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Bikes at the Detroit Auto Show?! Only for FuturePeople

By Kat Bauman - January 12, 2015

in Cars

The North American International Auto Show aka the Detroit auto show is an unparalleled industry focused event in the car world. It is less well known for debuting new and conceptual bicycles. This year however the show will feature a few notable drivables that steer completely clear of internal combustion. Cameron Van Dyke's FuturePeople is a project that imagines human-powered vehicles for an era when cars have become obsolete but their infrastructure remains. Despite being an efficient and accessible mode of transportation, bikes have a long way to come to commonly replace cars for leisurely driving, large cargo and rider protection. These fully built concept bike-cars draw on new and old ideas about bikes and cars to address those concerns.

The Cyclone is reminiscent of boxy luxury vehicles from the 1920s. Four-wheeled, with a long frame and a wide, leather seated two-person cockpit, it's the most car-like bike on offer. Put on your driving gloves and take an elegant country ride:

The Zeppelin is like a smooth cargo tube on a long trike base. Clearly drawing from blimpy sources on the outside, it provides contemporary cargo room on the inside. The big wraparound windshield and aerodynamic shape look sleek, and pop-out seats are an interesting way of maximizing storage. In this video, the ground-hugging bike looks like a romantic way to deliver your locally grown goods to market.

If the idea of bike cars strikes you as purely whimsical, consider that more than 90 years ago, a decidedly similar vehicle was user-friendly and affordable enough to supplant small cars for those who couldn't afford them. FuturePeople looks forward to a day when they might again.

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mark

9 years ago

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"bikes have a long way to come to commonly replace cars for leisurely driving, large cargo and rider protection"

Overcoming physics is a "long way", indeed.

This is the conceptual art of transportation science. There are no game-changing discoveries or developments on the bike transport horizon. In areas like batteries or more esoteric propulsion technologies, order of magnitude increases in efficiency are not only plausible, but inevitable. Short of bionics, the capacity of human propulsion is well established. Improvements in aerodynamics, drivetrain efficiencies, etc. can only yield very marginal gains.

(fwiw, two electric cars, six bikes, and a Bakfiet in my fleet)
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hoh

9 years ago

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you can maintain some serious speed with the Zeppelin. In a traditional tandem you can do 30 miles/hr, if aerodynamic is done right it could go even faster with less effort. Probably fast enough to not appear slow in city traffic (apart from when starting up at lights).
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KROBUZ

9 years ago

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Yes please!!!!!!!!!
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Toby

9 years ago

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The Cyclone is charming, but seems to move at a crawl - it's a tandem, I would have expected it to be speedy (four-wheel disc brakes, too). I am not sure there's a lot of demand for velomobiles like these, but being enclosed would increase their appeal - parking, though will be harder than a normal bike or even cargo bike.
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