A prototype Trek TTX and other Tour time trial bikes

Many of you have probably already seen Armstrong’s latest custom painted time trial bike, a prototype version of the Trek TTX. If you didn’t notice it in the proloque, you may have spotted it somewhere else on the web as it has garnered quite a bit of attention lately. Here, here, here, and here are just a few of the places that I saw it in recent days. As he did in the Giro, Lance Armstrong is continuing to ride bikes with graphics and paint schemes by famous designers and artists. All of the different bikes will be exhibited in Paris later this month at an event called “STAGES” with benefits going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The bike pictured here, by well-known industrial designer Marc Newson, features a “Stoboscopic” rear disc pattern, which appears to pulse as it spins. Newson has designed a range of products throughout his career, but is probably best know for some of his furniture creations like the Lockheed Lounge or the Embryo Chair. He also designed the MN series of bikes for Biomega, which I have previously mentioned on this blog.

Enough about the paint job on Lance’s bike though. VeloNews has a great tech article about the design of the TTX prototypes that Astana is currently using in the Tour. They explain how the new design employs the Kamm effect concept to get the benefits of an 8:1 aerofoil shape with a tube profile that meets the 3:1 UCI rule. Basically, the article explains that the shape of 8:1 profile is used, but the tail is cut off just past the widest point, effectively tricking the air into following the pattern of a longer airfoil. In addition to improved aerodynamics over current TTX models, Trek points out that the wider cross section results in an overall stiffer frame. Read more about it in the VeloNews article; it is quite interesting.

In addition to VeloNews, I have been following the CyclingNews Tech and Road Bike Action Tour Tech articles since the Tour kicked off on Saturday. There are quite a few good Tour bike related articles in those places already, but I will stick with the time trial bike theme of this post and just mention one more. CyclingNews points out that a consumer version of Giant’s UCI legal TT bike is on the way. Based on the UCI’s vague rule that in additional to meeting the measurable requirements all bikes used by teams must be "marketable", this announcement doesn’t really come as a big surprise. I guess we can expect to see more new TT bikes hitting the market soon on top of the ones from Trek, Specialized, Scott, and now Giant. Great! With all these new bikes coming out, maybe I will be able to find a great deal on a used TT bike. It certainly doesn’t matter to me whether or not it meets the UCI requirements; I just want to go a little faster in the local time trail series.

rafael custom carbon frames and more

FrameForum recently posted an excellent article about German carbon fiber framebuilder rafael (the brand name is intentionally not capitalized). Rafael Hoffleit, a 32-year-old architect and triathlete from Heidelberg, is the designer and builder of the world’s first custom carbon monocoque frames. Mr. Hoffleit recently unveiled his bikes at the first ever European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition, which took place May 8th through 10th in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. I encourage you to read the FrameForum article to learn more about Hoffleit’s revolutionary process for custom monocoque construction; it is quite interesting. You can see several really nice shots of the rafael bikes there as well. While you are at FrameForum, also be sure to check out the rest of their show coverage to see more bikes from EHBE ‘09.

It is the end of the week, so I have collected a few other interesting links that I want to pass along.

Jason pointed me toward Bike Arc, an interesting modular parking solution. Jason also mentioned Matthias Ries' Bottleclip design, presumably for bikes without water bottle mounts.

Murray let me know about the BMW Kidsbike, which coverts from a push-along toddler bike, to a bike with pedals. Seems like a pretty good idea; read more about it here. Also, see another convertible kid’s bike/scooter that was recently featured at gizmag.

Popular Mechanics recently tested 3 different folding bikes- the Dahon Mu SL, the Bike Friday Tikit, and the SwissBike TX. I think the Dahon is the best looking out of that bunch, but I have never ridden any of these. Interestingly, The PM reviewers seemed to like the SwissBike best out of the bunch, mainly due to the full sized wheels.

Speaking of full size folders, Australian design student Robert Dumaresq recently won a James Dyson award for his Switch folding bike design. According to the designer’s description:

“The design innovation is Switch's ability to fold in one smooth motion making it one of the fastest folding bikes available. Switch does not rely on any structural locking mechanism to fold as the weight of the rider keeps the frame open and rigid. There is a spring loaded ball bearing that stops the rear section of the frame from unfolding prematurely when maneuvering or handling the bike.”

Read more about the Switch commuter bike at Gizmodo. Thanks to James Lyon for the tip on that one.

