• Hildegarde
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    12610 months ago

    Imagine designing a bicycle without triangles. Every joint needs to be overbuilt, because there’s no structure from the geometry. But you make sure it still has a top tube, so its just as hard to mount and dismount as a normal bike. Incredible!

    • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      Right? Who would be crazy enough to do that?

      Next you’re going to tell me someone will make one without a top tube?

      • @dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        8210 months ago

        Hey, look here buddy. You can’t be your own comment thread and post all the plausible responses yourself like that. You’re putting all the trolls out of work.

      • @pyre@lemmy.world
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        1310 months ago

        doesn’t that prove their point? they all look overbuilt, as the original commenter said.

        • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Carbon fiber, aerodynamics…

          For this one it’s used as suspension (not carbon fiber)

          Not that rare in old mountain bikes either, pretty sure my old steel Raleigh was similar

          • Natanael
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            010 months ago

            Carbon fiber has very limited lifetimes when used for something with a lot of hard impacts, so if you’re not sticking to smooth surfaces the bike can literally split apart with little warning

              • Natanael
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                210 months ago

                I Googled “motorcycle carbon fiber wheel” and autocomplete immediately suggested adding “failure” and doing that search has endless relevant results

                • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  10 months ago

                  And if I do a research for “Toyota Tercel engine failure” I find tons of results as well even though it’s one of the most reliable car ever built.

                  Crazy how search engines show you results for what you’re looking for, right?

      • Hildegarde
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        -610 months ago

        The meme shows only bikes with flat handlebars, like commuter bikes intended for transportation.

        Every bike you posted are high performance racing bikes with specialized aerodynamic handlebars.

        Different priorities. Triangless bikes with a top bar is not a good idea for commuter bicicles like the ones in the meme.

        • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          1410 months ago

          I still showed that it’s perfectly possible to build a bike without a seat tube, hell I’m sure we can find 90s examples that weren’t high performance bikes.

      • @bcron@lemmy.world
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        510 months ago

        Compliance but this is a very very extreme example - you’d hit a bump and the top tube would flex, kinda like a diving board, and smooth out the harshness. I’m not even sure this bike exists but that would be the practical purpose of such a design, but most manufacturers tend to go after the seat stays (Salsa Warbird, Bianchi with Counterveil, Moots Routt YBB) or decouple the seat tube from the top tube and allow it to flex due to seat tube angle (Trek Isospeed). Carbon’s kinda fickle and engineers are constantly trying to figure out how to finesse it into feeling less jarring and rigid

        • @Wogi@lemmy.world
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          1110 months ago

          This bike does not exist. This is part of a series of theoretical renders from what must be 15 to 20 years ago. When carbon fiber was kind of a new material to the general consumer. The premise was they could not only reduce the weight of the material but because carbon fiber was this space age super material that could melt your tits off if you looked at it sideways, that they could also reduce the need for structural materials like spokes and triangles. Making a featherweight racing bike. Most of the designs had absolutely no way to steer them.

          • @bcron@lemmy.world
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            210 months ago

            I was gonna say, the frame just looks a little too outlandish, totally ignoring the wheels and headset.

            Once in a while a bike comes along trying to reinvent the triangle but none are particularly good, often worse than tried and true. Superstrata Classic is a perfect example. Making a 2 triangle frame and adding just a hair of compliance around less-critical spots seems to be the winning formula

      • @Aganim@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yup, that went well for Van Moof owners in the Netherlands. Also hipster bikes, the latest model turned out to be of dubious quality and was built using all custom parts. They had fun times getting their ridiculously overpriced bikes repaired after the company went belly up.

        • @Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          610 months ago

          The whole van moof thing was absolutely hilarious tbh (if you didn’t buy one, I mean).

        • @uis@lemm.ee
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          310 months ago

          I hope Netherlands will litigate good Right to Repair into existance. Netherlands is part of EU, so I belive in you.

    • @BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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      1310 months ago

      It’s so shit. There is a kickstarter of an ebike like that and it’s worse than you van ever imagine. It’s LOUD as fuck and worse in every way than a normal bike.

        • @Kacarott@feddit.de
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          1010 months ago

          I mean it does look cool.

          Next time I have a bunch of extra cash to throw at a decorative art piece I’ll consider it

      • @Etterra@lemmy.world
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        510 months ago

        That’s because it’s not a bike. It’s a sales pitch to silicon valley. Like most tech startups, they want some rich VC dipshit or big tech company to throw millions of dollars at them.

      • @uis@lemm.ee
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        110 months ago

        Is it high-bitched electric buzz? If so, then it’s probably BLDC controller. Normal people use PMSM - more efficient and quieter.

  • @AirDevil@lemmy.world
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    3010 months ago

    This is the first step to having magnetic wheels become a thing. We know canonically Jim Kirk’s motorcycle uses these, so it’s definitely mainstream by ~2250.

    Honorable mention: the Bell Riots happen September this year, and it seems we’re on track for those too

    • edric
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      510 months ago

      Would it be hard to translate brushless motors into bikes/vehicles? Don’t those things use magnetism?

  • anar
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    2810 months ago

    Eh, I’m waiting until the seat is simply hovering in the air without any bars

  • @Emerald@lemmy.world
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    1810 months ago

    i never realized until this moment that the meme showed them putting a stick in the wheels. i always thought they just happened to fall off.

  • @Fandangalo@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    As far as I can tell, this product never panned out. It was backed by 132 people to cover 150k GBP in 2017. It was called the “Cyclotron Bike”.

    • nifty
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      610 months ago

      Not exactly dumbing down, I guess removing components which are redundant after redesigns

  • Turun
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    610 months ago

    The wheels are apparently really really loud when they are mounted like this. You just can make good enough ball bearings of this size at any reasonable cost and weight

  • @Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    610 months ago

    You could also cover the spokes or use a spokeless single wall design. I do think a design like this would need to be cleaned a lot.

  • @Anticorp@lemmy.world
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    510 months ago

    *The coolest looking concept bike ever created.

    Lemmings: hold my beer while I list every complaint I can think of about this design

    • @snooggums@midwest.social
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      1210 months ago

      My first complaint is that it looks like it was designed by someone with zero knowledge of how to make a bike.