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"QUANTUM SHOT" #607
Link - article by Avi Abrams (with some material by Antoine Van Hove)



Imagine pedalling into the sunset atop one of these cool machines

Nothing like opening a new year with some fresh designs - it clears the minds, refreshes our vision, and simply makes for a great eye-candy. Today we will see some outrageous modern concepts, old bizarre ideas and some funny examples of bicycle design. There are well-known companies producing unique, high-tech and high-price bikes, such as Spyker, or Biomega - but we are going to focus on somewhat stranger and rather unexpected ideas.

Jason Battersby's "Orange Tequila Sunrise":


(image credit: Jason Battersby)

Riding this machine requires special road markings:



Yuji Fujimura's concept for an electric bicycle (which would also charge your laptop):


(image via)

Hubless (and spokeless) wheels on a concept bike by Brandon Waugh:



Fantastic Skeleton Bicycle art piece by Jud Turner, complete with red LED eye sockets. Below is the t-shirt design that will go good with that - order it here:



(image credit: Jud Turner)

Alessio is a somewhat strange-looking bike specially designed for Abruzzo National Park in Italy - more info:



Ever seen a design for an urban vehicle shaped like a budding tulip? Eric Stoddard from Speed Studio Design came up with this human/electric powered tricycle:



(images credit: Eric Stoddard)

Marino Drake's EV1 concept – a hi-tech electric bike with a removable engine - is a great compromise between a normal bike and motorcycle, where you have a choice if you want to pedal all the way to the office, coast there under electric power.


(images credit: Marino Drake)


Lucy in the Sky... on a bicycle -
Bizarre Bicycle Parking "Forest" and Overhead Bicycle Lanes


Kolelinia Bicycle Lane Concept is the wildest idea in the area of urban design that we’ve seen recently. Martin Angelov wants to give bicyclists "wings", so to speak, and elevate bike lanes (really just steel wires) above ground:



(images Martin Angelov)

Personal safety of the riders would be the top priority, of course, and to address that Martin designed a pretty sturdy system that attaches the bike to the guiding wire. Still - who's going to guarantee that the rider will stay attached to the bike? Moral of the story: don't ride on such elevated lanes after a few drinks at the party.

Amazingly, history can show us even stranger "suspended bicycle" concepts - witness The Suspended Monorail Bicycle: 1892 (Arthur E. Hotchkiss Bicycle Railway from Mount Holly to Smithville in New Jersey):


(image via)

If you have bicycle lanes in the sky, then why not make the bicycle parking trees, or the whole forest? Check out "Tree Parking", by Abhinav Dapke:




More Concepts: "I Want to Ride My Bicycle"

The Zoomla folding bike transforms into a trolley in a couple of seconds - more info. Designer: Eric Stoddard from Speed Studio Design.


(image credit: Eric Stoddard)

Neat two-wheel set-up for two riders - Co-Joy from Pengtao Yu; more info:


(image credit: Pengtao Yu)

Neat "Shift-Bike" concept for beginners - the rear wheel can provide an extra stability when necessary (designed by Matt Grossman):


(image via)

Speaking of ecologically-sound bikes, here is one manufactured out of bamboo - apparently the properties of bamboo frame are comparable to frame made from carbon and even titanium! BikeBamboo company makes them:




"In wood the strongest fibres are packed in the centre of the trunk, however in bamboo the strongest fibres are distributed most densely in the outer surface region. As a consequence the most stable fibre structures in bamboo are most dense in regions of greatest longitudinal stress. Wood bends relatively easily, but bamboo does not."

The idea is not new: bamboo cycles were sold in London, back in 1897:



Here is an unique wooden bicycle from Jens Eichler:




Not exactly a bicycle, but the Propulsion Powered Flying Cycle, created by the Japanese designer Norio Fujikawa, is every Akira's fan wet dream. Hope this beauty will grace the skies one day:




(images credit: Norio Fujikawa)

Some interesting tandem bike variations (including a robot which actually pedals behind the main rider):





(images and more info: 1, 2, 3. 4)

Glorious low-tech:












We love these German and Dutch Pub Bikes, designed to share great fun and great beer with your buddies. PedalPub company in Minnesota will rent you one, so that your company can go with you, merrily, merrily down the road.... and maybe on into a ditch.