Finally, I will mention that Cool Hunting is giving away a Timbuk2 Dolores Chiller messenger bag/ cooler. No word on whether or not the bag will come stocked with PBRs as shown in the picture. Though it is not really a cooler, I have used my Chrome bag to transport frosty beverages a few times this summer. I haven’t filled it with ice, but I have used those freezable blue ice blocks in it to keep my beer cold as I rode to the pool. With the long Independence Day weekend starting now, there is a good chance that my bag will be serving as a cooler again very soon. On that note, to all of you reading from the US, have a great 4th.

Images of the r-009 TT bike via FrameForum -copyright Rafael Hoffleit/Rafael 2009

Cerevellum- coming soon

In keeping with the theme from my last post, I want to point out an article by Evan Solida at Product Design Hub. The article features tips for designers who want to develop their ideas into real products. Evan is doing just that with his Cerevellum expandable cyclo-computer design. Some of you might remember in late 2007 when I first posted about the Cerevellum concept. A few months later I had a chance to ride with Evan and try out his rough prototype. As you can tell from that second post, I really liked the Hindsight feature, so I am glad to see that Evan is moving forward with the concept. The prototype was fun to try out, but I can’t wait to ride with one of the production units when it becomes available.

While I am mentioning Evan, I will also point out that he designed the new AC1 road frame from Blue Competition Cycles. You can read about that bike, and the other new bikes from Blue in a recent VeloNews tech article. Look for a post sometime soon featuring a bit of the background design work that went into the AC1…pretty interesting stuff.

The LightLane concept is moving forward

You may remember about 6 months ago when I posted the LightLane concept, which was designed by two Altitude employees, Evan Gant and Alex Tee. Their concept, which involved simulating a bike lane with lasers mounted near the seat, was originally conceived as an entry for the Bicycle Design “commuter bike for the masses” design competition late last year. Though it didn’t win the competition, several of the jury members, including myself, thought the idea was pretty interesting.

Now it appears that Evan and Alex are moving forward with their idea. They have a website where you can see pictures and a video of the prototype in action. You can see in the video that the diode-pumped solid-state green lasers used in the prototype create very sharp and bright lines on the pavement. Take a look…the prototype is really quite impressive.

On the website, they point out that the product is still in development so they “welcome any comments, questions or input you may have”. Let them know if you have any ideas or suggestions as they proceed with the development of this concept.

Personally, I am glad to see the LightLane idea moving forward. Good luck with it guys; I hope I will get the chance to try one when it hits the market.

Future City Mobility: London 2030

Marten Wallgren is a vehicle design student at the Royal College of Art in London. He was part of a group, along with Il Choi, David Seesing, and Miika Hekkinen, who recently won a Seymour Powell award for best concept in the "Future City Mobility" design competition. The group’s concept consists of multiple vehicles, including a bus and taxi, which were designed to integrate with a specially designed bicycle/electric scooter. In a blog post about the competition, Marten explains:

“The brief was basically to look at the traffic situation in London for the year 2030. Our concept was to create a car-free-zone in the central of London, called London Garden. Inside this zone we developed a system created around bicycles, allowing a special designed bicycle/scooter to be well integrated with the infrastructure as well as becoming a part of the interior of the buses and taxis. Inside London Garden, the users have more awareness of the individual energy consumption. In fact, the energy that you create while biking is used as a currency while docking the bicycle into the bus or taxi.”

About the need for a transportation solution in future London, Marten went on to say:

“The congestion will get heavier and the infrastructure is not very adaptable. Old historical buildings can't be moved to create wider streets and to make people pay a fortune to enter the city core may not be social sustainable solution. It's time we start thinking about alternative solutions.”

Click through to Marten’s post to see more of their concept illustrations for the project. The concept is a bit blue sky at this point, but there are certainly some interesting ideas. Congratulations on the award Marten, Il, David, and Miika.

Mike Burrows’ latest bike and other links

I posted about Mike Burrows’ Ratracer VLR recumbent early last year. I’ve mentioned him on the blog a few times and have great respect for his work, so I was glad to see an article in the current issue of Velovision magazine that points to Mike’s member page on the British Human Power Club’s website. On that page, you can see a gallery of pictures (from which the one shown here was taken) of his latest version of the Ratracer. As he points out on the page, this is his first completely carbon fiber recumbent. The little pieces of yarn that you see taped all over the bike are there to determine airflow…sort of a poor man’s wind tunnel. Mike talks a bit about that in the Velovision article, which is worth reading if you can get a copy of issue 33.

