Author Topic: Interesting and Unusual Bikes You've Seen (Read 640544 times)

LEE · « **Reply #1450 on:** 14 September, 2012, 12:45:47 pm »

Quote from: why1040 on 03 September, 2012, 10:06:00 pm

While wandering over to a local pizza restaurant in Stockholm last night, I came across this creation:

IMG_0446 by Chrisando74, on Flickr

I think that step-thru concept, as seen on the Dahon Ciao, made the Ciao a hugely popular bike.

SteveC · « **Reply #1451 on:** 14 September, 2012, 03:52:27 pm »

MrsC and I are on holiday in Belgium. Loads of bikes. Mostly 'Dutch' utility things which look too big for the riders, particularly when said rider is a child and the bike has been bought for them to 'grow into'! Also, lots of kiddy-seats, tag-alongs, trailers and the like for transporting smaller ones.
This is the most unusual one so far. It does only have two wheels and the front one is the steering one! No idea what it would be like to ride!

S

long_bike by Steve Cunio, on Flickr

spesh · « **Reply #1452 on:** 14 September, 2012, 04:14:17 pm »

From the in-depth review found here: http://bikes-as-transportation.com/third-generation-electric-cargo-bike/ it sounds like the handling is akin to an oil tanker.

Company site: http://www.urbanarrow.com/en

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1453 on:** 14 September, 2012, 08:02:27 pm »

Disappointed! I'd read it as Urban Barrow.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #1454 on:** 15 September, 2012, 03:37:57 pm »

I've seen this Claud Butler around SW London for quite a few years:

A tour de force of ergonomics

Excuse te crappy mobile phone photos.

spesh · « **Reply #1455 on:** 15 September, 2012, 04:25:27 pm »

BikeSnob NYC occasionally posts pictures on his blog of bikes with "interesting" cockpit ergonomics, but I think this tops anything I've seen there.

mcshroom · « **Reply #1456 on:** 16 September, 2012, 11:10:22 pm »

I saw a hand trike near Birdoswald yesterday. Unfortunately he was overtaking me up the hill

AndyK · « **Reply #1457 on:** 16 September, 2012, 11:13:58 pm »

I saw a wheelchair the other day with half a bike attached at the back. Person at back pedalling and steering.

LittleWheelsandBig · « **Reply #1458 on:** 17 September, 2012, 12:01:37 am »

http://www.frankmobility.com/duetfeat.php

AndyK · « **Reply #1459 on:** 17 September, 2012, 12:05:08 am »

Quote from: LittleWheelsandBig on 17 September, 2012, 12:01:37 am

http://www.frankmobility.com/duetfeat.php

That was the one!

tiermat · « **Reply #1460 on:** 17 September, 2012, 07:25:37 am »

One visit to The Blacksmiths Arms @ Naburn^[1] saw us sharing the beer garden with a group that had one of them, plus other adapted bikes.

[1] Possibly Clarion and Butterfly's local, as last year (2011) they visited it more times than any other pub, despite it being >150 miles from where they live!

Bledlow · « **Reply #1461 on:** 17 September, 2012, 02:19:22 pm »

Quote from: Bledlow on 13 September, 2012, 12:57:31 am

If only I'd had a camera with me . . .

'Hirondelle' on the down tube in fancy script. Very elaborate lugs, lovingly lined. Reynolds 525 transfer on the seat tube, & Reynolds transfers on the forks. Smallish wheels, but looked as if built for bigger: loadsa clearance. Fattish tyres. Braze-ons for everything, including pump. Rohloff speedhub, 14 gears. Proper eccentric bottom bracket. Rohloff grip shifter held on bullhorn (cut down drops?) bars vertically with cable ties. Canti bosses, only front set used (brake lever on front right end of bar): no rear brake. Bars mounted on aheadset, behind steerer tube. Anonymous rack with no light fixing plate, & Cateye LD600 held on with two strips of insulating tape, covering part of the light.

A bizarre mixture of the sublime & the utterly crap. Broad Street, Reading, this afternoon.

This bike's been bothering me. I've tried looking up the frame, but can't identify it. Can anyone help?

See above. 'Hirondelle' in fancy script on down tube, Reynolds 525, very elaborate lugs. Dark green paint, lugs lined in dark yellowish ('old gold'?). Touring braze-ons.

I don't see how it can be anything to do with the old French Hirondelle brand.

PS. Brooks saddle.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1462 on:** 17 September, 2012, 04:35:34 pm »

According to Wikipedia and other sources, Hirondelles were manufactured until the 1960s but the Paris police carried on using them till 1984 and the brand became their nickname. I'm sure what you saw couldn't be an ex-police bike, but maybe the rider is a policeman?

http://amicale-police-patrimoine.fr/Hirondelles.html

Bledlow · « **Reply #1463 on:** 18 September, 2012, 11:51:54 am »

Seems unlikely. Why would a former Paris policeman be riding a bizarre bodge-up based on what looks like a good English touring frame built years after the (totally different) police bikes with the same name were retired?

