Major Project Production Bike Parts #Forks

To begin with I first created a plane with an image of the forks I was going to replicate.  These would be a set of Fox 40's the standard for choice for the professional downhill rider.

Then started to block out the forks pieces such as the fork bottoms know as the body. Then extruded the edges to create the area of which would be the seal to the fork. Once done I created a basic cylinder to represent the fork stanchions. Another little touch I added to the basic mesh was the rebound dial found at the bottom of the fork body this was done through a set of extrusions.

I then added the wheel into the scene to ensure that I had created the forks to scale so that when I model the bridge between the fork stanchions I knew it was accurate.

I then when onto creating the top crowns as they are called which attach to the forks stanchions and go either side of the frame fixing it into place. This was achieved by created two cylinders one at either end and then a box to which I then attached them together to create the final outcome. In-between the crowns are to rubber parts the stop the fork from hitting the frame and causing damage, these were modelled by creating a cylinder and set of extrusions.

The next stage was creating the fork dial and top piece on each of the stanchions. The one on the left was creating by using a high poly cylinder and selecting every other side and extruding them out while also doing a selective amount of extrusion on the top as well. However for the final low poly model this will be bakes onto a low poly cylinder. The one on the right however was just a simple 6 sided cylinder this is down to each stanchion working a different way. The bottom was removed to optimize the model.  

Moving back down to the bottom of the fork. I modelled the section where the Bolt-Thur will grow through to join the forks to the wheel this was achieved by creating a 8 sided cylinder which I then duplicated and placed the evenly making the cap two polygons wide. I then cut them in half and attached them to the bottom part of the forks and added topology to the mesh to create the final outcome.

The final part for me to create on the fork was the bottom fork bridge section this was done by creating a rough box shape and tubosmoothing the mesh to then add detail to which I edited to create the final shape. This however I only created half and then used the symmetry modifier.