I think I already mentioned this, but several readers have sent me links to the BauBike, designed by Michael Ubbesen Jakobsen. It has been all over the web lately, but if you haven’t seen it, take a look here, here, or here. This bike definitely looks like it was designed to appeal to those who are not currently into cycling. Just curious what you all think about it.

The magCulture blog featured “The Ride” in a recent post. If you have never seen "The Ride" , take a look. The magazine is beautifully designed and you can download a pdf of the first issue free from their website.

I was surprised to see bikes mentioned recently in the Garden and Gun magazine blog. The post was about beach cruisers by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.

Speaking of fashion and bikes, Gruppo Bici recently released a new line of panniers and bike bags made of vinyl remnants from well-known fashion lines. D’Abria Versace, a spokesperson for the company, explains:

“Instead of ending up in a landfill as waste, we are able to upcycle vinyls that do not meet the stringent requirements of the designer. Though the materials are two- to three-times the cost of non-designer vinyls, we consider the scenario a win-win.”

Treehugger recently posted an interesting parking pod from Australia. The small, solar powered stations fit into a single parking spot and include lockers, two showers, two changing rooms, and ten bike storage facilities. Pretty interesting.

Lastly, Ecovelo recently pointed out The Guardian’s new bike blog. One of the first posts was a GoCycle review that may interest some of you.

A student design for a bent-ply bike

John Hobson submitted an entry to the commuter bike competition late last year. Since that time, he has completed a prototype of his laminated wood bike design a part of one of his design courses. Attached are a couple of pictures of his prototype…his description of the design follows:

"The frame is designed for a commuter who wants to cycle to work to be more eco-friendly than taking a car, train or bus. The bike is both eye catching and practical, drawing attention for its unusual curvature as well as its wooden construction. This makes it an ideal showcase for environmentally friendly transportation.

The frame is made from laminated strips of beach ply running from the headtube to the dropouts in one smooth curve. The curves are around 40mm in thickness to provide enough strength to cope with the forces involved in cycling and to stop it flexing. The mid tube is also curved to provide additional aesthetic appeal as well as strength; the tube is a shaped piece of wood holding both curves in position whilst providing areas for the seat-post and bottom bracket to be attached."


Based on John's description, I am assuming that the 2x4 seat beam shape is not finalized. I think a little shaping in that area would help to unify the design quite a bit.

Smart Move: Bicycles from the Embacher Collection

It probably won’t surprise many of you to hear that I have a pretty extensive collection of bicycle books at home. Some of you may even remember when I mentioned a few of my favorites some time ago in a post about old bikes. Well, now I have a new book to add to that list of favorites- Smart Move: Bicycles from the Embacher Collection. Michael Embacher is an architect and designer in Austria with a pretty amazing bike collection- over 200 total including several one-of-a-kind pieces. This book spotlights 50 bicycles from the collection; each one beautifully photographed by Bernard Angerer.

There is text to accompany each bike that is shown, but the photographs are what the book is really about. Each bike is shown in a side view and accompanied with several really nice detail shots. Many of the detail shots spotlight the interesting features or design elements of the individual bikes. I found myself noticing details on some of the bikes that I had never seen before in pictures from other sources. The quirkier details are the ones that really caught my attention. Things like the crazy Colrout cranks on the 1970’s Gazelle racer, the ultra narrow saddle on the rather odd Diamont racing bike, the unconventional split handlebar assemblies on both the 1960’s Duemila commuter and the 1960’s Tokyo Katakura, the rather strange folding mechanics of the 1950s Inconnu, and the fiberglass ring rear suspension of the 1950’s AFA, all stood out to me. I could probably go on indefinitely listing interesting details that I noticed in the book, but you get the idea.

In a recent review of the book in VeloVision magazine, Peter Eland said:

“One thing that struck me about this book was how many bikes were new to me- I’m no cycle historian, but I’ve seen quite a few books on bikes in my time.”

When I first flipped through the book, I had the exact same reaction. I have spent a lot of time looking at bikes from different time periods, so how did I ever miss some of these? Take a look at all of the bikes featured in the book to see if some of them are new to you as well. My guess is that most of you will see a bike or two that you have never seen before.

Unfortunately, the book is listed as currently unavailable on Amazon.com. You can still order it from the German Amazon site or direct from the publisher though. I have thoroughly enjoyed my copy of the book over the course of the last month or so. It is one of those books that I find myself going back to over and over again and each time I notice something new. I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who is interested in bikes and design. You can bet that I will be continuing to look through my copy for a long time to come.

