Monday, August 30, 2010

Mountain Hardware Puzzle

I love the idea of a bike touring tent like the Mountain Hardware Ghisallo but... wouldn't it be impossible to get into the tent then put your bike under the vestibule? Conversely, wouldn't it be impossible to get into the tent once the bike is there? It appears that there might be two doors, one on the bike side and one on the other side. However, how does the bike stand up once it's under the canopy other than leaning it's greasy, pokey self all over the white fragile nylon? Better to bring a regular tent and a $0.05 trash bag slit open to cover the bike.


Photo from www.rei.com

Friday, August 6, 2010

Airframe

No, not the fantastically suspenseful Michael Chrichton novel, but this thing:



Certainly an audacious design. One asks - how can thin axle possibly resist the torque created by the upwards forces of the wheel and the downward forces of the seat post? Well, it doesn't. Look carefully at other pictures in the article and the frame is suddenly not so elegant. There's a rear fender (not shown at first) which is welded into the frame, acting as a stressed member and and a de-facto seat tube.
As the title of the article suggests... almost genius.

Photos pillaged from fastcodesign.com: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662064/almost-genius-a-beautiful-bike-frame-that-requires-less-metal