The only real car-related engineering I've seen so far is the Specialized Venge with the McLaren mods. This is the only bike out there that really interests me, but the mods are mostly aero and don't appear to make much appreciable difference. I think the technology spills down faster than the automakers can leverage any innovations. The average carbon fiber race bike with ceramic bearings and electronic shifting from just about any bike builder has got all the F1 technology that can be applied to a bicycle given the current UCI design constraints.

I'm happy just riding a steel fixie. It does have carbon forks, though. And a ceramic bb.

Luis

I'd settle for something inspired by the Porsche 550 Spyder. In fact, I wish Porsche would build a car inspired by the Porsche 550. Once upon a time, the company made small, light, agile sports cars. In any case, Porsche Design (as opposed to Porsche) seems to be mostly a trinket company, bereft of any engineering, or other, expertise.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I was friends with the owner of a west LA Porshce Audi dealership. He was number one in sales in North America. Porshce decided to open retail stores in select markets and brand certain non car retail items with the Porsche brand. In theory, a brand, and one as renown as Porsche, will return a premium price for products branded with Porsche.

Porshce did a private label full suspension mountain bike and put their brand on it and priced it at $6000. In reality, it was priced several thousand dollars over a comparable mountain bike from a reputable manufacturer with similar features. They did not sell. Porsche offered my friend more car inventory if he would take a lot of unsold bicycles off their hands. He took the deal, got more cars and sold the bikes at discount.

Porsche just did not get it. My friend knew what Porsche branded items sold along with cars and it was not bicycles. But he had enough traffic through his showroom that at the right price, the bicycles sold.

IMO, Porsche is looking to green up its image with the bicycle offering. I doubt that they have added any value over what is available from other suppliers. Once again, the Porsche brand will only go so far.

Do you own a Porsche currently or have you ever owned one? I have owned several and currently own one and had the opportunity to drive several. In 2011, Porsche created the Boxster Spyder. They took a Boxster S (I owned one) and stripped it down to reduce the weight 176 pounds. It is a race car with smooth acceleration and modern safety equipment versus the older Spyders.

I purchased one of the first Porsche Boxsters with the hard top option. With the hard top on, it looked very similar to James Dean 550.

Porsches are not for everyone. But I do not get your commentary since IMO, Porsche has done exactly what you wish they would do.

I like Porsche Cars don't get me wrong. It's just I don't see how a 911 would inspire one to build a 29er. I would think a moderate geo CF bike with one of the DI2 groupsets would be a better analogy.

Your thread title has it right. This is a product driven by the marketing department, rather than by the engineers or design people. It's a triumph of style over substance, the sort of bike that might seem cool to people who know nothing about bikes.

I'm basically a 1960s sports car purist who is pretty alienated from post- 1970s automobiles. In bicycle terms, that's a retrogrouch.

Full disclosure: I actually have been considering buying a Boxster, even though it it is twice the weight of the 550 and has stuff like roll-up windows, power steering, and power brakes. And my sniping at Porsche is grounded in love for what they were. I can appreciate the performance and engineering of the modern ones -- they just have deviated too far from Dr. Porsche's original vision for my tast.

The two bikes, on the other hand, are just deviant, and not even in interesting ways. Style over substance -- the polar opposite of the Porsche tradition.

Paul

I think there were Land Rover Moultons too.. John Deere, and those GMC Denalis that are mentioned by the others ..

Sadly, the Cadillac road bike line seems to have been discontinued.

I can't wait 'til Specialized starts building cars.

How about the Volkswagon/Trek tie in a few years ago? Got a "free" Trek when you purchased a certain model VW. I never saw even one on the Treks (MTB's I believe) around here. Were there any Road bikes in this deal?

Bill

Was it Cannondale that tried to make motorcycles?

This year, Colnago made 500 bicycles for Ferrari as a special limited edition and is selling them at $15,000.00 each, under the Ferrari name. It's basically a C59 Italia frame with the 11 speed Campi electronic shifting rather than the DA DI2 group that comes on the C59. Comes in Ferrari red and green with a special head badge and some other markings. About $3,000 over the price of the C59.

Yep and it was a PIG that broke more than it ran, weighed a ton and handled horribly. It was originally an MX racer and later an XC and enduro variants were tried. Bankrupted the company.

I've seen "Jeep" bikes right beside the Huffy bikes in WalMart.

Yup they sure did. I don't know who made them though. And call me crazy but I find the road bike real nice looking.

fasthair

Disclaimer: I own a little Mercedes-Benz repair shop so I might be a bit bias.

Edit: had a customer want one but we never could find one from a dealer. And the price? About $6.600