Update: Vintage Bicycle Press also has the book for sale. Thanks to jimmythefly for pointing that out.

Globe Brand Bikes

The Bike Hugger crew is in Minneapolis right now for the launch of the Globe Brand Bikes from Specialized. The new bikes look pretty cool from what I have seen so far...love the bent ply rear rack that is shown here. Read more about the launch at Bike Hugger and check out their Globe Flickr set for more shots of the bikes.

Photo credit: Bike Hugger

Update: See the Globe Brand Bikes site here and more from Urban Velo here.

Bicycle Film Festival

The 2009 Bicycle Film Festival is taking place in quite a few different cities, but the New York festival is still the original and the one I would most like to attend. I happened to be in New York while the 2005 festival was taking place, but unfortunately, I didn’t have time to hang out for very long. Thinking back, I wish that I had pushed back my afternoon meeting to watch at least one film. Oh well… maybe next time. Even just hanging out outside for a short time, it was a great event to be a part of.

This year, the BFF will take place in New York from June 17th through June 21st. You can check the website for a schedule of events or for the list of movies that will be playing. The event that I want to mention in particular is the Joyride Art Show, which opens on the 18th. I mentioned sculptor Jud Turner’s work in a post a few months ago. He has a new piece called R-Evolve (pictured above), which he created for the Joyride show. Jud is just one of many artists who will showing work at the show. According to the BFF press release:

“The show brings together a diverse group of internationally established and emerging artists and members of the bicycling community all who share a passion for bicycles. 2009 artists include Kenny Scharf, Scott Campbell, Chiara Clemente, Steve MacDonald, Mike Giant, Benedict Radcliffe, Artus de Lavilléon, and Cheryl Dunn. The exhibition is held in multiple non-traditional venues and store-fronts on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and SOHO: Collective Hardware (169 Bowery) Puffin Room (435 Broome Street), and “the pit” at Sara D. Roosevelt Park (Chrystie Street and Broome Street).”

The other pictures that you see with this post are from the Dear Velo art show that took place during last year’s BFF in New York. If you are interested, you can see more pictures from that show here.

Speaking of art shows and bikes, the opening reception of Bicycle: People + Ideas in Motion at The Galleries at Moore has been moved to Friday, June 26th from 6 to 8 pm to coincide with the Philadelphia Bicycle Film Festival (note: the exhibition still opens on the 19th, only the opening reception date has changed). As I mentioned before, the finalists from the Bicycle Design “Commuter Bike for the Masses” design competition will be on display in the Goldie Paley Gallery. The reception is free and open to the public, so be sure to check it out if you are in Philly.

Friday links

French designer Jérôme Blanchard has an interesting concept bike posted on Coroflot. He has several other bike designs in his Coroflot portfolio, so take a look. Via Core 77.

Speaking of Core 77, they have posted a few bike related entries lately. This one about the "Super Contemporary" show in London features a bike with some kind of force field umbrella or something. I don’t know; maybe I am missing something. Another recent Core post points out some of the bike rack designs from Creative Pipe. I mentioned in an earlier post that their Horseshoe rack is one of my favorites as well. While I am still talking about Core 77, I will mention that they are apparently putting out a bike this summer. Designed and hand-built in New York…it will be interesting to hear who is making it for them.

I have mentioned Brano Meres’ bikes on the blog a few times before. He has a couple of new bikes that he recently completed. Check out his next generation bamboo MTB frame and a new titanium riveted frame “with parts made of laser cut and bent titanium sheets.”

Designboom posted an electric racing bicycle concept by art center student Anthony Cioffi. Well, the post title says it is a bicycle, but apparently that is a typo because it is really a motorcycle concept. Oh well, it made me look…and Anthony’s site is pretty interesting.

I spotted the Ubicycle public bike service system concept while thumbing though the May issue of Metropolis magazine. The modular racking trees with solar canopies collect the energy to power the units.

Jasa recently completed a pretty nice restoration of a classic 50-year-old Goricke bicycle. Take a look at his before and after pictures.

3DVIA is running a 3d modeling challenge. Create a helmet model with 3d software and upload it by June 14th for a chance to win a 32GB iPod touch. Yeah, I know… the contest is open to any type of helmet, not specifically bicycle helmets. There are only a few entries at this point though, so your chance of winning is pretty good if you have a slick bike helmet design that you are willing to share.

