You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Reckon this thing will ever make production? My mate insists he's getting one for £1500 from Indigogo even though they haven't even produced one yet...
The whole thing reminds me of this beautiful thang from a few years ago https://www.cyclotronbike.com/
Looks a really sick gnarpoon, that.
Well, yeah, aside from the gorgeousness of it..
That is just properly nice
Will nobody take me seriously?
I am sure they have done their sums right but surely something that is a parallelogram in shape can never be as strong and stiff as two triangles?
I said that to my mate! The two triangles has been messed with and avoided, but no other design ever lasts.
Some of the bumpf is just pure twaddle:
[i]For 228 years, bicycles have been constrained by trade-offs: strength and weight, versatility and proficiency, quality and price.
Today, two centuries of compromise come to a close.[/i]
Aaah, marketing - the 'art' of persuading people to buy something they never knew they needed or wanted.
Dez - keep us updated on how your mate gets on if/when this ever happens.
Kestrel (American brand) did no-seattube bikes for decades. Mainly triathlon where the UCI rules didn't apply.
With carbon fibre there's no reason at all why it couldn't be just as stiff as a bike with a seattube.
However I'm wary of products like that launched on Kickstarter or equivalent. Years ago an acquaintance bought a Leopard SpeedX bike (remember them?)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/speedx/speedx-leopard-the-first-ever-smart-aero-road-bike
It was terrible - got absolutely panned on road.cc and a couple of other review sites and then they more or less agreed it was shit and "updated" it with another Kickstarter-funded bike which promised to address all of that. And then it just disappeared, no second model was ever forthcoming.
I am sure they have done their sums
2+2=unicorns?
I think it’s all bullshit and a lot of people are going to be out of pocket.
Supposedly 11kg for the ebike version. Making it one of the lightest production ebikes... in the world. For £3kish, or £1500ish if you buy now.
Comes with an as yet unknown (according to the project owner in the comments) shimano groupset, but bikes will definitely be delivered by the end of the year.
Your mate is taking a massive risk as we saw with SpeedX. The discount may be nice but there is no guarantee that he will ever get a bike. Don't something like 90% of startups fail? Also I am guessing they are very reliant on outside investment as SpeedX were and investors can be fickle.
The SpeedX story is interesting because if it wasn't for one ill-judged Chinese marketing campaign the bikes may well have been delivered to backers. Or not, who knows, but it goes to show it doesn't take much to topple one of these companies. There are just too many unknowns and I am amazed people will their money on a startup based on limited information from a crowdfunding website which reads like a sales pitch and not a business case.
Dez – keep us updated on how your mate gets on if/when this ever happens.
I'll pop up to his on my Cyclotron, we'll go for a ride and chat about our futuristic steeeeeds.
tbh its not carbon fibre as you think but carbon fibres in plastic. It is very strong. However it will be very flexible as a bike i would have thought.
ive tested a few components made from it and i imagine it would be interesting to ride..
Hmmm, look what has appeared on singletrack’s Facebork feed...
Estimated Frame Weight 1.3kg / 2.9lbs (size dependent) 1.7kg / 3.7lbs (size dependent)
1.3kg (regular) - 1.7kg (ebike) for the frame, that's a mad weight.
Nowhere for 2nd waterbottle. I'm out.
that’s a mad weight.
Yes, hugely heavy
1.7kg (ebike) for the frame, that’s a mad weight.
Keep in mind that won’t include a battery or a motor. 11kg for the full ebike is what’s unbelievable. Less than Specializeds lightest road ebike, for around 1/7 the price.
Pass the eye bleach !!
What's the advantage? The seat tube helps keep the BB stiff, by removing it you need to add material elsewhere. So what's the advantage other than looking radical?
I like to imagine that the carbon wheels are being done by someone with an ender extender and a roll of PLA+ carbon from amazon