ryan0402

Thanks Mr IGH.
Who cares how someone secures their bike. Some of you are so nit picky. I do ride door to door to work and do not leave it outside at all. Is that good enough answer? But in case that is not good enough I can wrap a cable lock under the seat.
@TransitBiker. The lack of rear brake does not equate to lack of safety, it's a choice. I ride 10miles to work on clean flat street and bike lanes and therefore it is no issue. I do not ride down in sleet and hail conditions down a windy mountain road. The bike may not work for you but it works for me.
@GriddleCakes. As a new member I don't really need to respond to your hate post....but.... Why would you consider me equivalent to a bike snob because I own a unique custom bike that you might or might no afford? For you, why don't I just remove my 'fake' bike pictures so you can sleep at night and just go back to photoshop drawing board. I'm a new member and since the bike doesn't look like a traditional bike from the past 30 years it must all be a schill. Man I though some might like to see something different and unique. I didn't say I was entering tour de france with it. I ride to work and back with it, and sometimes around town for pleasure.

TransitBiker

Do you have another bike you use in inclement weather, or do you only ride in fair weather?

I still feel this thing is more form than function, but it's your money, not mine.

If i had money to toss at a fun project for fair weather riding, i'd probably end up with something equally less practical than the ride i have now. That said, i feel this is an attempt to smugly show something off vs humbly submit for critique & such things will always be treated less favorably amongst a crowd of experienced riders that value practicality above all else. Not accusing, just observing.

If it makes you happy, that's great, but happy & practical are not always the same train with stops at the same stations.

- Andy

acidfast7

You never told us where you're located and what it cost.

I'm curious if you're in Estonia.

rpcleary

I actually love the look/style of this bike, very moder/minimalistic, although the top is a bit high.

Not really a fan of the handles though, where's the grips?

Also, have you found any benefit to the belt drive?

Props for getting creative, not my type of bike (I like sleek or rugged, Roadie/MTB over here) but she is a beauty.

spinbackle

FUGLY is a word that comes to mind, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say........

GriddleCakes

Fair enough; I'd only seen this bike on the internet, and assumed that it was a one-off design project, since I'm incredulous that someone would produce and market such a... goofy bike. As for my "rack hype", what can I say, I'm a utility cyclist; I like a good rack.

Whatever. I did say that I thought this was "probably" a joke, and that I was "pretty sure" that I'd seen this thing on Snob's blog, not definitely. I have seen pics of this bike somewhere on the internet fairly recently, though, and I guessed that it'd been on Snob's blog since he frequently posts pictures of goofy bikes. Maybe it was Prolly's blog, or Drunk Cyclist's, or on Bikerumor, or maybe even somewhere on BF or the MTBR forums.

I wasn't calling you a bike snob, I was saying that I thought I'd seen this bike a blog called Bikesnobnyc; I'm the one who's being a bike snob, actually, because I don't like your bike and I told you why. I probably should've moderated my tone, seeing as how you didn't post the bike in here, but you did make an entire thread about this bike, and I was just voicing my opinion about the bike.

If you like the bike, that's great; whatever works for you and keeps you rolling. It's just not my cup of tea. It looks uncomfortable and unwieldy, I don't understand why it has both unnecessarily high standover and equally unnecessarily low clearance, I'm skeptical of the idea of doing away with the rear triangle, I think bars that narrow are ridiculous, and I fail to see the point of all that excessive tubing (that frame alone weighs 5 kg, apparently). I like pretty bikes, first and foremost I like practical bikes, and honestly that thing strikes me as neither.

I am sorry about calling your thread a hoax, though. I made an assumption based on a hunch, and I was wrong to do so. My bad. For anyone else who's interested, the [strike]abomination[/strike] bike is a Velonia Viks, made in Estonia.

acidfast7

It's actually an EU-funded project as part of the EU Structural Assistance Programme.

Essentially, the EU paid money to see if could be employed as a novel city bike.

The funded it to be built over 4 months and for €16k.

That makes it much cooler as it's a research project and suggests why they're "custom built."

Proof!

Mr IGH

To me, it appear opposite, you feel compelled to insult him and his bike and cloaked your hostilities with a back-handed insult/fake apology. I don't understand the need to crush.

GriddleCakes

No, the apology is sincere. I shouldn't have accused the OP of posting a hoax thread.

Where did I insult the OP? I insulted his bike, if you want to phrase it that way; I consider it giving my honest opinion about the subject of the thread, like you and everyone else here has. Some like it, some don't. Had the OP posted this thing in the Commuter Bike Pics thread, I wouldn't have said a thing, because the vibe in that thread is generally positive. Had he posted it in the old SS/FG Jackass thread, I would've said the same as I've said here, except more cruelly, as the vibe in that thread was super snarky (funny, though).