Product Design and Development magazine has an interesting article about composite aluminum reinforced with carbon nanotubes. The article points out the density of the CNT-reinforced aluminum is about one third that of steel. “With its combination of high strength and low weight, Baytubes-reinforced aluminum is a welcome alternative to steel, expensive specialty metals such as titanium, and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics.”

Finally, I will mention that London Cyclist recently compiled a top 50 list of cycling blogs. According to the post, the rankings were based on “a number of elements such as Google Pagerank, Twitter Rank, Alexa Rank, number of comments and Technorati Authority.” I was happy to see that Bicycle Design showed up in the number 11 spot right between Cyclelicious and Bike Commuters. After seeing all the other blogs on that list, I feel like I am in pretty good company. Thanks London Cyclist!

Prelude: a bicycle for the non-enthusiast

Jason Bushby, a transportation design student at Northumbria University in the UK, recently designed “a bicycle for the non-enthusiast” as his final project. As you can see from the image shown here, he built a working model/ prototype of his design, which he calls the Prelude. Jason had contacted me some time ago to tell me about his project. It was around the time that the commuter bike for the masses design competition was coming to an end, and he pointed out that he was planning to tackle many of the same issues that commenters had brought up here on the blog. From his initial research, Jason determined that “the main contributing factors for people not using a bicycle for local trips were visibility in traffic, carrying belongings, durability, security of the bike and its accessories.” His design intent was to address those issues, while keeping the cost low, in order to develop a bike that would encourage new cyclists.

The first thing that you will likely notice about the Prelude is the integrated lighting in the frame. Jason explained his idea behind that element of the design:

“Night riding is inherently dangerous to cyclists. Small lights can easily get lost in traffic putting cyclists in danger. The Prelude bicycle improves safety at night by using electroluminescent lights for the rear and side, while using a 1-watt LED bulb at the front to light the way. This increased surface area of light allows the bicycle to be seen through 360 degrees. The placement of the lights follow the frames outline creating a recognizable symbol of a bicycle.

The lights are powered by a battery pack attached to the bottom of the seatpost inside the frame. The batteries are recharged from the dynamo front hub enabling the lights to never need any external power source other than the power produced by the cyclist. The electroluminescent wire is encased in silicon protecting the electrics from the elements. The Integration lighting system is not only convenient but also reduces the risk of accessory theft.”

I wish that I could share the entire pdf file that Jason sent to me, but I had to choose just a few select images. Hopefully this is enough to give you the basic idea. Jason is interested in hearing what people think of his concept, so any feedback on the design is welcome.

Update: You can now see Jason's pdf file here.

BTWD, Di2, and more

Whew… it has been a very long day! I left my house at 5:00 AM to ride downtown and help set up for Greenville’s Bike to Work Day breakfast/ festivities. I was concerned about attendance due to overnight storms, but I think our BTWD event went pretty well. We had a nice ride led by the Mayor on some of the city’s new bike paths and lanes followed by a breakfast gathering where we gave away some really great prizes donated by local bike shops. Those of you who are interested can take a look at my pictures from the ride and local events this morning. If that is not enough, and you want to see another photo from Bike Month here in Greenville, check out this shot taken last Saturday during a downtown public art tour that we did on the Conference Bike (I am the one in the driver’s seat, or “chair” position, or whatever you want to call it). By the way, a local bike shop, TTR Bikes, owns the CoBi that we were riding, so I will mention that they have a new blog that is worth checking out.

Before I get too much more off track, let me quickly pass along a few links of interest.

Robb, from MTBby198, went to a Dura-Ace Di2 (electronic) product launch party held by one of his local bike shops, Outspokin’ Bicycles. He posted quite a few pics (one of which I used here) and shared his impressions of the group after a test ride. Take a look at his post here.

The folks at Testrider.com posted a video from a visit to the Zipp test lab, which is located in their Speedway, Indiana facility. The video discusses the importance of the in-house test lab to Zipp’s product development process. Take a look; it is pretty interesting.

Just for fun, check out the 20 photos of mutant bikes posted at Matador Life. Via Treehugger.

Finally, I will mention a post that is only tangentially related to bikes. Designboom posted recently about electric motorcycles and scooters. At first glance, a few of the scooter designs reminded me of some of the Chinese electrobikes that we have discussed on the blog before.

