A Halloween bike (or three)

Usually, bicycle companies try to keep their new designs a secret until it is time to officially unveil them to the public. Every once and a while though, spy photos of an early prototype are leaked on the internet. This furry single speed is one such concept and it looks like something that the ID group at Trek has been working on for quite some time. The fuzzy prototype was spotted in downtown Madison during the annual “unofficial” Trek Halloween ride (most likely it was spotted outside one of the local bars). Expect to see lots of furry bikes like this one at your local retailer this time next year. Trust me, this bike will be a real head turner when it is finally unveiled at Trek World next year. If you decide to get one, you might want to invest in a furry suit to match. I wouldn’t recommend riding this bike on wet muddy trails or in tick infested areas.

In keeping with the Halloween theme, I might as well mention this scary bike. I wasn’t planning to post this because…well… it’s a 12,000 dollar Chanel bike and I just don’t get it. On the other hand, if it causes a single person to get out of his or her Bentley for a short trip or two, then I guess it is a good thing. Maybe they should have considered making it a single drivetrain tandem so the chauffeur does all the pedaling. Anyway, I shouldn’t really bash it; I am glad to see new bikes come out that are sold through alternative channels of distribution. For that reason, I am glad to see Chanel doing this. Personally, I can think of better ways to spend the 12 grand, but hey, to each his own.

Finally, here is one more scary bike to pass along. I don't think any explanation is necessary.

UPDATE: Apparently at least one person took what I wrote about the furry bike seriously (sorry to get your hopes up). To be absolutely clear, this is NOT really a Trek design prototype. It’s just a bike that one of Trek’s prototype guys put together for the Halloween ride, which from what I have seen looks like a lot of fun.

A Trek trike?

Yesterday, Cyclelicious mentioned a bike related article in the November issue of Fast Company magazine. The article covers the development of the Trek Lime bike and the Shimano Coasting system. The full article does not appear to be available online, but you can see a few development renderings of the Lime at the online “Trek Lime Sketchpad” slideshow. I haven’t read the article yet, but I am going to pick up a copy of the magazine as soon as I can.

Speaking of product development at Trek, here is an interesting presentation board from the Trek ID group. The “Sole Ride” tricycle, which features a rear basket, looks like it may have been based on an earlier version of the Lime design. Very cool! I’m not sure if this concept is going to make it past the drawing board, but I would certainly like to see an adult tricycle like this from Trek. What do you think?

More Scandinavian bikes

I took a few days off this week to extend the weekend and go camping, hiking, and mountain biking with my family in western North Carolina. It was a great time but now I am super busy playing catch up at work. I received quite a few messages pertaining to the blog while I was gone. Bear with me, as it will take a while to respond to many of them.

I recently posted links to a few Scandinavian bike companies that a reader, Paul, sent me. While I was gone, he sent me more links that I think are worth passing along. Here they are with a short description of each by Paul:

Recykel- Danish manufacturer that lets you configure your own bike.

Kronan- Old Swedish army bikes in new version. Distribution in US available here.

Sogreni- Danish ultra cool city bikes.

MBK-cykler- Danish single speed bike with coaster brakes.

Yet another single speed bike with coaster brakes.

In addition to passing along the links, Paul wrote this: “After browsing American bicycle sites I realized that most of the bikes are related to some sport activity. There are not that many practical comfort bikes. Is this something that is changing in the US?”

Good question. Though more commuter oriented bikes are finally appearing on the U.S. market, we still have a long way to go before the majority of Americans view bicycles as anything more than just toys. Even at around 3 dollars a gallon, gas is relatively cheap in the United States and the majority of people here really do seem to love their cars. Still, as fuel prices continue to rise, we are starting to see more and more interest in transportational cycling. I wouldn’t say that bicycle commuting is mainstream in most American cities just yet, but it is certainly more common than it was when I first started doing it 15+ years ago. It will be a while before we see bicycle traffic like this or this here in the States, but I am optimistic that the average number of trips taken by bicycle will increase based on the small changes I have seen in attitudes toward transportational cycling lately. With this blog, I have pointed out many of the new practical bike designs from American companies that have come out in recent years (Just look at some of the commuter oriented offerings from Interbike last month to see a few). It is great to see that, in the last year or so, many of those designs are getting press coverage that reaches the general non-cycling population. One example I saw yesterday is a Cyclelicious post pointing out a Newsweek article about the latest comfort bikes on the market. Articles like that one are becoming commonplace and I couldn’t be happier to see them. Maybe the group of consumers who are interested in commuter oriented bicycles is still a niche market in the United States, but it is a market segment that is growing fast and will continue to grow even faster.

Photo from the Recykel.dk website

A few good links

I am pressed for time today, but I do want to quickly pass along a few links that some of you readers have recently sent my way.

