ConceptBikes (droooool..)
 

Got this off of the specialized web page. It's one of their concept bikes. I’m absolutely fascinated, it looks great and I bet it rides fast too. Just look at the front wheel. I mean how long did it take the engineers to design and built one of these.. Concept bikes are just like racecars. They help to develop new technology for future bikes that some day might be available and affordable for general public. Does anyone here know anything about this bike, who it was raced by, stats, ect.? You are welcome to add your own concept bike ant tell us about it.

Here is the matching helmet for it….

This is another concept bike by Specialized. It’s a unicycle.

You know the biggest impediment to concept bikes becoming reality? The UCI. It outlaws anything that remotely looks like it might beat a diamond frame. It's a bit like the FIA imposing Formula One restrictions on ground-effects, turbocharging, tyres and wings... uhhh they did. Must be run by the same bunch of people.

Seriously, there are some fantastic dream machine bikes out there waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public. The latest edition of England's VeloVision magazine has some eye-candy from a recent bike show in Europe. Snap a copy if you can. VeloVision is it if you want to see the future of biking whether in the current edition of those past. Some of the stuff is amazing. Just wish I had to the ability to put some of it together myself.

R

I agree. The UCI is a bit more lax when it comes to mountain biking and overall I think there's more innovation in the MTB arena.

i've covered this before, but i'll assume you missed it.

would you rather see a bike race won by the strength of the competitors or by the budgets of the sponsors?

to me, and i think a lot of others, what makes bicycle racing great is that when it comes down to it, it's still really all about strength and strategy. and thankfully, NOT about who can dump the most money into R&D.

Maybe then what would help would be stock racing for bikes. The competitors could ride any bike they wanted as long as it was part of a production run of more than 2,000 bikes, and the bikes were available to the general public for some figure, perhaps $2,500. Then we could see technologies go head to head against each other. Another resstriction might be that the competitor had to ride the same bike for the entire race, assuming a stage race, and could only repair or replace components on the bike. This would keep bikes from being too specialized for climb or time trial, and would also keep them from being too fragile for general use. Recumbents could do well in time trials, but would die on the climbs. Maybe they could throw in some dirt paths to ensure that the bikes were not too fragile for every day use. The bikes that win would really be useful for regular users.

I think bicycling would be far better off for having a race like that. The competitor who was fittest could win, but different competitors might choose different bikes because of variety in body build. For example allowing more development might lead bigger competitors to choose longer cranks with bigger chainrings, which they would pedal at a slower cadence. We would all be better off if we knew what the potential were for longer cranks.

I'd pay good money to see Hillary Clinton hit the brakes on that unicycle.

Why Hillary Clinton? :confused:

That first bike is really cool looking. Almost be too afraid to ride it.

I just took another look at the bike and noticed it's a single speed. The helmet is pretty cool looking.

Zack

well is it a "Race" or is it a show case for Brand Trade Marks™ ?

Yeah, maybe even fixed gear. Another thing to notice is that front wheel is smaller then the back wheel. I wonder how much the whole thing wights? I say about 12 lb. maybe 10 lb. Take a guess.

And please, people, don't start a war on what should win the race ; a human or a machine. :rolleyes:

just wondering why there isnt a stock bike race? sounds like a interesting idea. what would it take to get something like that started? not that my fat arse would try it but it might be interseting to watch

I have two minds about racing. One part of me likes seeing people do things I can't do myself so in that sense, the equipment is unimportant. However, the other part of me firmly believes that the real value of racing is not just the human achievements but in what it returns to the average person. One of the biggest benefits we have with our sport is that there is a much tighter connection between what happens in the racing world and what ends up on our own hands. Call me selfish but if racing didn't spur on technological innovations that I can have in the very near future then I'm not really all that interested. Sometimes it is about the bike... especially my bike.

Or which drug? ;)

I think that something important is being missed in the current discussion-what is a CODA crank doing on a Specialized?!

Personally i thinnk the first bike is a bit bubbly and is well suited for the pilsbury dogh boy as it suits him and is fast to cary his tubby rear end around lol

though the unicycle looks appealing to me.