I'm sure the name is a coincidence. It's a common enough word: French for swallow (the bird).

Speaking of swallows & birds, but straying OT, the brother of Peter Bird of Swallow Cycles is of this parish.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1464 on:** 18 September, 2012, 02:48:31 pm »

I don't think it's at all likely either, I just thought I'd mention it.

Look, here's a hipster video from Paris, supposedly about a Hirondelle.

<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=24845382&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=24845382&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA</a>

Wikipedia's disambiguation page mentions six different things the name could refer to without any entry for the bikes. Perhaps the rider is a train buff or a fan of the Saint? Or then again perhaps not.

Bledlow · « **Reply #1465 on:** 18 September, 2012, 07:00:40 pm »

I strongly suspect that the current owner is not the person who bought the frame new. As I said, it looks like a good touring frame, currently crudely bodged up. I find it hard to imagine that whoever bought a nice frame with lugs & paintwork like that would then mess it up with bullhorns that look as if they've been roughly cut down from drops, fasten the Rohloff shifter on with cable ties, ride around with only one brake (or is there a fixed option for a Rohloff?) & stick a rear light on with black insulating tape.

AndyK · « **Reply #1466 on:** 19 September, 2012, 03:27:21 pm »

How about a two-wheel drive bicycle? Hope prospective owners like chain cleaning...

Kim · « **Reply #1467 on:** 19 September, 2012, 04:49:41 pm »

Quote from: AndyK on 19 September, 2012, 03:27:21 pm

How about a two-wheel drive bicycle? Hope prospective owners like chain cleaning...

Wow, something that makes the Raptobike drivetrain look like a sensible design decision.

As any darksider knows, the issue with that sort of thing isn't chain cleaning so much as leg cleaning.

(I assume the idea is that you can climb better on loose surfaces?)

eck · « **Reply #1468 on:** 22 September, 2012, 05:00:38 pm »

Not especially interesting or unusual but, when we were leaving Edinburgh about 11.30 today near the Barnton junction, we saw a guy on a drop-dead gorgeous silver and maroon Dave Yates compact steel frame. It looked really classy.

I just wondered if any of the locals on here recognise it.

Rhys W · « **Reply #1469 on:** 24 September, 2012, 05:47:19 pm »

I was walking into town earlier and saw an old gent prop his bike up outside a shop. In these days of black/white/red "bike brands" all coming out of moulds in China my eyes are drawn to any handmade steel frame, and this was something special - one of those crazy mid-20th century British designs. I wasn't sure what it was until I spied the Eiffel Tower decal on the down tube - or what passes for the down tube. I couldn't resist passing comment:

"That's a nice bike, you don't see many of those around... it's a Paris-Galibier isn't it?"

There was a bit of confusion because the old boy didn't understand my accent. He thought I was Dutch.

Anyway, he said he'd bought it a from a friend, who happens to be one of the old stalwarts of my club. We had a brief chat about our mutual acquaintance and another old stalwart who died a couple of years ago who had something similar (turns out that was a Flying Gate).

Andrij · « **Reply #1470 on:** 24 September, 2012, 06:38:28 pm »

Something you don't see every day:

On my way to the start of the TPM on Saturday I saw, cycling the other way along Narrow Street, eight St John's Ambulance cyclists riding in near perfect formation (2x4).

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1471 on:** 28 September, 2012, 02:39:35 pm »

Parked in the horrid underground Sheffield stands next to my bike when I came out of Ikea was a Soma Saga. Pretty much like that one but blue, same very high bars. The rider appeared at the same time - it's from San Francisco, he's from Canda and he really ought to be using more than a flimsy cable lock in an underground car park in Bristol!

pdm · « **Reply #1472 on:** 30 September, 2012, 06:06:08 pm »

Here is a picture of the singlespeed my No. 1 son bought during his recent sojourn in Los Angeles.
Sans conventional front or rear brakes. Single speed with back pedal hub brake.
Venice beach to the rear...

(Edited to add word "conventional" following LWAB's comment....

)

LittleWheelsandBig · « **Reply #1473 on:** 30 September, 2012, 06:08:17 pm »

A back pedal brake is a rear brake!

cycleman · « **Reply #1474 on:** 09 October, 2012, 10:06:04 am »

seen on ncn 4 near windsor

Author Topic: Interesting and Unusual Bikes You've Seen (Read 640544 times)

LEE

AndyK

AndyK

AndyK