What material is best to build a floating bicycle?

[ceo_oceano]

Hello,


I am looking on building my own water bike after finding out that they start around $1700 like the one pictured in this thread.

What designs / materials can make this better? I would like to also have transparent floats rather then the original colors that you constantly see which are the Blues and yellows. Maybe create a transparent (Invisible looking) water bike to make it seem like you are literally riding on the water with no help.

Please help - This is simply just for my own practical use and humor

 

[etudiant]

For water use, a recumbent bike design might make more sense.
Ideally the lower CoG should allow operation using a single hull, for a lighter structure.
The power can be fed to a front mounted prop, ideally steerable, so propulsion and direction can be combined.
The end result would of course not look much like a conventional bike, but you did not want one of those ;) .

 

[Simon Bridge]

There are plenty of transparent plastics and construction processes that will suit you.
The controlling factor will be your budget (and, if any, industrial regulations).
I mean - you could use inflated polythene bags on a PVC frame... but I doubt it would look cool.
Don't expect anything like invisibility on a budget though.

As it stands, the question is too open ended for you to get much use from answers we can give you.

 

[billblack]

It's a pontoon boat with a bicycle mounted on it. No real reason to change from standard materials used by the boating industry. Aluminum frame, stainless for the metal bits that spend the most time in the water. PVC, HPDE and Delrin for the plastic parts. I am skeptical about the usefulness of transparent plastic for the pontoons in an application that will see a lot of use in strong direct sunlight. Note that none of the commercially available ones have that feature. There is likely a very good reason.
Good luck!