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Thonet Concept Bike Raises the Suspension-of-Disbelief Question Once Again...

By Ray Hu - October 5, 2012

in Object Culture | Cars

A HED of the curve?

A HED of the curve?

Earlier this year, we saw a manufacturing video of a Thonet chair, well worth revisiting on the occasion of a new collaboration that has been making web rounds (the relevant segment starts at 1:48 or so). Now that its iconic steambent design has been around for 153 years, the Frankenburg, Germany-based company is looking to branch out (no pun intended) from furniture with none other than a concept bike.At the end of 2010 London based-designer Andy Martin was asked by THONET to design and develop a concept road bicycle using their steam bending process developed in the 1930s. Andy Martin Studio developed three designs of which the final was selected because its beauty and modest connection with the heritage of the company.

Andy says 'The challenge was to take on fairly low tech process of steam bending and then apply it to a 21st-century bicycle with highly complex engineering.' With the many restrictions of hand bending the beech frame the final jointing and contours would be cut and adjusted on a cnc machine. Andy Martin has also developed a series of connectors and sprung rods to reinforce joints and the major stress areas in the frame.

As some of you may have guessed from the images, it's a fixed-gear, which the press release duly declares to be "the tradition of cycling: one has a greater connection to the bike and the surface one rides on." Curiously enough, they also note that it has no brakes and "several interchangeable gear ratios"—implying that the Thonet Bike is indeed rideable.

At $2,900 (£1800), the HED H3 carbon wheelset ~~pictured in the renderings~~ denoted by the press release would typically be upwards of 20–30% of the total cost of a high-end track bike... but they're practically a bargain on this build: the limited edition Thonet bike will be available for £43,000 ($70,000). Rideability notwithstanding, you'd have to be crazy to actually ride the thing—one-percenter or not, you'd probably be better off with a Van Hulsteijn.

Nevertheless, upon seeing the renderings, I couldn't help but recall my colleague hipstomp's post about a student concept for a sewing machine, which, per his expertise, he deemed too farfetched to be feasible.

FLIZ

Alternately, it might be compared to the almost-as-controversial "FLIZ," which made it to prototype stage despite the fact that it's ostensibly an absurd concept.

Martin's concept bike for Thonet is perhaps most clearly a thought experiment in contrast to, say, Cannondale's CERV, which was prototyped by Priority Designs, as opposite ends of the concept bike spectrum—i.e. form vs. function.

As seen on Prolly?

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Tom Mallard

11 years ago

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This frame is almost done, it's based on an art frame I cut apart, heat bent and welded back together with 15,000-miles on it.

Things learned: it's more rigid side-to-side in high-speed turns than a diamond so tracks like a champ allowing you to carve a tighter turn at 30-mph into a hairpin; and it's a great rain bike, water from the front wheel doesn't have a tube to hit so shins hardly get spray.

The cutaway to the bb is after 80's frames like Windcheatah-Lotus, more wind gets into the chainring-bb, and, where the seat-tube & downtube divide is far enough in front of the rear wheel that it allows the airflow to rejoin in front of the wheel, both of these features drop overall drag.

http://www.mallard-design.com/mdc2010/media/coyote-IMG_20130311_175617.jpg
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Jonathan Quimbly

11 years ago

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Create a bent-wood bike and all you could come up with was a fixie? Bloody hell.

Thonet were apparently all out of designers that day.
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Ol'Shel'

11 years ago

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As a former product designer who designs and builds bikes, take it from me:

Designers need to stay the Hell away from bicycle design.

You're terrible at it.
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HD

11 years ago

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Why does it have to be wood? I'm starting to like this site. It's making me think. Why not 'shrink' the wheels about 2/3 the size, make them solid and use them for the seating on the chair? What are you going to do? Carry a chair and two wheels around all day? And I really like that big back-pack on your back. Why can't the whole thing come apart and fit together in parts inside of that bag. That's 'three' uses now? And why not....................... (I can go on and on).
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Tom

11 years ago

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I'd love to see an FEA .gif of that Canondale CERV frame being loaded! Very interesting concept with the internal suspension, though impractical as it may be.
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Peter

11 years ago

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I especially like the hovering dropouts.
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M4RK

12 years ago

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This is one of those nice looking concepts that if it ever makes production won't resemble anything of the original.

That seat mount... its just not going to work! It'll just snap right of or split the wood.
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Randy Willoughby

12 years ago

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I am very glad that Mr Martin is not a bridge engineer.
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Ben Duffin

12 years ago

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I see no reason why this wouldn't work. As long as its designed well enough so that there can be no spring back over time the frame should be pretty durable. The price tag is absurd though.

However in the world of wooden bikes these guys are surely king:

http://www.renovobikes.com/
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Steffen

12 years ago

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Nice try but far too pricey and "prestigious". For comparison, see the low-tech bamboo bike approach taken by some students in Berlin: http://www.berlin-bamboo-bikes.org/ride/node/183
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Mathias

12 years ago

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Stiffness is the main issue here, I think. You wouldn't want your frame to be shock absorbing. Quite a price tag and one should probably expect to pay for a few new teeth also when this utopian contraption collapses under the weight of the rider.
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Thomas

12 years ago

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Every time a designer makes a concept like this, God kills a kitten.
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slippyfish

12 years ago

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I can't wait to see a video of someone riding this.
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Luke

12 years ago

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I dunno, this looks pretty legit. Steam-bent wood might not be terribly cheap, light, or even durable in the long run, but if there's one thing wood has going for it, it's pretty decent shock absorption.

Definitely have seen worse concepts.
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