That’s all for now… I am ready to get some rest. Did I mention that it has been a long day? Have a great weekend everyone.

Le Batard bikes

A few months ago, Pierre sent me a message about Paris Bike Days, a small bike show that was held for the first time in April. I flagged Pierre’s message and meant to post about it at the time, but it was sort of lost in my inbox for a few months. Though the show is now old news, a few of the bikes that he pointed out are still worth passing along. He was most impressed by the bikes at the booth of Le Batard, a family owned custom metal parts company based in Montreuil (in the suburbs of Paris). Le Batard is fairly new to the bicycle market, but they showed up with a few bikes on display at the show.

The B2O Bamboo bike, designed by Antoine Fritsch, is the one pictured here. Le Batard plans to do a limited release of this design. Pierre pointed out that Fritsch had previously designed a more conventional bamboo bike for Hermes (the luxury fashion label), but that bike never went into production. On the subject of Fritsch, there are a few other bikes on his website; one designed for Flandria, one for RATP (Paris Rapid Transit), and his own XO2 concept bike.

Getting back to the B2O design though, this is what Pierre had to say about it:

“This B2O is the most elegant bike I have ever seen incorporating natural materials, and its architecture really makes sense. The combination of "cold" stainless steel components and "warm" bamboo or leather parts is well balanced. The frame is very sturdy yet the bike remains at a reasonable weight (I've been told 11kg, but it may be more than that, nevertheless when lifting the bike, its weight felt "normal" for a city bike). For safety reasons, I would add a front brake, but the BO2 has only rear hub retropedaling braking.”

At the show, Pierre met Daniel Hanard, an experienced frame builder who has been “hired by Le Batard to design most of the bikes of their collection and to share his expertise with the other staff and welders of the company.” The steel frame Le Batard bikes are based on prior designs by Hanard, who is pictured here with one of his custom creations.

On an unrelated note, I will mention something that I linked to earlier on Twitter. The London Times published an article today about a new set of pentagonal and triangular wheels by Chinese inventor Guan Baihua. Now, I like to think that I am fairly open-minded when it comes to new ideas, but…really? Suffice it to say I won’t be giving up my good old-fashioned round wheels anytime soon. Thanks to Marc for the tip on that one.

Bamboo Bike studio and assorted links

I have definitely been a bit behind in keeping up with the blog lately. In the last couple weeks, I have bookmarked quite a few links, and received several good tips from readers, but I just haven’t had the time to pass along. Tonight, I want to quickly a share a few of those links with you all. I won’t do into detail on each, but here they are:

Treehugger and Cool Hunting both posted about Bamboo Bike Studio in Brooklyn where you can take a course to learn how to make your own bamboo bike. As they say on their website, the mission is twofold: “provide every cyclist the experience of building his or her dream bike from scratch, while advancing sustainable entrepreneurship and development through financing bamboo bike factories in Africa and South America.”

Cool Hunting also posted recently about the Ultra Motor A2B Electric Bicycle. Read about it here.

On Twitter recently, I mentioned a few student designs that I spotted on Coroflot (here, here, here, and here). That last design, the tensegrity framed bike by Ionut Predescu, was also sent to me by a reader, Cosmin Popan. Cosmin points out that the bike can be seen on his blog and at Industrial Design Served. If the bike looks familiar, maybe it is because I mentioned it briefly in an old post. Hmmm, I knew I had seen it somewhere before.

Velowala.org has a great collection of images of cargo bikes in India. The pictures are definitely worth a look.

Reinier Korstanje sent me a link to a wooden bike he designed and displayed at Salone del Mobile. Take a look at his website for images and info.

Silvan sent a link to a new electric bike from a Swiss company called Thoemus. About the bike he said “ From a designer's point of view it's interesting, because the battery is integrated in the frame (Of course removable for charging). For me it was really the first electric bike with the approach of a sportive, highspeed bike. "

Jason let me know about these tricycles that Google is using to take street view images in hard to reach places.

Jason is also the guy who told me about B-Cycle some time ago. B-cycle is an innovative bike sharing program that is a collaboration between three companies; Humana, Trek, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Definitely take a look at the website if you haven't already seen it... lots of great information there.

Finally, I will mention that the finalist in the Bicycle Design “commuter bike for the masses” design competition will be featured in an exhibition at the The Galleries at Moore in Philadelphia from June 19th to October 12th. See the press release for the entire Bicycle: people + ideas in motion exhibition here.