Brian just got back from a trip to Florence Italy. He took a ton of great shots of city bikes on the street (like the Atala pictured here). Check out his photoset of bikes from the trip on Flickr. There are some great examples of beausage in these shots; here is one that I particularly like.

Carlton sent a link to his pictures from the 2007 Cycle Show that took place in London last week. Don’t miss the $4,000 Hope kids bike. Nice, but my kids are going to have to stick with their current rides for the time being. Also, check out the colors on the Charge bikes from the show.

In a comment to a previous post, Luciano mentioned a link to a video from Mondial du Deux Roues in Paris this year. Watch it here at his post.

Finally, you probably noticed that I have changed the layout of this blog a bit. The old Blogger rounders template layout was pretty bad and the addition of a third column not too long ago made it even worse. Hopefully, you will find the new layout to be cleaner and easier to read. To say that I am not an HTML expert would be an understatement, but I am learning a bit as I go. I will still be tweaking a bit next week to get the columns to align correctly, so bear with me for a while. I have tested the new layout out in Firefox, IE, and Opera and it seems to work. If any of you notice anything strange happening in your browser, please let me know.

The Dentistcruiser

In response to my recent post about Scandinavian bikes, Erik Nohlin, an industrial designer in Sweden, sent me this design. This is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Scandinavian design, but it is interesting. The “Dentistcruiser” isn’t exactly the kind of bike that I would want to take on my Saturday morning group ride, but I would love to see my dentist riding this thing around town. It just goes to show that the uses for bicycles are limitless. Now I’ll let Eric explain the project in his own words:

"This is another example of Scandinavian design. Usually known as simple and pure, this bike proves the opposite. It’s a vehicle I made for a dentist practice who had problems in reaching out to younger costumers. The solution I gave them was the "Dentistcruiser" that takes the dentist out on the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden to meet the youth. The dentist gets its exercise and is able to give information - stored in the tooth - to the missing youth. The brush sweeps the tooth while turning.

The Dentistcriuser is seen around soccer games, public holidays and lunchtime in the central parts of town. A sustainable solution to a marketing problem. Function and fashion - All in one."

If the Dentistcruiser isn’t different enough for you, check out the Switchbike. This thing converts from an upright to a recumbent on the fly. Why? I’m not really sure, but I would love to test it out. I guess it would be useful when a low hanging branch is approaching.

Finally, check out these valvecaps that display tire pressure. It’s an interesting idea, but these would only work with Schrader valves, which limits their usefulness for most mid to high-end bikes. As novel as the digital readout is, I’ll just stick with the old “feel the tire” method for determining whether or not to pull out my floor pump. For me, valve caps on Pesta valves are purely optional and are really just an extra step when pumping up tires. Until somebody makes these to fit Presta valves, I’ll just leave the caps off and save the 2 grams per wheel.

Thanks to Olivier for the tip on those last two items. I’m glad that somebody is looking out for this stuff.

Urban bikes in Dwell

As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, articles about bicycles are becoming commonplace in general design and shelter magazines these days. Dwell magazine has a report on urban bikes in their November issue, which should be hitting newsstands about now. The guys at Bike Hugger provided the commentary for the report so you know it is well informed. By the way, you can see the list of bikes included in the feature at their recent post about the article.

The Dwell article also mentions a Wired magazine article about “city bikes” as a new hot category. I doubt that is news to any of you, but it is great exposure in a widely read mainstream publication for the bike industry in general. On the subject of Wired, their Gadget Lab blog has been featuring bikes pretty often lately and even has a bicycles category. I have been meaning to mention the Wired Gadget Lab blog since they have linked to Bicycle Design a couple of times lately.

I received an email from a reader a few days ago who said that he really couldn’t believe I missed this and this. Actually, I didn’t miss these. The Pi bike has been all over the web and a couple of readers mentioned it to me. I just chose not to post these bikes, because, well… neither of these designs really appealed to me. Of course, that is just my opinion. These bikes have both received a fair amount of exposure on other blogs, so congrats to both of the designers on that. The aesthetic component of design is subjective, so maybe some of you really like one or both of these bikes. Occasionally, I do post a bike that doesn’t really appeal to me personally, but I still see something that interests me about the concept. I guess these could fit into that category, so here I am posting them after all. By the way, even though I don’t post everything that I receive from readers, I do greatly appreciate all of the tips and feedback. Please keep them coming.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Thanks to Fritz at Cyclelicious for the heads up on the Dwell article yesterday. Speaking of Fritz, yesterday he posted a link to Sheldon Brown’s coverage of Interbike 2007. Like everything else on Sheldon’s site, it is worth a look.

Photo credit: Hugger Industries on Flickr

Scandinavian commuter bikes

A reader, Paul, sent me an email pointing out three interesting Scandinavian bikes. The first two were new to me, so I want to pass them along.