(images via 1, 2)

Never be thirsty-while-riding again.... Bottom right: same idea, but entirely DIY -



(images via 1, 2)

Good luck with that -





CONTINUE TO "PROPELLER-DRIVEN VEHICLES" ->

ALSO READ: "MONOWHEEL BIKES"! ->

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YOUR COMMENTS::

14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This post was a lot of fun, now I'm off to ride my bike.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks! that was great

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Blogger Unknown said...

I have invested considerable time and effort into the construction and research of zany bikes and so this post is pure eye candy.

I seem to recall some bike lane proposal that involved enclosed tubes, one for each direction, that were pressurized to help skoot riders along.

There are some pedal-monorails available here and there at amusement parks, mostly in Japan.

There is a version of the tandem robot bike where the rear rider is on fire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6W7SLpdNaU

As for the multi-person scooter depicted, this is the fabled "chinese dragon bike", an infinite theoretical bicycle design that is part of bike chopper cryptozoology, such as the "front-wheel-drive, rear steer" or "tall swingbike" (a specimen of which was recently discovered in California). A Cyclecide geezer told me someone had tried to build one and it didn't work, something about how rake on the connecting joints makes it want to carve but it's all connected like one of those fake bamboo snakes that "hover". Make each segment have two wheels, set the connecting pivot to plumb, and you're in business:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAe3c4NKQgc

Flip and upside-down bikes have been around for a century (like tallbikes), not much new under the sun.

The extra-tall bikes pictured are, I believe, Atomic Zombie's, and if you look at the silver one- Project Skywalker- it has a steering bar that lets you control it during a moving ascent or descent.

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Blogger Unknown said...

Great that you like the beer bikes. As an "Amsterdammer" myself I think I speak for all of us when I say:

DIE!

Drunken tourists blocking bicycle lanes, causing accidents, harassing locals (look at me I'm so funny, I'm giving the locals a beer shower). Only ****ing douchebags ride those things.

Other than that, excellent post!

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Blogger Unknown said...

Ah, to be in Amsterdam, where someone on a bike isn't perceived as a homeless person or pyschopath. It gives you a whole other set of problems. I *wish* drunk tourists on beer bikes were my problem. What about drunk drivers in bike lanes!??!?!

In some municipalities, it is legal to be drinking on a vehicle as long as the operator is sober (and complies with various requirements such as having no open containers within reach or painting a white line behind himself) and so the beer-bike is a sneaky way to be drunk in public.

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Blogger Bart said...

Another Amsterdammer here: I agree the beerbikes are annoying as hell.

They are for tourists and peasants that go for a day out in the big city. Like on stag-night and such.

There's a reason drinking in public is frowned upon (if not locally banned) and these things illustrate why.

Nevertheless it is fun to do: the pedalling is heavy but the drinking relieves the public humiliation quite nicely and the feeling of intoxicated mobility is really good.

As far a I know the guys/gal with the steering wheel has to stay sober: because it's a big and heavy rig that can cause quite a lot of injuries and damage if you crash it. You can kill someone with this one (which hard to do with a normal bike).

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Anonymous Bobcat said...

http://daviswiki.org/WhymCycles

WhymCycle makes exotic bikes from recycled frames. He rarely charges for them, beleiving them to be hart to be shared with people for the joy of riding them.

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Anonymous ! said...

Great article, as always! Two additions that might be interesting:

A drawing of the interior of the camper bike that is already in the article:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/files/kevin_cyr_camperbike_blueprint_600x438_118.jpg

And here's a concept bike for Cannondale by a Dutch design student. A new take on the classic Dutch bicycle with some very interesting details:
http://www.vimeo.com/6255436
http://vanmansum.nl/

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Anonymous Dantem said...

wow...a lot of these bikes just leave you speechless

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.xylonbikes.com/home-en.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-EjHf9fads

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Anonymous kernel.net said...

the white bike concept is awesome.
does anybody know if this is going to enter production?

check this video from top-gear

http://www.flixxy.com/carver-car-motorcycle.htm

that's just awesome!!

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Anonymous PinoyMTBiker said...

Nice compilation of bikes!

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Anonymous Видеопорт said...

Yuji Fujimura's concept for an electric bicycle looks like Eve design from Wall-E - white and a little black and some neon blue :)

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Anonymous EvdW said...

The "Schweeb" NZ bicycle monorail will, thanks to a sponsorship by Google,, be trialled in a city that's still to be anounced: http://shweeb.com/

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