2010 Fisher Road bike

I mentioned a little earlier that I am fairly new to Twitter. I am not sure why I waited so long to start though because Twitter is the place to be if you want to see and hear things first.

This sneak peak of a 2010 Gary Fisher road bike in the photo studio was twittered (or tweeted, or however you say it) by the man himself.

Here is another interesting tweet from Gary while at the studio:

So, Superfly 100, made in USA carbon dual, the lightest frame we have ever made, and not a noodle. Holy Shit! Thank you, thank you thank you

He definitely sounds excited about the new bikes. Can't wait to see them.

Bikes of the Giro

If you have been following the Giro d'Italia this week, you have seen at least one of Lance Armstrong’s art bikes, which will be auctioned after the race to raise money for LIVESTRONG. Shepard Fairey, who is best known for his design of the Obama “Hope” poster, created the graphic scheme for the yellow and black road bike. Fairey’s intricate design was intended to pay homage to classic Italian architecture for Armstrong’s first appearance in the Giro. The time trail bike, with a paint scheme by Kenny Scharf, is based on an outerspace theme. See additional pictures of both bikes here.

I have talked to a few people who don’t really like the fact that Armstrong has been riding bikes with custom graphics since his return to racing. Yeah, I understand that some people don’t think he should stand out from the rest of the team, but personally I think the idea of auctioning these two bikes to raise money for cancer research is a really great one. I hope that Armstrong plans to continue with this idea and that we will see bikes decorated by other artist and designers throughout the rest of the season.

Of course, Armstrong’s ornate bikes are not the only ones that I have noticed this week. The tech section of CyclingNews points out several interesting bikes from the Giro including Fabian Cancellara's Specialized S-Works TTR prototype. The article is interesting as it discusses the new design in regards to the UCI’s more stringent equipment rules, which will be effective July 1st. Another time trail bike that stands out is the new Scott Plasma 3. I particularly like the bike’s new integrated stem, which you can see in this shot.

While I am mentioning time trial machines, I will point out this gallery of TT bike shots, also on CyclingNews. Yeah, I know…I link to time trial bikes disproportionally when I get on the subject of racing bikes, but I just can’t help it. There are always interesting new design developments when aerodynamics are a major consideration…well, that and the fact that I just love the way those bikes look.

Ecogo

It has been a while since I have passed along any of the entries from last year’s “commuter bike for the masses” design competition. I have been busy with other things, but I do still have quite a few of the entries to share. As a follow up to my last post, I will show you one more of the velomobile entries that we received…ecogo by Walter Graf.

Here is what Walter had to say about his design:

“ecogo is a concept recumbent bicycle designed to get commuters out of their cars and onto - or into - bikes. The recumbent features a reverse-tricycle design to keep it stable and take the balancing act out of riding a bike. With its laid-back seat and ergonomic pedalling position, the rider / driver can relax and take it easy while pedalling. The bike will stay upright even when going up hills slowly in the "granny gear."

The carbon fiber and formed plexiglass shell protects the rider / driver from the elements, just as a car would, so this can no longer be an excuse for not biking. Its aerodynamic shape reduces the drag from the wind, which, along with the low profile, make riding at high speeds much less tiring than on a conventional double-diamond frame bike.

Safety features such as front and rear lights, brake signals, and turn signals can easily be added as pedal-powered accessories for those that wish, and all controlled simply from the under-seat steering system. There is even space behind the seat for the backpack, briefcase, or groceries (in reusable grocery bags, of course).

ecogo is ready to go. Are you?”

While I am posting, I want to say thanks to all of you who have recently emailed me some great links and tips. I am a bit behind on the blog at the moment, so I haven’t been able to respond to all of the messages personally, but I do appreciate each and every one of them. I will sort through all of those emails soon, so look for one those long posts of unrelated links in the near future.

Velomobiles and ‘bents

Brecht Vandeputte sent me this photo of a WAW 045 velomobile racing a Dodge Viper. OK, it probably wasn’t a real race, but it is still a pretty cool image of a slick looking velomobile. For those of you not familiar with the WAW, it is a Belgian 3-wheeled velomobile with a Kevlar body. It is designed to be fast, but it also includes ample luggage space so that it can be used for commuting and errands (or touring). You can read more, and see the BeWAW, which was recently introduced at the Spezi fair in Germersheim, Germany, at Fietser.be. Also, be sure to take a look at Brecht’s Picasa galleries for many more shots of interesting velomobile designs.

