After a disappointing Tour start this year, Mark Cavendish seems to be back on track with his second stage win in two days. The attention is back on Cav, but the bike that he is riding, the recently unveiled SCOTT F01, deserves a lot of attention as well. The new aerodynamic road racing bike, which SCOTT developed in close partnership with Team HTC-Columbia and Drag2Zero services, was presented at a press conference in Rotterdam right before the Prologue.

The goal of the F01 project was to “achieve aerodynamic performance with a light and stiff profile.” Specifically, SCOTT set out to:

•Reduce overall drag of rider and bike at 45 KPH by 20 watts, between 0-20 degree crosswind with a 20 to 30 % reduction of frame drag compared to standard tube.

•Reach Addict stiffness with only 5% increase in weight

The design was developed and tested in the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Wind Tunnel. As you can see in the slide image from SCOTT’s presentation, it uses a 3:2 ratio tube profile that looks like an airfoil shape with the tail removed (like a very short Kamm tail profile). If you look at the picture above, the red colored sections on the backs of certain tubes indicate where the trailing airfoil edges have been removed. According to the company, the result of this project is a frame that is stiff and 20% lighter than most of the other aero frames on the market.

The bike is not available to the public yet, but it is a great example of an equipment sponsor really putting a new design through the paces during the three weeks of the Tour. That is something that I always like to see, and it really is what makes the Tour de France the race to watch for bike geeks.

Back to Cavendish though…it is no surprise that he wanted flashy custom graphics on his Project F01 bike. Check out this Bike Radar profile of his bike to see how the graphic designers at SCOTT interpreted his request for a “ninja theme.” Creating a tasteful design with splattered blood as a primary element is no easy task, but I think they did a pretty nice job with it.

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A photographer, bookbinder and fused glass artist, John Sweet is known in the Bend, Oregon art scene for his artistic talents. But the bike shop owners in town know John more for his scavenging abilities than his artistic flare.

An avid cyclist, John finds inspiration for many of his fused glass pieces in both the landscapes he cycles through and the discarded bike parts he comes across in bike shop recycling bins, garage sales and more. He usually uses found objects, such as bike hubs, to display his fused glass pieces.

Spending most of his career in the construction industry, John has no formal art training. “I try to have fun with it,” he says.

John’s not alone in his lust for used bike parts—the rebike movement is growing strong, especially among artists in bike-friendly cities such as Bend. A town of about 80,000, Bend has created 21 roundabouts and three new pathway bridges; 85 percent of arterials have bike lanes; and the city recently installed a new European-style raised bike lane. It received a Silver rating from the League of American Bicyclists. It’s also home to Commute Options for central, a three-county effort to reduce reliance on the automobile.

We’d love to hear about bicycle-inspired artists and organizations in your town. Send us an email or comment below!

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A few days ago, Carlton Reid tipped me off to this London Daily Mail article, which features a bike design by Kevin Scott, a young UK based designer. To address the rising problem of bicycle theft (according to the article, more than 52 bikes are stolen in London every day), Mr. Scott designed a bike that literally “wraps around a lamp post so it can be locked-up safely – without the need for a lock or chain.” A ratchet system built into the top and down tubes allows the frame to bend when a lever on the seat tube is released.

It seems like an interesting concept, but honestly I would probably be a bit nervous at cruising speed knowing that an accidental flip of that big switch would turn the frame into an uncontrollable mess of noodle like tubes. Maybe there could be a fail-safe to keep the switch from working while the bike is moving. I am sure there are many other issues that need to be addressed before a concept like this could become a real product, but that is what the product design development stage is for. For now, Mr. Scott has an interesting idea that I believe is worth further exploration.

Scott’s concept is a runner-up in the UK’s Business Design Centre New Designer of the Year Award. The Core77 blog also posted about this design and they point out that he is dumping the award money back into the project for further development. That is good to hear. I’ll look forward to seeing the next iteration of his design.

Image credit: Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features via Core77

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Racing isn’t usually the focus of this blog, but when July rolls around, I do get pretty excited about the Tour. This year’s race has been a great one so far, and I am already in the pattern of following some of each stage live in the morning, then scrambling to get my design work done as soon as the stage ends. That pattern makes for hectic days, but I just can’t wait until later to watch the replay. As I do most every year, I have been watching the live English language Eurosport feeds, which can be found at Steephill.tv. In addition to the video feed, I have been checking out the live blog discussion at Bicycling Magazine during the last couple stages. Honestly, I haven’t paid much attention to Bicycling Magazine in many years, but I really do like the way that they are covering the Tour this year. The commentary and discussion on the live blog and in their recent podcasts is pretty interesting, and I like the way that they are interacting with readers during each stage. I have been somewhat critical of the magazine in the past, but I really do want to give them kudos for what they are doing with their web coverage. Maybe, I should give the print edition of the mag a second chance too.

I am also checking CyclingNews, VeloNews, Road Bike Action, Pez , Bike198, and other cycling sites daily for race reports and, more importantly, tech features from the Tour.  I won’t point out all the tech articles, but there are a couple so far that I want to mention.