First is the Tunturi Chat (pictured here). The text on the website is in Swedish, so most of you will probably not be able to read it, but the site is worth checking out. The bike is a simple one speed and it has a lock cable integrated into the frame (it is the loop that is visible at the end of the top tube). A rack and basket are optional accessories for this bike.

Next is the Helkama 101i, which features a hollow cast magnesium frame. It looks like a pretty interesting design with two cast halves mechanically fastened together. The frame looks very clean with all the cables inside. Magnesium is incredibly light compared to other structural metals with a specific gravity of about 1.7. The material has its drawbacks, as anyone who has broken a Kirk Precision frame can tell you. According to “Bicycling Science”, magnesium has a low tensile strength and a modulus of elasticity that is about 1/5 that of steel. The old Kirk frames have a reputation for being brittle, but I would guess that the clamshell design of this Helkama bike creates a stronger frame than those lightweight Kirk thin girder frames.

Last is the Z8 frame from Skeppshult. This one has been around a while, but it is still worth mentioning. I would be interested in riding one to see how much suspension the twin small diameter downtubes provide. Check out the other bikes on the Skeppshult site if you aren’t already familiar with them.

Photo from the Tunturi website

Post Interbike links (from racing bikes to world changing bikes)

This week, I have been traveling a bit and otherwise extremely busy, so I have not yet been able to look through as many pictures from Interbike as I would have liked. Still, I want to quickly point out a few of the products that caught my attention. I wouldn’t consider this a comprehensive list by any stretch of the imagination. These are just a few of the images, mostly from Flickr and the MTBR galleries, which jumped out at me while I was surfing the web during lunch today.

Pictured here is Tom Boonen’s Specialized Tarmac SL2 (I stole this picture from a BKW Interbike follow up post that I also recommend that you check out). What can I say; this is a really great looking bike. I love the graphics treatment on the top tube and fork. You can see another shot of Boonen’s bike here.

This Isaac time trial bike is another one with a nicely shaped frame and clean graphic treatment.

While I am focused on nice looking racing bikes, I’ll also mention this Bridgestone track bike, which also caught my attention.

Last year, I mentioned the sub 7-pound Crumpton fixed gear from Interbike. It looks like they were back with that ultralight bike, or another version of it, this year. Check it out here and here.

I have always liked GT Zaskars as far as cross-country hardtail mountain bikes go. The new 2008 Zasker Pro with a carbon frame immediately caught my attention.

Another mountain bike that I think looks great is the new Trek Remedy. The headtube detail in particular looks very slick. Trek doesn’t exhibit at Interbike, but they unveiled the new design at the dirt demo. You can read more about the bike here.

Before I move on past mountain bikes, I’ll mention the new lighter Ibis Mojo SL, a really beautiful frame. The big new product from Ibis was not the latest Mojo though, but the carbon fiber Tranny. The bike features a detachable rear triangle that allows it to be used as a geared bike or a singlespeed (depending on the rear subframe used). The fact that the frame can be dismantled means that it can be used as a travel bike as well. Read more here.

Seven showed what looks to be an incredibly expensive titanium commuter bike with a porteur rack in the front. It looks very nice, but I can’t imagine spending that much on a commuter/shopper bike unless I could keep it in my office all day or carry it into stores with me. I used to commute to work on an old Litespeed, but I quit using that bike because I was a bit nervous about locking it up outside (used ti bikes hold their value pretty well, so they can be a target for thieves). Anyway, it appears that Seven wasn’t the only company at the show using titanium for non-performance oriented bikes. Lynskey had a titanium cruiser in their booth that I am sure attracted quite a bit of attention as well.

Lastly and most importantly, the Project Rwanda Coffee bike definitely caught my attention in the sea of photos from Interbike. How can you miss a bright green bike with a wheelbase that makes the average longtail cargo bike look like a crit racer? This bike was designed by Tom Ritchey to solve transportation problems for farmers in Rwanda. It is intended to replace the handmade wooden push cycles they use in that war-torn country to transport coffee bales as well as other crops and cargo. In addition to designing the bike, Tom Ritchey created the Wooden Bike Coffee brand to help finance the project and hopefully to send 100,000 more bikes to the farmers of Rwanda. It really does sound like an incredible project; I encourage you to read more about it on the Project Rwanda website. This is a great example of how a simple, well-designed tool can greatly improve life for those people who are not typically targeted by the work of designers or engineers. Tom Ritchey deserves a lot of credit for this effort; I hope it is a great success.

Of course, the Project Rwanda bike wasn’t the only longtail design at Interbike this year. I could talk about the other Xtracycle inspired long-tailed cargo designs for the U.S. market, but I am out of time. I’ll have to save that subject for another post.