Mr IGH

You called him a liar, when you "apologized" you called his bike an "abomination". No one could think these posts are a positive contribution to commuting by bicycle and this forum. You remind me of the old lady at work that has to lecture me about how dangerous it is to ride a bike.

GriddleCakes

Said I was sorry, and meant it.

Meant that, too, and am not sorry about it. In this thread that thing has been called nice, unique, interesting, attractive, impractical, hazardous, stupid, a joke, creative, beautiful, fugly. It's a thread about an unusual bike, on a forum where people post their opinions about bikes.

Mr IGH

I made my case, going forward I'll put you on my ignore list for reasons already stated..

acidfast7

wow.

there's a lot of general angst on the commuting forum lately.

??

RoadTire 

Well, this thread and new member got off to a great start. Ryan likes his bike, and that should be good enough. But this is a bicyle forum and being picky and opinionated is just part of the ... obsession. For all we know he's a CAT 1 racer an this is just an esotoric toy. However: that is the most impractcal and unattactive bike I've seen in a while. The think steel tubes, unfinished welds, high top tube and very low, fixed height bars show not forththoght or consideration for the safety and comfort for most riders. Not only that but the little electroninc thing seems to be mounted off-center. The bike mfg site says this make it "....flowy." Seriously?

TransitBiker

Getting your hands on a prototype is always fun if you're into quirky & unique things, but..........

Does not make it the best thing since sliced bread.

- Andy

gman214

Wow...unique bike!!!

acidfast7

Honestly, from the outside, this is what I'd guess happened ...

Company in Tallinn gets an email about EU money (this always happens) and says, I go to the bar, give it 3 hours and then submit something and be done with it. This happens all the time with EU funding. Then he says, I'll write something interesting after a beer or two and then finishes it up by calculating how much the employee and materials would cost (€16k over 4 months) in this case. He told the EU, he'd keep the bike available after the first bundle of between 3 and 10 if anyone wanted to custom order it. He can do this as he has a regular bike company as well.

No one would usually buy it but it will get a lot of publicity.

That's why i wanted to know if the OP was in Tallinn, maybe he took/was given one of the first bikes. Maybe, he bought one, but he won one.

Maybe he doesn't have one.

It's quite an interesting guessing game, that's all.

Maybe I'll check him out more when I'm in Tallinn agaiN!

andyprough

In reading the Velonia Viks website, it appears that this thing is a double-frame made of stainless steel - in which case it should be about twice as heavy as a normal bike. However, they are claiming a weight of only 5kg, or about 11 pounds, which doesn't make much sense. Possibly the steel is so thin that the frame might not be able to stand much in the way of impacts.



Also, my apologies to GriddleCakes - clearly he DID see this bike one some website or other recently.

RubeRad

Looks like it could fit a 5gal water bottle -- if only there were braze-ons...

GriddleCakes

:shrug:

No worries, dude. It's just the internet.

Actually, if you had a custom frame bag made to fill the frame, this thing could haul a reasonable load, provided said load could be packed no more than six inches wide. Be hell to ride in cross winds, though.

ryan0402

Yes, there is a lot of angst here. I simply posted a unique bike I just got with some neat components on it that aren't typical. It is not my only bike. I do also have a regular road bike. Is it the most comfortable bike ever? Nope, don't claim that. Is it the lightest bike ever? Nope, don't claim that. Is it unique and interesting to some? Yes, maybe, and that is why I wanted to share with you. If someone sees me riding down the street I'll be glad to talk and answer questions. I'm a bike enthusiast, so this is strictly my toy. I'm not entering it in races etc, but I do commute to work with it and I find it quite adequate for that purpose. I don't ride in rain, sleet, or snow, I'm not a die hard. I guess I should've never shared this with what I thought might be other enthusiasts. It's not everyones cup of tea of course, and I don't expect it to be. It doesn't have a rear brake, it doesn't have a bottle cage, it is missing grips at the moment, but hey sorry I didn't post pics of my conventional Norco or whatever brand.

andyprough

So is it light? The website claims it's an 11 pound frame - and a double-stainless-steel frame does not seem like it would be that light.

Sixty Fiver

Singlespeed / IGH with no rear brake... stupid idea unless you only ride on pavement in dry weather.

prathmann

5 kg seems very reasonable as twice the weight of a good steel frame and fork of about 2.5 kg.

spare_wheel

• i will never use a bell, mirror, or rack on my commuter bikes.
• fenders can be installed on any bike -- even a freaking pinarello dogma.

you are repeating yourself