tds101 

It's, ummm,...different to say the least. I'd luv a set of those bars though.

jur

What do you call these things? I need to buy some. I searched for splitter/separator/connector, no results.

smallwheeler

here you go,

Da Vinci Cable Splitters s s Folding Travel Coupling Silver Tandem | eBay

jur

Thanks! My mistake was to include the words BRAKE or GEAR, those yielded no results.

BruceMetras

Or your friendly Moulton dealer usually has cable splitters in stock..

smallwheeler

only tangentially related, but this reminded me of boonbike:





can you imagine playing bike polo on the grass with all players riding boonbike? haha. sign me up. that would be a blast.

ttakata73

That is a hilarious looking bike, I literally LOL'ed when I saw the orange one.
You have to have a very strong sense of independence to ride that.
Oddly I don't find the red one funny looking.
It's actually a good design because the small tires allow the rider to ride slow and stable and maneuver for polo.
It would be great to play polo with the larger wheeled bikes; you'd destroy the competition and might get banned.

Yes, the BMW will be a classic collectors bike, it's a sweet design.

flyboy2160

small,

Thank you for the Boonbike pics: Like tt, I couldn't help but smile looking at them.......

smallwheeler

sekine made some unique and interesting bikes in the early 70s. the whole aesthetic reminds me of something you might find in Ultraman's crew gear arsenal.

flyboy2160

Yet more smiles! I especially like the swoopy chain guard on the lower one - makes it look fast and jetty just standing still.

Small, I don't know how you do it, but we all should be thankful for your many contributions.

ttakata73

Seriously, thanks. These bikes are so random but cool.
They definitely have that Ultraman scifi look.
Sorta like a Japanese Pee Wee Herman bike but far nerdier.

smallwheeler

philip crewe's folding bike:

https://vimeo.com/35845538#at=63

jur

Simple and clever. Folding mech not seen before. Folds really small without touching seatpost and handlebars. I'm officially impressed.

smallwheeler

ugh. wow. ouch. castrobikes. stainless steel. beautiful bike.

smallwheeler

i agree. it's great. also impressive frankly that he isn't trying to market a product - he just built it for himself. imagine this same design on a diamond frame mini velo platform. cool stuff.

Abu Mahendra

Funny. I was in Barcelona in September of last year. These bikes were sitting in the foyer so I asked my landlady about them. Turns out her hubby was the Castro Bikes founder and owner.

Abu Mahendra

Funny. I was in Barcelona in September of last year. These bikes were sitting in the foyer of my apartment so I asked my landlady about them. Turns out her hubby is the Castro Bikes founder and owner. I almost ended up bringing one back home with me. Vdry reasonable prices, under $1,000, for a Made-in-Catalonia bike. The owner was really keen on finding SEAsia distributors. Prety certain they'd ship you one to the States,

Here's an image I took at the apartment of an then-yet-unreleased model...

smallwheeler

small world. and yeah, if you want to design and sell mini velos you definitely need to have a presence in SEA..

Abu Mahendra

If I were in the States and had a taste for these things, I'd ask them to sell and ship me a frame. I'd then trick it out to my heart's content in the States.

flyboy2160

Polished stainless is indeed beautiful, but the frame design is another one of those structurally incompetent arts-fartsy things that's intended to seem "kool" to those who don't know anything about structural design and analysis. Why isn't this just a regular diamond? Oh, must fool know nothings.....

BassNotBass

Yup, frames like that of the Raleigh Shopper will surely fail soon enough.

jur

I don't see a problem with the structure... It's like a bf but with the further rather stylish reinforcing thin double tubing brace. Gives very much fore-aft bracing while retaining a low step-over height. Braces the bottom bracket shell against torsional forces of pedaling. Braces the head tube against same. I think it is very carefully thought out.

There are plenty conventional diamond mini-velos; good to have a very stylish alternative that is IMHO also very stiff.

tds101 

Beautiful bike! Wow,...I'm definitely impressed.

bhkyte

I agree about the frame design. Its perfectly rigid.........If it did not have a rider sitting on it. Cycle trials have had similar designs to the quad angle approach with twin top tube for a while that form two reinforced parallel rails close to each other.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=on...IBigB#mhpiv=14
Often the weakness of compact folders is the lack of twin top tubes. Thus resulting in long seat post frame extensions/or long seatpost.
I like the tyrell for addressing this,amoust others, like to see more development in twin top tubed compacts in future.

Rifaldo

wow the modern bicycle,this ist like in thouring man!!!