August 08, 2005

• Looks like an industrial designer went mad with prototyping bikes! Here is one individual's take on it being a hoax. They look mighty uncomfortable...
• Hoax or not, some food for thought. Like the guy on smt's link, I wondered how the turning mechanism worked for some of these. Others, like the mag-lev, are neat ideas, but I couldn't figure out a) how a mag-lev mechanism could be made that small, and b) where the energy to run it would come from (presumably, a dynamo of significant strength, but how would one start biking in order to get the dynamo fired up?). Not to mention some of these machines look much too dainty to take on a trail. But still -- some interesting ideas. Too bad the author couldn't have been more straitforward about it. (And AGAIN un- puts us to shame with the quality of his posts..!)
• I want the viper. I want it, I want it, I want it!
• BTW, this also comes from the same folks who bring you "Independent Magnetic Suspension" and "Invisible Paint". Cute jokes... [the first link is Geocities, and tends to cut-out from excessive bandwith usage]
• me want. give me.
• I don't think that there's anything especially fraudulent about magnetic suspension, although the description is unscientific and probably garbled. I've played with enough magnets to think that two strong magnets with matching poles facing each other would make effective suspension. I'm sure that there would be specific obstacles to overcome, but the concept is sound. Invisible paint, on the other hand, ... I can't see that being real.
• These bikes have dangerous-sounding names ... Viper, Green Mamba, Copperhead, O-Ren Ishii ... I don't want you kids playing on these bikes without a helmet! Except the Cricket, that one sounds ok.
• I'm holding out for the Satan's Giant Thorny Member. It is eXtr33m.
• I'm sure that there would be specific obstacles to overcome, but the concept is sound Magnetic suspension for a wheel doesn't sound possible to me. A wheel on a bike is subject to some pretty hefty forces, you'd have to control the power to the electromagnets with a microprocessor to make sure the wheel stays "true" in the field. Even so, I think it would be pretty near to impossible to do that. The first thing it will want to do is fly off sideways. Plus, how do you brake? I'm skeptical.
• Too Bad It Looks Like A Photoshop Prank is right. Not only that, but any company whos "official press release" reads like that is just begging for bankruptcy. And I too am skeptical on the whole magnetic suspension thing, for all the reasons that un- already listed.
• These bikes have dangerous-sounding names ... Viper, Green Mamba, Copperhead, O-Ren Ishii ... : ) I'll wait for the 'Bill' model, I hear it comes with a 'Cardiac Grip' horn whose sound makes the way clear from slow or bitchy SUV drivers...
• great pictures, un-. specialized makes some nice bikes, but nothing remotely close to this stuff. i agree it's a hoax. unfortunate, as i'd really like a green mamba or copperhead.
• un-: Electromagnets? Fly off sideways? No wonder you aren't convinced! It's a lot simpler, though: you just have two regular magnets inside a hollow cylinder, using magnetic repulsion in place of a spring. Perhaps some ASCII art will help: <- Up . . . . . . . Down -> +------+----------- |[S__N]| .. [N__S]============( Wheel +------+----------- Fixed . . . .<--------------> magnet . . . .Moving piston (Please disregard random dots used to space out text in the absence of

  .)
  
  I think you're right to be sceptical of the forces, but I've been on a train that's held up by magnetic repulsion (the Shanghai maglev).  Exceptionally strong magnets do exist; whether they could fit into the cost/size/weight constraints of a bicycle, I don't know.
  
  
  

• D'oh! I didn't notice that big gap missing in the photo. Yeah, that's obviously a hoax.
• Hmm, I didn't understand the Ascii art. I really don't think fixed magnets would be nearly strong enough or capable of containing the twisting forces that would be applied to a wheel. This bike allegedly has a rim that floats in a magnetic field. Just think how hard it would be to do that while hitting it sideways with a mallet, because it would need to be able to do that in order to be ridable. Powerful magnets do exist, but I doubt you can make them small enough to float a bicycle wheel rim and have a rider up top bouncing up and down on it over city curbs and whatnot. I still don't think it's doable, but I'm too lazy to work out the physics right now :)
• OIC, you were talking about the other page ... I was talking about the "hubless" Specialized Viper. Double D'oh!
• Total hoax. Unless, of course, the cool new thing to do with bikes is inhability to steer. Or specialized, in a surprise move, advanced plastic muscle technology 20 years ahead of it's time.
• At speed, you only need the ability to lean to be able to steer. They wouldn't be for city riding or mountain biking, but they could be useful in racing. (I'm not saying they aren't a hoax)
• The cricket model looks like an actual photo - but if it was from Specialized, it would have a big-ass S on the side, which it doesn't, and I'd also expect to see something about it on the Specialized website, which I don't. So I say "pipe dream". I like my Specialized, it's made for bumps and jumps, and it surely looks more durable than those, but I do know for a fact that some bike company (Trek, maybe?) recently announced a re-engineered internal rear hub, so perhaps these aren't pipe dreams after all - just prototypes or artists' conceptions that will never see the light of day.
• where do you put the wicker basket? It's about time that bicycle technology took a huge leap forward ...