smallwheeler

bridgestone picnica redesigned:

within a somewhat narrow context, this is one of the more amazing bikes i've seen. the maker at rat engineering saw the inherent quality in this design and fabricated what is effectively a "picnica 5.0" from scratch. minimally redesigned, the U channel headtube brace is replaced by a elegant tube. the bulky and heavy cast alloy bottom bracket/lug is also gone. a very cool cantilevered stem (he did have an alternate version with internal cable routing). a lefty front fork. the original spring-loaded collapsing seatstay is redesigned and incorporates a quick release. the weighty hi-ten steel is replaced by cromo. and amazingly he fabricated his own rear caliper brake. although he never mentions the final weight of the new bike, i would hazard a guess at around 8-9kg for the final build. gorgeous. if this ever went into production, i would certainly buy one.