I love time trial bikes, so RBA’s time trial tech pictorial caught my attention (still waiting on part 2 with more TT bikes and components from the Prologue). Speaking of the Prologue, check out the winning bike, Cancellara’s castrated SHIV (to borrow a term from the guys at the VeloCast in reference to the UCI required removal of the stem/steerer tube fairing).

CyclingNews points out some of the technology (or lack thereof when you consider the box section rims) used in yesterday’s stage. It is interesting to read about the various team’s different equipment choices for that stage with its seven rough cobble sections. I understand the desire of some teams to keep riders on the same bikes, but in retrospect Saxo Bank’s use of Roubaix SL3’s in place of the Tarmac SL3s (for a few select riders) certainly seems to have been a good decision.

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Thanks for the #FF mentions today from @AustinFit and @AustinCycling

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Can you imagine a better combo than a mobile library and bike repair shop? Books On Wheels brings free books and free bicycle repair to low-income communities in its hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Even better: Since it’s a mobile non-profit, Books on Wheels can take its operation on the road.

If I saw the big blue Books On Wheels bus rolling down my street, I’d flag it down and convince the mayor to let it stay a while. We all know the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The same holds true for bikes of course. Who wants to ride a bike that has sketchy brakes or skips gears every 10 seconds? Even more importantly, how is one to rely on commuting by bike if they don’t know how to fix a flat or make other essential repairs?

That’s where Books On Wheels steps in. In 2008, its fearless leaders—Ward Tefft and Shelley Briggs—set out on a multi-month tour, beginning in Richmond and traveling as far as Austin, Texas, to provide basic bike repair skills to hundreds of kids. Within three years, Teft and Briggs opened Books, Bikes and Beyond, a thrift store in Richmond that accepts donations for Books on Wheels. They recently launched a campaign to raise $10,000 to provide 10,000 new or gently used books to low-income families.

There are countless organizations that accept used books, used bikes and used bike parts, but if you live anywhere close to Richmond, consider donating cash or (bicycle) clunkers to this very cool organization. For those bike parts that are no longer usable—such as spent bike chains or cassettes—consider supporting a rebicycle artist, such as one of the students enrolled in a BICAS art class in Tucson, or a rebicycle manufacturer such as Resource Revival.

Bikes, like so many other things, often get tossed to the curb or stashed in the garage the moment they break down. I’m a fan of any organization working to keep bicycles on the streets rather than in landfills. Know of other innovative bicyclers in the U.S. and beyond? Send us an email.

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I have mentioned Mark Sanders and his Strida folding bike on the blog quite a few times in the past (if you haven’t already read the excellent guest post that he wrote a few years ago, check it out before you continue reading this one). Though he has designed quite a few interesting folding bikes over the years, the Strida is the still bike that Mark is best known for. You may not be aware though that he designed and engineered the bike that would later become the Strida while he was an Industrial Design Engineering graduate student at the Imperial College London/ Royal College of Art. Just a few days ago, Mark scanned and shared his original 1985 Masters Thesis from that project on his Issuu page.

The research section of Mark’s thesis covers a few of the other Folding bike concepts that were on the market at the time. From there, his thesis moves on to the concept design section, where you can see a couple of his early development models. The section on ergonomics is also of particular interest as it compares a typical racing position to a completely upright riding position for city bikes, an idea that Mark points out has “almost become (his) manifesto” today. The market research survey, manual engineering calculations, and prototype detail sections are all very interesting as well. I highly recommend that you read through the entire 75-page thesis.

In addition to his Thesis, Mark also scanned and uploaded his original Business Plan for the Strida. In that document, you can see the first prototype, which Mark completed within 6 months of the college project. He points out that the design of that first production prototype is “still about 70% of the current Strida.”

It is interesting to see some of the publicity that the first Strida prototype received. Now, 25 years later, the latest version of the Strida is still often mentioned on design sites, so Mark must have done something right with that original design.

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Simon L. (aka Ess) is a designer who is working on an interesting aerodynamic frame design. His blog is chronicling the development of the bike, which features openings in the head and seat tubes to allow air to pass through.

In one of his posts, Ess lists a few of the design details that help to minimize the bike’s frontal area:

1. The frame is hollow with open front and back vents.

2. Sides of the frame are parallel (made possible by placing the back cog on the outside of the frame, which suggests that you can remove the back wheel and keep the chain/sprocket in place!).

3. The headset is split into two (top and bottom).

4. Handlebar stem split into two fins

5. Integrated seat post created from two fins

6. Seat attached to the integrated seat post using a mono-fin

The design is still in the development stage, but I will continue to follow Ess’ blog to see how it progresses. It looks pretty interesting so far.

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I smell 2011 XTR!


Shimano Unveils 2011 XTR Trail - Details Inside! - Pinkbike.com
www.pinkbike.com
Mountain Biking News Shimano Unveils 2011 XTR Trail - Details Inside!

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Raccoon Mountain TT.


SORBA-Chattanooga » Blog Archive » Raccoon Mountain Time Trail Series, Starting July 7th
sorbachattanooga.org
The Diamondback Raccoon Mountain Time Trial Races Series is a three event time trial series held at Raccoon Mountain, hosted by SORBA-Chattanooga. Racers will be able to race the course twice each night, the best time being recorded for each evening’s results. Medals will be awarded for the first ...

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