Concept Bikes & Bike Innovation - for better or worse

this one?
royal h disc on Vimeo

royal h disc wheel on Vimeo

yeeees, thankyou

I thought I'd resurrect my project-thread.

This is a pretty awesome idea, if totally impractical.

YouTube - Making-Of sicherstes Fahrradschloss

It's in German, so I apologise to everyone but Schick.

Ha. Seems to have been made in northern Germany.

http://bicycledesign.net/2011/01/diesel-pinarello-urban-bike/

zing!

Need to start posting my designs in this thread. Watch this space.

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6619/frontmattewatermarkcopy.png

A tilting trike I designed. Rear panels swing upwards, and rear screen rolls up, to let the kids out. Also the kids seat back folds for carrying larger cargo. Panels are 3-layer-plywood and seats are 7-ply. Shown with a 6'6" man riding so it looks a little cramped, but he does fit. Constructive criticism welcome!

Send it to VeloVision?

^^ Anyone good at thinking up names for products? It's branded as a Flevobike so something that alliterates and also suggests environmentalism would be great.

You do know that Flevobike are an actual brand, don't you? I'm not sure if you're saying that you just picked the name from the brand as a placeholder or whether you came up with it yourself and independently.

Yeah it's branded as Flevobike because they're the company whose existing products best suited the potential users of the design.

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6619/frontmattewatermarkcopy.png

A tilting trike I designed. Rear panels swing upwards, and rear screen rolls up, to let the kids out. Also the kids seat back folds for carrying larger cargo. Panels are 3-layer-plywood and seats are 7-ply. Shown with a 6'6" man riding so it looks a little cramped, but he does fit. Constructive criticism welcome!

How does drive get to the wheels?
And how does one steer to the right?

I was wondering (and I'm sure that someone who knows about the losses involved in such an idea will be able to dismiss it) if you could pedal a generator that powers a motor that turns the rear wheels. Could you make such a drive system as efficient as a chain?

Shaft drive - constant-velocity joints on either end of the shaft so that the steering can turn, and the shaft is splined telescopic (like a car's propshaft) to allow steering/suspension movement. It also reduces unsprung weight (which is good for suspension) because the cranks/riders legs are independent of the steering/suspension. Also it'd be pretty uncomfortable to ride if your legs bumped up and down with the suspension!

I designed that way so that people of different sizes could ride it - I figured that someone wouldn't want to spend £2-3k on a car-replacement vehicle that their other half can't use because he/she is too tall/short. The seat adjusts up/down and the cranks move fore/aft so anyone from about 4'6" to 6'6" can use it.

The losses in converting mechanical to electrical and back again would be pretty high, I imagine. That's not to say that it wouldn't make a workable and useful bike - it would certainly be easier on the knees/less stress on the body (perhaps good for cycles designed for disabled people/people who have limited movement). Chain drive is around 98% efficient which is pretty hard to beat, but crank-to-wheel efficiencies go down quite a lot when using derailers/hub gears - so in the near future we might see electric drive bikes as technology improves.

Hydraulic drive is an interesting option - the losses are lower than current electrical (pun intended) and you only need a few pipes going from the cranks to the wheel rather than a chain/shaft.

The ultimate wheel is pretty cool. It's as minimal as you can get!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8I8Lx7cXew

http://www.gizmag.com/sbyke-bmx-skateboard-scooter-hybrid-due-for-release/18649/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8bac0391bc-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

I know it's not really a bike since you don't pedal it, but check out the video - it looks like a lot of fun! And perhaps practical short-range transport if you work inside a large building/business park/university campus.

Not really a fan of the scoobmxord to be honest!

Love your designs though, have you made anything you've designed?

Shaft drive - constant-velocity joints on either end of the shaft so that the steering can turn, and the shaft is splined telescopic (like a car's propshaft) to allow steering/suspension movement. It also reduces unsprung weight (which is good for suspension) because the cranks/riders legs are independent of the steering/suspension. Also it'd be pretty uncomfortable to ride if your legs bumped up and down with the suspension!

From that picture though it looks as though if you turn the wheel to the right it bangs into the shaft.
and the shaft has a kink in it, so surely can't rotate?

Ah yeah sorry, the render doesn't show it in full detail. The shaft is supported until it clears the front wheel by that triangle you see mounted on the leading fork blade. The 'kink' (which is where a CV joint would be) moves in an arc as it is attached to the wheel, and the primary driveshaft (the bit coming out from the cranks) is telescopic, and has a CV at the crank end, to allow this movement.

I do have all the engineeringy stuff in detail and tested (both physically and in a cad model), but unfortunately I can't show it - under the advice of one of my tutors I'm going to seek a patent application on it (can't see it getting patented because it's just a mashup of a few different systems, rather than something new in itself). But it does work!

Love your designs though, have you made anything you've designed?

Thanks very much! I've made a chair and some cutlery, but no bikes/vehicles as of yet.

Very interesting Lae.

Despite the trike being long, to give room for rider and kids/cargo. The wheelbase is'nt long, so it wont get beached on humps etc. I like the seating position of the children too. I'm pretty sure my little'ns would love to be taken to nursey in one.

The bit that could be a hard sell to non-cyclists is the low position of the rider.

Just looking at it I'd want some rake and trail on the front wheel. It looks like it's actually steeper than the headtube drop which would result in heavy and twitchy steering.

Just looking at it I'd want some rake and trail on the front wheel. It looks like it's actually steeper than the headtube drop which would result in heavy and twitchy steering.

With wielding huge front racks to track forks being so popular. This may be 2011's ' neutral handling'.

Very interesting Lae. I like the seating position of the children too. I'm pretty sure my little'ns would love to be taken to nursey in one.
The bit that could be a hard sell to non-cyclists is the low position of the rider.

Thanks! I did design it so that the kids could easily see towards the front of the vehicle - makes it more interesting and you feel safer if you know where you're headed. The rider's eye-level is about three inches above the eye-level of a driver in a family hatchback (I used a Ford Focus for comparison) - it's still a little lower than a normal bike but it's higher than most recumbents.

Just looking at it I'd want some rake and trail on the front wheel. It looks like it's actually steeper than the headtube drop which would result in heavy and twitchy steering.

Point noted. I only had a cursory look at steering dynamics - unfortunately it was only a short project and I didn't have time to go into the engineering in detail.

This is literally the most overdesigned bike storage 'solution' that I have ever seen. 5 bikes in the space for maybe 20 on Sheffield Stands? SIGN ME UP.

This is literally the most overdesigned bike storage 'solution' that I have ever seen. 5 bikes in the space for maybe 20 on Sheffield Stands? SIGN ME UP.

Cough ... there are 6. :)

6th bike adds negligible extra space to a wheel design from 5, but 4 bikes would be a square, effectively, taking up less space.

#tryingtosaveface

Couldn't you put them the other way around (rotate 90 degrees) and fit like 10x more bikes?