Interesting design(s)

[[XAP]Bob]

https://www.behance.net/gallery/35437979/Velocipedia

[gaz]

Fascinating. Thanks .

[cycleruk]

I hope the bike pictured is only a design. I wouldn't expect it to last very long having no chain-stays and just one tube attachment to the steerer tube.
The frame is going to bend and stress in all directions.

[MikeF]

But
You might have noticed there’s something wrong with this bike. Or you might have not.
This bicycle is missing a very important part of its frame and it would immediately break if it actually existed and someone tried to ride it.

Let me explain everything from the beginning:
back in 2009 I began pestering friends and random strangers. I would walk up to them with a pen and a sheet of paper asking that they immediately draw me a men’s bicycle, by heart. Soon I found out that when confronted with this odd request most people have a very hard time remembering exactly how a bike is made. Some did get close, some actually nailed it perfectly, but most ended up drawing something that was pretty far off from a regular men’s bicycle.
Little I knew this is actually a test that psychologists use to demonstrate how our brain sometimes tricks us into thinking we know something even though we don’t.

I collected hundreds of drawings, building up a collection that I think is very precious. There is an incredible diversity of new typologies emerging from these crowd-sourced and technically error-driven drawings. A single designer could not invent so many new bike designs in 100 lifetimes and this is why I look at this collection in such awe.

which is more interesting.

[old_windbag]

It fooled my mouth into watering as it reminded me of Pink Panther Chocolate bars. A 70's treat.

[hercule]

Thanks for the link. They look beautifully surreal machines, something that MC Escher might have dreamt up. I think it's particularly interesting that 75% of the machines were drawn facing left. I bet most (if not all) of the contributors to this forum would draw them facing right.

[[XAP]Bob]

Why do you think that?

[hercule]

Firstly, because most of us will know the transmission is on the right side of the bike (Tandem pilots with crossover transmissions excepted...) and because we spend so much time thinking about gears be it simply shifting them as we ride or fiddling with them to get them working properly most cyclists will put them on the "front" of the drawing, hence the bike will be facing right.

It's only a hypothesis, however!

[[XAP]Bob]

He has multiple nationalities - I wonder if there is a split between people with RTL written languages, as opposed to LTR ones.

I *think*, only I can never test this now, that I would draw it heading to the right - because that's the way I operate based on the language I write.

[Mick F]

Yes, bikes always look better pointing to the right, and I happen to think that bikes with derailleurs look better in top gear.

[Psamathe]

He has multiple nationalities - I wonder if there is a split between people with RTL written languages, as opposed to LTR ones....

Very interesting thought and one that might/would apply to a load of things as well as which way round a bike looks best.

Ian

[jollytiddlywink]

I would almost certainly draw my bike facing left, as that is the side I usually see it from, being the side I mount and dismount from!

[gaz]

On UK highway signs, cycles are depicted facing left. What does this tell us about UK highway planners ?

[Mick F]

I'd never thought about that!
A quick scan through the various signs suggests the following:

Steam locos go left to right.
People walk left to right.
Two wheeled machines go right to left.
Horses go right to left.

[MikeF]

I'd never thought about that!
A quick scan through the various signs suggests the following:

Steam locos go left to right.
People walk left to right.
Two wheeled machines go right to left.
Horses go right to left.

Neither had I! The bicycle also has the chainwheel on the wrong side.