On the subject of velomobiles, Goblin Motors is a company that makes power assisted velomobiles as well as fairings and covers to fit standard recumbent bikes and trikes. Tying into my last post, I want to point out a question that Goblin Motors president Jeff Bales asked then UCI president Hein Verbruggen in a 1997 interview:

“Why doesn't the UCI allow for classes of recumbent cyclists? The UCI is obviously interested in speed and racing... recumbents are the fastest bikes in the world. What's the deal? Are UCI board members stockholders of major "conventional" bike manufacturers that fear their investments would be threatened if recumbents gained the popularity they deserve? I've never seen a "conventional" bicycle that could beat my recumbent in a race on the street or in a velodrome. "Conventional" bikes are antiques compared to recumbent technology. Isn't the UCI also interested in progress?”

As someone who owns and rides conventional upright bikes, I would hesitate to call them antiques. I would certainly never challenge someone in a full fairing recumbent to a race on the velodrome, but I think there are plenty of situations on the road where an upright bike still has an advantage (mainly climbing). I won’t venture too much into that subject, but I do think it was an interesting question to ask the UCI president. You can read Mr. Verbruggen’s response if you scroll down a bit on the Goblin Motors website.

Those of you who are interested in velomobile racing, and more specifically electric assist velomobile racing, should check out the link that Duncan left in response to my last post. The event news page has details about the ePower Challenge, which will take place on May 22-24th at Portland International Raceway.

In keeping with the recumbent theme of this post, I will pass along a few more links that have recently come to my attention.

Treehugger recently posted the Flevobike Green Machine, a design that won the Eurobike Award 2007. They point out that the Green Machine, which features a fully enclosed drivetrain, is now available in the US as well.

Montana Transit Authority’s recumbent designs are quite a bit different than the sleek velomobiles mentioned earlier. Read about them on the Wired Autopia blog.

Finally, I will pass along a video sent to me by Steven Dorda, a recent graduate of Mechanical Engineering from Concordia University in Montreal Canada. He recently completed a team design project, a shape changing recumbent bicycle called the Altercycle. You can see the prototype, which has multiple riding positions, in action in a video on this page. Some of you might remember another upright/recumbent convertible design from the Bicycle Design commuter bike competition a few months ago. There were other entries along those lines as well; that reminds me that I still need to get more of entries those posted.

Back to reality?

Have I mentioned before that I am not a big fan of the UCI’s draconian restrictions on the design of racing bicycles? Yeah, I know I have mentioned it at least once, but it has been a while so allow me to rant again. According to a New York Times article published yesterday, the UCI “abruptly alerted teams at the start of this season that it intends to clarify and reinterpret its often oblique rules governing bicycle design through increased equipment inspections.” Clarify? Really? That will be a first for these guys.

Yeah, I understand the idea behind the equipment restrictions, but I just don’t agree. All of the pro teams have equipment sponsors who are involved in the sport, not just for marketing reasons, but also to further their product development. Let’s face it; all of the pros are riding pretty nice bikes, so this whole business about fairness doesn’t add up to me. If time trial specific frames, aerobars, disc wheels, etc. are all outlawed for time trials, teams with higher budgets will STILL use wind tunnels to work with their sponsors to design modified road bikes and components for time trialing that work within the limitations of the new restrictions. It will always be a “race between the biggest budgets" as those in favor of the restrictions like to say. The only difference is that, with arbitrary restrictions that outlaw certain technologies, riding positions, etc, the product development benefit will not be as great for the weekend warriors out there who buy those high-end products that trickle down from pro level racing technology.

Carlton Reid published an article in BikeBiz about this yesterday and made a great point. In reference to the Lugano charter of 1996, he said:

“Had this charter been around in the early days of cycling we’d have had no derailleur gears and no quick release wheels. Taken to its logical conclusion we should have no MTB suspension forks; no power meters; no composite frames.”

Exactly! So, lets get the pros out there and see who can reach the finish line fastest while hobby horsing along on a vintage boneshaker with wooden wheels. Better yet, let’s scrap the bikes completely and just make those pro cyclists run…barefoot. That would make the grand tours true tests of athleticism and not just races of “technical ability”. Yeah, that is the only way to make it completely fair…we should just rid bike racing of bikes altogether. That would certainly accomplish UCI president Pat McQuaid’s stated goal of bringing “both the sport and the manufacturers back to reality.” Thanks for that reality check, Pat.