiched between the foam pads.

 

[RojoRacing]

You mean you have a real job too!

Well I heard all the cool kids had one so I figured I'd get on too. Still not sure what all the fuss was about though.

 

[RojoRacing]

Did you try an 'n' shape too? After riding both 'M' and 'n', I preferred 'n'. With the tube sandwiched between the foam pads.

I don't see the difference between N vs M besides the width and 4 wide seems to match the existing width quite well. I thought about the additional thin foam pad but then it would work to spread pinpoint pressure spots over a wider area and reduce the conformity of the bare tubes I liked in the first place. Conformity is only so important to me right now because the headrest in general is still to long or to tall so it still contacts my helmet a bit.

 

[DavidCH]

I haven't tried the N but two days ago I did an M with an old punctured mountain bike inner tube. I thought the bigger diameter would support me more and what with the greater space between the top of the M it wouldn't interfere with the Giro shield helmet adjuster. I cut the inner tube an equal distance from the valve stem and sealed both ends up with glue. If I were going to do it again I might decide to melt the rubber together as it probably wouldn't be too messy and certainly faster. I left the glue to set for a number of hours; well overnight in fact.
The next day we went out cycling on the mountain bike in the morning as Juani doesn't like going so fast. And after lunch go like a bat out of hell on the V. The ride on the V was the best I ever had. Well good. Can't wait to get back on it!

 

[John Dorlon]

I think if I had a skinnier tube, I'd go with 4, but using a 1-3/8 inch tube in the M shape, the 4 tube-channels were close together and didn't squish as much vertically because there wasn't a lot of room to expand horizontally. With the 'n' shape, I put a little more air in the tube and it there is more vertical travel more when I hit a bump. Another thing I didn't like about the 'M' is that I could feel the tube-fold at the bottom point of the 'M' because it stuck up a little bit there. So I also like the 'n' because there are fewer folds. YMMV, but that's what worked for me.